Quartet

"Four Friends Looking For A Little Harmony"

2012 1h 38m EN

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 397

DramaComedyRomance

Synopsis

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Cissy, Reggie, and Wilf are in a home for retired musicians. Every year, there is a concert to celebrate Composer Giuseppe Verdi's birthday and they take part. Jean, who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but she refuses to sing. Still, the show must go on, and it does.

“Four Friends Looking For A Little Harmony”

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Cast

Maggie Smith
Jean Horton
Tom Courtenay
Reginald Paget
Billy Connolly
Wilf Bond
Pauline Collins
Cissy Robson
Michael Gambon
Cedric Livingston
Sheridan Smith
Dr. Lucy Cogan
Jumayn Hunter
Joey
Shola Adewusi
Sheryl

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Dustin Hoffman
Writers: Ronald Harwood
Languages: French, English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 5.4× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 14 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Dustin Hoffman, shot by John de Borman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Dario Marianelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Barney Pilling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Four Friends Looking For A Little Harmony".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Dustin Hoffman directs. John de Borman behind the camera. Dario Marianelli scores. Barney Pilling cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in French, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 5.4× over at the box office.
2Released 14 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: French, English.
4Directed by Dustin Hoffman, shot by John de Borman. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Dario Marianelli. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Barney Pilling shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Maggie Smith and Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Four Friends Looking For A Little Harmony".
9IMDB entry: tt1441951 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: John de Borman
Original score: Dario Marianelli
Editing: Barney Pilling
Production design: Andrew McAlpine
Costume design: Odile Dicks-Mireaux
Makeup / hair: Daniel Phillips
Stunt coordinator: Andreas Petrides
Runtime: 98 min · 1h 38m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $11,000,000
Box office: $59,520,298
Return: 541% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Quartet (2012)

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Peter McGinn2022-09-03
★ 6/10
Four friends decide to work together to put on a concert to raise money to prevent the retirement home/orphanage/local theater/etc. from closing down. We haven’t seen this before, have we? Still, based on the high powered cast they assembled here, I had hopes for it. Hope is a beautiful thing. So I was disappointed. The Billy Connolly character seemed first two-dimensional to me and was barely carried off by the comedian;’s natural charm and winning smile. The Cedrick character felt over the top and didn’t add much to the film despite a strong enough performance by the actor. I think the plot and the script let them down, but they soldiered on and made the best of it. Billy Connolly’s character was ironically at his best when he was serious rather than flirting and pushing peoples’ buttons. Pauline Collins managed to be amusing while suffering from bouts of dementia. There were fine moments throughout the movie and the chemistry between the main characters, but it didn’t quite overcome for me the staleness of the plot and lack of depth in a few of the characters. Asa side note, there is a nice gesture during the credits as they reveal that many of the supporting cast have had music careers of their own with a quick display of their then and now pictures and a brief description of their claim to fame.
CinemaSerf2024-05-24
★ 7/10
This is the second "Quartet" film to feature Dame Maggie Smith and I definitely prefer this one! The story is set in a retirement home for musicians and singers, and one that is gearing up for it's annual fund-raising gala as well as for a much anticipated new arrival. It's that latter event that sets the cat amongst the pigeons for the amiable threesome of "Wilf" (Sir Billy Connolly), "Reggie" (Sir Tom Courtenay) and "Cissy" (Pauline Collins - who ought surely to be a dame by now?). The legend that is "Jean Horton" - a veteran of La Scala, duly arrives and it turns out that she (Dame Maggie) used to be married to "Reggie" and now he's a bit upset. Meantime, the gala - under the direction of the flamboyantly hammy "Cedric" (Sir Michael Gambon) is facing a disaster after it's star turn had to pull out. The three friends conclude that the best plan to save their home might be to reconstitute their legendary quarter from "Rigoletto" - but can they all forgive and forget long enough to take to the stage? It's Collins who steals this for me. Her character is a bit of a dippy and good natured amnesiac who serves well as the lynch pin between the flirtatious and cheeky "Wilf" and the more highly-strung divorcees. The writing is funny enough, but it's really the characterisations that work best here. You could easily imagine that places like this exist for people who made a decent enough living when stardom shone, but had little to fall back on as old age crept up on them leaving them isolated and skint. The only true songstress here, Dame Gwyneth Johns, joins in the joke merrily parodying the luvvie-types with gusto and also providing us with a glorious version of her (original) "Vissi d'arte" from "Tosca" too. It's all a bit predictable, sure, but Dustin Hoffman keeps it out of the realms of sentimental cheesiness and everyone here looks like they are having fun making film designed to enjoy rather than over-think.