Quartet (1948)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | quartet |
| Original title | Quartet |
| Country of production | United Kingdom |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director |
Ralph Smart Harold French Arthur Crabtree Ken Annakin |
| script | RC sheriff |
| production | Antony Darnborough |
| music | John Greenwood |
| camera |
Ray Elton Reginald Wyer |
| cut | Jean Barker |
| occupation | |
|
The facts of life
The foreign grain
The Dragon
The Colonel's wife
| |
Quartet is a four-part British episode film based on novellas by W. Somerset Maugham . Directed by Ralph Smart (first episode), Harold French , (second episode), Arthur Crabtree (third episode) and Ken Annakin (fourth episode), an actor cast led by Jack Watling , Mai Zetterling , Dirk Bogarde , Honor Blackman , George Cole , Hermione Baddeley , Cecil Parker and Nora Swinburne .
action
The author W. Somerset Maugham introduces the four episodes himself.
The Facts of Life (Original: The Facts of Life )
Despite reservations, Mr. and Mrs. Garnet allow their talented tennis-playing son, 19-year-old Nicky Garnet, to travel alone to Monte Carlo to compete in a tournament. Mr. Garnet gives him a tip: don't gamble, don't lend anyone money and don't do anything with women. On the last night of his stay, the junior ignored all three pieces of advice: he won a large amount of money playing roulette and met a beautiful woman named Jeanne. Before he realizes what's going on, he's already lent her money. She later pays him back, takes him to a nightclub, and dances with Nicky. It is already late when they both leave the premises. Since Nicky's hostel has already closed, Jeanne suggests taking him home with her. There he could sleep on the sofa.
In the middle of the night Nicky wakes up and finds out that Jeanne is about to steal his roulette winnings from him. He pretends to sleep and secretly watches as she hides his money in a vase. After Jeanne leaves, he gets his money back. The next morning he returns home to England by plane. On board he counts his money and is amazed to find that he now has more than he is entitled to. A friend suggests that Jeanne hid her own money in the same place. At home, his father complains to friends that his son ignored all of his warnings and advice and benefited from them.
The foreign grain (Original: The Alien Corn )
On George Bland's 21st birthday, his father, Sir Frederick, a class-conscious representative of the gentry, asked him what he was going to do with his future life. George's response shocks the entire family: he says he wants to become a concert pianist. His family, who want him one day to take over the social position and title of his father, tries to dissuade him. Finally, Georges Schwarm, his cousin Paula, proposes a compromise: he should study in Paris for two years, after which an impartial expert should decide whether he has enough talent to achieve his goal. With a heavy heart, the parents agree to Paula's proposal.
The two years have passed, and Paula asks Lea Markart, a world-famous pianist, to hear and see George's talent and give a judgment. After the elderly lady heard George's recital, Lea tells him that although his technique is excellent, he lacks the talent and inspiration of a true artist and he can never be more than a good amateur. On the same day, George was shot dead, presumably as a result of improper cleaning of the gun. His family is thrown into a serious conflict of conscience and the alleged accidental death is judged. A jury came to the conclusion that it was impossible that a gentleman like the deceased could have killed himself just because he couldn't play the piano well enough.
The kite (Original: The Kite )
Herbert Sunbury marries the very young, beautiful Betty, although his jealous mother Beatrice does not like the new woman. The bride and groom are happy, but Betty cannot share Herbert's lifelong enthusiasm for kites, which you let soar into the sky in the wind. Herbert and his father had designed their own kites since Herbert was a little boy and let them soar on public parish grounds every Saturday. Betty considers this activity childish and unworthy of a grown man. In order not to argue with Betty about it, he grudgingly promises his wife to give up this hobby.
But Herbert has meanwhile constructed a huge copy of the kite, and the temptation to try this latest creation in the wild is simply too great. When Betty finds out that Herbert has broken his word, there is a solid marital row between the couple, and Herbert first returns to his parents' house with his dragons, much to the delight of his mother. Betty thinks about her behavior again and wants a reconciliation, but her husband refuses to follow her home. Out of anger, Betty destroys his new giant kite. Except for himself, Herbert refuses to pay her maintenance from now on and with his stubbornness ends up even in prison. Herbert's curious story is told to a visitor to the prison. He ensures that Herbert is released and advises Betty on how to save her marriage. When Herbert goes to the public ground again, he sees Betty making a kite fly.
The Colonel's wife (Original: The Colonel's Lady )
Evie Peregrine, the rather mouse-gray wife of Colonel George Peregrine, writes a volume of poetry under a pseudonym, but is immediately exposed by the newspapers. Contrary to what he claims, the colonel does not read his wife's poetic outpourings and is all the more surprised when a friend tells him that the lines are "not suitable for children". Another friend thinks that the ribbon exudes "naked, rough passion" and compares it to the work of the ancient poet Sappho . The book is a success and sells like hotcakes. Soon the Colonel's wife became the talk of the town. Even the Colonel's lover devours the drinkable book with enthusiasm.
After everyone has talked about how sexy he has talked a lot about how "sexy" the booklet is, the colonel finally asks his lover to give him a lecture on the contents. The tape is about a middle-aged woman who falls in love with a younger man and has an affair with him, told in the first person. The beloved says the book is so vivid that it must be based on real experience. The Colonel firmly believes that his supposedly bourgeois wife is "too much of a lady" for the lines to be based on personal experience. Nevertheless, he is plagued by the possibility that what he experienced could be more than pure imagination evies. The Colonel does not dare to ask his wife about the reality of her work. When Evie senses how uncomfortable George is with her poetry, she confesses to her loveless but still jealous husband that the passion described in the book was based on his own love for her when they were both young. She blames herself for this development, for the slow death of her love. The Colonel is touched and the couple embrace.
Production notes
Quartet originated at Gainsborough Studios and premiered on October 26, 1948, with a mass start on November 22 of the same year. The German premiere was the following year, 1949. The film was first broadcast on German television on November 23, 1965 on ARD .
Sydney Box was the head of production. Cedric Dawe and Norman G. Arnold designed the film construction, George Provis took over the supervision in this sector. Julie Harris designed the costumes. The later film architects Peter Mullins and Michael Stringer were part of the draftsmen's crew. Albert Whitlock was unnamed involved in creating the special effects. Muir Mathieson was musical director.
The principle of the episode film presented here based on Maugham's short story templates was so successful that producer Darnborough had two further Maugham film anthologies produced in 1950 ( This is Life ) and 1951 ( Dakapo ).
Reviews
"The cosmopolitan illumination of the British middle-class types that W. Somerset Maugham has shown so successfully in his stories corresponds in the film versions of four Maugham short stories that were put together in the British film" Quartet "."
"The four directors involved in the" Quartet "have shown what an abundance of wit, taste, real feeling in sadness and joy, hidden, indissoluble tragedy and irony can be brought to life in the film once you have the courage to to limit yourself and to forego time as well as space and money and to build a film from within. The truth is there immediately; be it in the petty bourgeoisie striving for "fineness" of London in "The Kite", be it in the squire sphere of "The Colonels Wife". "
The Lexicon of International Films judges: "The last contribution comes undoubtedly the closest to the poet's intention to draw up psychological character sketches with sharpness and amiability and to expose behavior patterns in certain social classes."
"Super movie."
"Loved to be remembered, although all stories have toned finals and the two middle ones don't work very well as dramas."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quartet. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2020 .
Web links
- Quartet in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Quartet in Turner Classic Movies
- complete film review in the New York Times