Customer Reviews

Quintet [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Well, so far as I can tell, Paul Newman has never been in a bad movie, and after watching this I still believe it. Quintet isn't bad, its just not particularly entertaining (I fell asleep halfway through and had to do some rewinding). Its pace is glacial (seriously...very slow moving).

During the second Ice Age, a seal-hunter named Essex (Newman) takes his pregnant young wife Vivia to the City where his brother lives, only to have his family fall victim to an assassin's hand. Essex chases down the fleeing killer, but somebody beats him to the punch. The rest of the movie is basically Essex trying to discover the reason for the killings. Sort of a sci-fi mystery, but interwoven with heavy philosophical rhetoric. I rented this after reading a lot of the reviews here and was expecting a nearly incomprehensible art house movie. But, if you're paying attention, its really not that complex or alienating -and its slowness serves the world it depicts. This is an Ice Age and nobody is doing a lot of moving around.

`Quintet' refers on one level to the game these Ice Agers play to pass the time until their eventual demise (apparently those of child-bearing age have mostly passed on, and those left are not trying anymore). It basically involves `killing' your opponent's pieces in a contest to see who will face the `sixth man' at the end. The problem is, somebody is taking the game beyond the board...

Good movie with a satisfying ending and much about the nature of existence (`life is a brief respite between the void before birth and the void after death, so treasure your experiences and your hardships...' I'm paraphrasing), but with the pace of `Dune.'

A recommended rental for a slow Saturday or Sunday morning or for the more adventurous, midnight hour screening.

Quintet is the type of film one can watch when one is at the bottom level of a melancholia...and actually enoy it!

The movie is ponderous, philosophical, and slow moving, but the concept is so blatantly bizarre and cold blooded that it works!

In Quintet, a future ice-age has wiped out most of humanity, and the survivors whittle along their final era in broken down cities. Along comes outsider Newman into the scheme of things. He hasn't the slightest idea what is going on, and what's up is a board game turned into a killing tournament. You see, the ice has krept into people's veins, and they need that good ol' adrenalin rush to make life seem real!

The hidden details of the film are absorbing. The lack of humanity and emotion in these ice-agers is obvious (not bad acting). Their emotions are truly frozen. Also, look for signs that the ice age might be actually ending....while these denizens are playing end-of-the world games!

I love the ending and the subtlety of the film. Some relationships really do end like Newman and Andersson's!

Intelligent and well concieved SciFi from Altman. The world is dying. Glaciers have descended to engulf cities. A few heavily swaddled people have survived to create new power balances and priorities in the burnt-out husk of a culture. Infertile and without hope they await death while playing a dangerous gambling game called Quintet. One is reminded of Doris Lessing's "The Making of the Representative of Plant 8". The city is gorgeously created on the old site of Expo '67 - Montreal's World Fair. Dim lightbulbs hollow out melted rounds of ice inside the rooms. Excellent SciFi.

Watch the movie only if you dislike standard Hollywood fare and like deeply thoughtful, dark scifi. As a potentially space-bound race, we have little positive to offer our peers except a willingness -- at times -- to look critically at our worst and best sides. This film shines light on both sides equally and lets the viewer be the judge.

I found this to be one of my favorite films of all time (I have many). I think if you aren't paying attention from the very first second to the last, you will miss the entire nuance of the film. Altman injects subtleties throughout. Give it a second try.

The premise of the game played seems to be the one thing these people can do to pass their time with nothing else to live for. What a bleak life and yet, it ends with possibilities.

While it isn't good box office, the film is an intriguing venture intointer-personal relationships vis-a-vis a board game where the loser pays withhis/her life. The referee is the real centerpiece of the story.. having never to put himself at risk, he is quite willing to sacrifice others; choosing on the basis of his personal bias. I enjoyed the departure from reality this film takes. This film requires the mind to interact with it in order to understand it. Leonard Maltin must have been pre-occupied. I was entertained.

I'm not surprised that these reviews run the gamut from 1-5 stars. This is not a rollicking, fun-loving swashbuckler tale! The premise: life is a short break from the void, the formless gulf preceding birth, followed by more of the same after death. Our suffered existence should be cherished for what it is--a temporary chance to experience the non-void. Sound like an exciting Hollywood action yarn? Not exactly!

Some movies that aspire to be pretentious are, this one aspires to be, but isn't. I found this movie utterly fascinating and completely enjoyable. I consider moving pictures to be "movies", not "films", and I expect to be entertained--I was not disappointed. I'm biased of course; I love a good apocalyptic tale. Not much action, but you'll love the pseudo-philosophical soliloquy by Vittorio Gassman (St. Christopher)--a superb performance.

Spoiler:
There are symbols that point to a "happy" outcome for this future society. Look for the "goose", "heading North", and the sacrifice of Vivia (Life) and her child to the melting river of ice. Thus, one could point to a "happy ending", and maybe even an "uplifting" positive conclusion for this future Ice-Age...it's a stretch. :)

A decaying civilization. People only surviving playing games. A world of alliances instead friendship. Sounds familiar? Well, Altman's vision is here since 1979 for us to see it. This is a truly masterpiece! I don't understand why this stunning film turned to be an obscure piece of Altman. In an era of Matrix and red pills I think people just need to take this red one and get ready to a journey to the realm of ethics, principles and essence.

It is interesting to read other reviews of this on the IMDB. There are some very valid comments that I don't think I can better and so i can do nothing other than agree with them and admit that I am one of those people for whom this film holds a strange fascination. I've rented it on VHS at least twice and watched it all the way to the end both times ( not as easy as it sounds--this movie punishes you for watching it!) and both times I was amazed at the sheer ponderousness of it. This is one of those maddening films in which the very act of describing it or having it described to you is so much more interesting and involving than the film itself! You hear the concept or even hear yourself explaining it and a part of your mind will say--this makes it sound so much more interesting than it is-- its so odd to be affected in this way and i am going to guess that that is what Altman was attempting to achieve. QUINTET is a film that is as infuriating as STALKER but unlike STALKER I think I could watch QUINTET again, even once more again after that, maybe. I would really like to see this film on DVD in its proper aspect ratio, with the "chilled window" effect which must have been effective on a big screen in the theatres. One of the things that continually brings me back to this film is its setting; the frozen world and the half-empty frozen City are so perfectly realized that you can't help but be drawn to it. Really, which would you prefer--this sort of heavy STALKER-like attempt at some sort of STATEMENT or Paul Newman assuming Charleton-Heston "Important Person" poses and escaping from wildly overacting bad guys al la THE POSTMAN or WATERWORLD. This is, like ROLLERBALL, one of the rare times ( ah, the 70's!) when a maverick director could get away with making a film that was actually trying to say something; i am not sure what Altman was trying to say but this film is too deliberately alienating to have gotten that way by mistake; if you keep an open mind--it does have its rewards.

While having only brief and sporadic action, the actors play well their parts of a dying human race living in a future ice age. The main characters' willingness to play a game which requires killing other players and allows for killing "almost" anyone else without breaking any game rules portrays a coldness in their humanity that reflects the coldness of their world. Yet certain characters are likeable and show qualities that hint at a desire to not be as cruel as they are. The story is harsh and the scenes of killing and death earned it an R-rating when it came out. Never-the-less the story is engaging, though not always flowing smoothly.