British film, "Quartet" from 1948
MIFrost
and there was a terrific episode in the movie which has a classical
music there: This young man, played by Dirk Bogarde, has his mind set
on becoming a professional classical pianist. He wants to dedicate his
life to it and feels he can accomplish this if he works at it enough.
His family is one of those old fashioned British upper-class families
and they're dead set against it. They want him to follow in the family
business and stop "wasting his time" with this music nonsense. They
reach a compromise. He'll audition for a prominent classical
professional pianist and let her evaluate his potential. The young man
plays a Chopin piece (I believe it might be a waltz) as the woman and
the rest of his family sit and listen. The wonderful thing is they
play the entire piece, a full three or four minutes. The camera pans
around as everyone sits quietly; you see the father very uncomfortable
as he's listening, the professional pianist looking dreamily off into
space, the "love interest" (a 20 year old Honor Blackman -- "Pussy
Galore" from "Goldfinger" 16 years later!) watching him play and it's
a beautiful 3 or 4 minutes. When he finishes he stands up and looks at
the woman and asks: "So, if I dedicate my life to this will I ever
become a pianist of the first rank?" Long pause. She replies, quite
coldly, "Absolutely not! You are certainly competent at playing the
notes but you completely lack the one element you need to become a
truly great pianist: a spark." (I honestly can't recall if that's the
word she used or not but that was the idea.) "You may continue to play
for your own pleasure and enjoyment but you will never be a great
pianist. Unfortunately, your playing is very square. I'm sorry." He's
crushed. Then he asks her to do him a favor: would she play for him.
She then sits at the piano and plays a Chopin Etude. It's the very
first Etude that is on any recording I have of the complete Etudes,
the one that starts very, very fast. Anyway, she plays the entire
piece too. No abbreviated exerpt. Audiences get a full two Chopin
pieces played right in a row. It was wonderful. She plays this piece
and stares dreamily off as she plays, everyone in the room watches her
with admiration, but the camera lingers on the young man. He's
devastated. I think you can see tears running down his face. His whole
world has come to an end. In the next scene, the girlfriend comes to
his room and sees him holding a gun. She's startled by this but he
assures her that he's not going to do anything rash. He was just
moving it. She says goodbye, goes to her car out front and from the
sidewalk hears a gunshot. Then the final scene: the inquest. The panel
must decide what to call this death, an accident or suicide. The panel
spokesman stands and announces, "It's quite clear that this was an
accidental death. He must have been unaware the gun was loaded when
he was handling it. There's no way the young man would have committed
suicide simply because he couldn't play the piano good enough." Fade
out.
MIFrost
Aaron Z Snyder
this is the episode that has been haunting me since that time. Perhaps it's
all a bit melodramatic, but nonetheless....
Don Phillipson
news:1180709844.2...@p47g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
> I caught a bit of this movie on television a couple of evenings ago
> and there was a terrific episode in the movie which has a classical
> music there: This young man, played by Dirk Bogarde, has his mind set
> on becoming a professional classical pianist. He wants to dedicate his
Quartet and Trio were two British films of the 1940s
based on (four and three) short stories of W. Somerset
Maugham (e.g. The Alien Corn.) They are discussed
in Bogarde's memoirs, books about British cinema etc.
--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)
Josep Vilanova
wrote:
> "MIFrost" <sfro...@nycap.rr.com> wrote in message
That theme has been used in other occasions, although without the
suicide at the end. There is a novella by David Leavitt titled 'the
page turner' with a related scene with an old pianist who plays the
slow movement form the Hammerklavier to a young aspiring pianist (to
the despair of the younger one who realises his inability to match the
quality present in that performance).
j
Josep Vilanova
> That theme has been used in other occasions, although without the
> suicide at the end. There is a novella by David Leavitt titled 'the
> page turner' with a related scene with an old pianist who plays the
> slow movement form the Hammerklavier to a young aspiring pianist (to
> the despair of the younger one who realises his inability to match the
> quality present in that performance).
>
> j
And now that I'm thinking about it, there is also that famous scene in
'autumn sonata' with Ingrid Bergman playing that Chopin prelude so
much better than her traumatised daughter... That was an intense
film...
j
francis
wrote:
> "MIFrost" <sfro...@nycap.rr.com> wrote in message
Thanks for this, which I've neither seen nor even been aware of. Do
you recall if Bogarde was called upon to synchronize his playing to
the soundtrack, as he did so impressively to Jorge Bolet's playing a
dozen years later in the Liszt film Song Without End? Any idea whose
playing was used for the Quartet soundtrack?
MIFrost
> On Jun 1, 11:25?am, "Don Phillipson" <d.phillipsonSPAMBL...@ncf.ca>
> wrote:
>
> Thanks for this, which I've neither seen nor even been aware of. Do
> you recall if Bogarde was called upon to synchronize his playing to
> the soundtrack, as he did so impressively to Jorge Bolet's playing a
> dozen years later in the Liszt film Song Without End? Any idea whose
> playing was used for the Quartet soundtrack?
When the camera was front-on it was apparent he was just pretending
but when they filmed him from the side, so you saw him actually
playing, it looked very real. How did they do that? It was the same
with the actress who played the "professional." I have no idea who the
real pianist was who performed the real music. And the funny thing is,
and here's something for the whole group here, when he finishes his
audition and asks if he's really any good, there's a long pause before
she answers. This is for suspense, of course. I wonder if during those
few seconds, the piano mavens here would have thought, "oh, he's
really bad." He sounded pretty good to me, actually.
MIFrost
Allen
> I caught a bit of this movie on television a couple of evenings ago
> and there was a terrific episode in the movie which has a classical
> music there: This young man, played by Dirk Bogarde, has his mind set
> on becoming a professional classical pianist. He wants to dedicate his
> life to it and feels he can accomplish this if he works at it enough.
I vaguely remember seeing this movie 59 years ago, but no details remain
in my memory. The ever-dependable imdb.com has no information about
music, other than the name of the composer of the "original music". The
main thing I remember about Quartet and Trio is their concept brought
forth a Hollywood movie that I totally enjoyed-- O. Henry's Full House,
with a hilarious adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief starring Oscar
Levant and Fred Allen playing the hapless kidnappers.
Allen
Jerry
other evening (late) on Turner Classics Movies.
Peter J
> And there was a third film, "Encore," that was shown just the
> other evening (late) on Turner Classics Movies.
I notice on Amazon.co.uk that Quartet, Trio and Encore have just been
reissued.
Matthew B. Tepper
be typed in news:46607176$0$8976$4c36...@roadrunner.com:
I mentioned this at some length here last year:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2b3ew4
--
Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
My personal home page -- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/index.html
My main music page --- http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
Matthew B. Tepper
following letters to be typed in news:1180715302.254373.49800
@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com:
> That theme has been used in other occasions, although without the suicide
> at the end. There is a novella by David Leavitt titled 'the page turner'
> with a related scene with an old pianist who plays the slow movement form
> the Hammerklavier to a young aspiring pianist (to the despair of the
> younger one who realises his inability to match the quality present in
> that performance).
And then of course there is the scene in "Amadeus," in which Salieri has
composed a dinky little march to welcome Mozart to the emperor's court.
Mozart then plays it back perfectly after only one hearing, criticizes some
of the progressions, and spins a variation on it which turns into "Non più
andrai" while Salieri fidgets and looks very cheesed off.
Bob Harper
> On Jun 1, 12:36 pm, francis <sowerby...@aol.com> wrote:
>> On Jun 1, 11:25?am, "Don Phillipson" <d.phillipsonSPAMBL...@ncf.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Thanks for this, which I've neither seen nor even been aware of. Do
>> you recall if Bogarde was called upon to synchronize his playing to
>> the soundtrack, as he did so impressively to Jorge Bolet's playing a
>> dozen years later in the Liszt film Song Without End? Any idea whose
>> playing was used for the Quartet soundtrack?
>
> When the camera was front-on it was apparent he was just pretending
> but when they filmed him from the side, so you saw him actually
> playing, it looked very real. How did they do that? It was the same
> with the actress who played the "professional." I have no idea who the
> real pianist was who performed the real music.
Joyce Hatto, perhaps :) (Sorry, I just couldn't resist!)
Bob Harper
John_H...@msn.com
> Allen <a...@nothere.net> appears to have caused the following letters to
> be typed innews:46607176$0$8976$4c36...@roadrunner.com:
>
> > MIFrost wrote:
> >> I caught a bit of this movie on television a couple of evenings ago
> >> and there was a terrific episode in the movie which has a classical
> >> music there: This young man, played by Dirk Bogarde, has his mind set
> >> on becoming a professional classical pianist. He wants to dedicate his
> >> life to it and feels he can accomplish this if he works at it enough.
> ><snip>
> > I vaguely remember seeing this movie 59 years ago, but no details remain
> > in my memory. The ever-dependable imdb.com has no information about
> > music, other than the name of the composer of the "original music". The
> > main thing I remember about Quartet and Trio is their concept brought
> > forth a Hollywood movie that I totally enjoyed-- O. Henry's Full House,
> > with a hilarious adaptation of The Ransom of Red Chief starring Oscar
> > Levant and Fred Allen playing the hapless kidnappers.
>
> I mentioned this at some length here last year:
>
> http://preview.tinyurl.com/2b3ew4
>
> --
> Matthew B. Tepper: WWW, science fiction, classical music, ducks!
> My main music page ---http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.html
> To write to me, do for my address what Androcles did for the lion
> Harrington/Coy is a gay wrestler who won't come out of the closet
Unfortunately your Tinyurl does not work for me; I set my DVD recorder
and flubbed the time for Quartet - undoubtedly it will be replayed on
Turner during the ensuing months; this Thursday Quartet was shown at
10 pm; Trio followed and then Encore. The announcer mentioned that
Hollywood quickly copied this format with the less sophisticated (and
certainly less British), O'Henry's full house (which did give us more
C Laughton). Quartet is certainly the best of the bunch! Hauser
John_H...@msn.com
>
> - Show quoted text -
Oh, and of course Honor Blackman, was the first Avengers female
"sidekick"! Hauser
Andrej Kluge
MIFrost schrieb:
> music there: This young man, played by Dirk Bogarde, has his mind set
> on becoming a professional classical pianist.
Did you notice that the name of his caracter in the movie was "George
Bland"? :-)
Ciao
A.
MIFrost
<John_H...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:1180751073.0...@w5g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
On Jun 1, 9:22 pm, John_Hause...@msn.com wrote:
Oh, and of course Honor Blackman, was the first Avengers female
"sidekick"! Hauser
Yes. And she also had a small role in "A Night to Remember," the sinking
cruise ship saga from the late 50s. And a delicious part in a great trashy
soaper called "Moment to Moment" with Jean Seberg from the late 60s.
MIFrost
David Weiner
>
>That theme has been used in other occasions, although without the
>suicide at the end. There is a novella by David Leavitt titled 'the
>page turner' with a related scene with an old pianist who plays the
>slow movement form the Hammerklavier to a young aspiring pianist (to
>the despair of the younger one who realises his inability to match the
>quality present in that performance).
>
And this was filmed as FOOD OF LOVE several years ago - fine film!
dave Weiner