Main Cast: Paul Newman, Vittorio Gassman, Fernando Rey, Bibi Andersson, Brigitte Fossey
Release Year: 1979
Country: US
Run Time: 118 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Perhaps the least seen but most talked about film of Robert Altman's career, Quintet is a somber science fiction tale that takes place after a nuclear holocaust has thrown the world into another Ice Age. A man named Essex (Paul Newman) and his pregnant wife Vivia (Brigitte Fossey) are wandering the desolate, frozen landscape and attempting to find Essex's brother, Francha (Tom Hill). They finally locate him in a frozen city, occupied by a number of apocalyptic survivors who who pass their time playing a mysterious game called "Quintet." No one is able to explain just how it is played, but Grigor (Fernando Rey) appears to act as the referee, and the stakes of the game are unusually high - losing means being thrown out into the snow and devoured by Rottweilers. Francha is soon killed, not as a casualty of Quintet per se, but for playing an assassination game on the side to relieve his own ennui. As 'collateral damage,', Vivia and the rest of Francha's family are soon extinguished as well. Essex is not happy with the way they've been rubbed out, but as he attempts to seek revenge, he is only drawn deeper into the lethal competition of Quintet. While this picture received negative reviews on its initial release, in retrospect it is worth noting that the photography (by Jean Boffety) and production design (by Leon Ericksen) are beautiful and striking, and that the film boasts one of Altman's strongest international casts, including Vittorio Gassman, Nina Van Pallandt, and Bibi Andersson, as befits its European-art-movie ambiance; the influence of the equally opaque, allegorical, game-playing Last Year at Marienbad (1961) is especially strong. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Robert Altman's Quintet is a unique motion picture experience, although most viewers will not find it a particularly entertaining one. Purposely dense, yet built on a shallow foundation, Quintet confuses obscurity with profundity and at times is almost unbearably pretentious. It is also sluggishly paced -- which is undoubtedly Altman's intention, though there seems to be no real reason for this. The slowness does not reveal any greater depth of meaning, and while it may emphasize the nihilistic atmosphere of Altman's bleak future, it still becomes overpowering. Worse, it deadens the few "lively" sequences. The screenplay is also burdened with the wooden and flavorless dialogue and the intricacies of the "game" seem to exist only as something on which to hang plot points. Under the circumstances, the cast does the best it can, but not even Paul Newman's considerable star power and charisma can rise above the material. Yet in spite of all its flaws, Quintet exerts a certain strange fascination that keeps the viewer hooked; the hand is always poised to push the "off" button but it never quite gets there. Part of this is due to the haunting visual imagery in the film, with its "iris focus" cinematography and Leon Ericksen's production design. Altman does create some unforgettable moments, such as Newman's burial of Brigitte Fossey's body on an icy river. They're not enough to make Quintet a good movie, but they're flashes of illuminating brilliance in this somber, frozen corpse of a film. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Nina Van Pallandt - Seuca; David Langton - Goldstar; Tom Hill - Francha; Monique Mercure - Redstone's Mate; Craig Richard Nelson - Redstone; Marushka Stankova - Jaspera; Anne Gerety - Aeon; Michael Maillot - Obelus; Max Fleck - Wood Supplier; Françoise Berd - Charity house woman
Credit
Wolf Kroeger - Art Director, Allan Nicholls - Associate Producer, Tom Pierson - Conductor, Scott Bushnell - Costume Designer, Tommy Thompson - First Assistant Director, Robert Altman - Director, Dennis M. Hill - Editor, Tommy Thompson - Executive Producer, Tom Pierson - Composer (Music Score), Tom Pierson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Monty Westmore - Makeup, Leon Ericksen - Production Designer, Jean Boffety - Cinematographer, Jim Kaufman - Production Manager, Robert Altman - Producer, Thomas Fisher - Special Effects, John Thomas - Special Effects, Robert Gravenor - Sound/Sound Designer, Frank Barhydt - Screenwriter, Robert Altman - Screenwriter, Patricia Resnick - Screenwriter, Lionel Chetwynd - Short Story Author
The story takes place in a future where the world is covered by a new ice age. When the film begins, Altman's camera tracks along a blank, frozen tundra which is seemingly deserted- that is, until two blurry figures in the distance can be just barely made out. They are the seal hunter Essex (Paul Newman); and his pregnant young wife, Vivia (Brigitte Fossey), the daughter of one of Essex's late hunting partners. Having returned from the South, they are venturing further up North, where Essex hopes to reunite with his brother, Francha (Thomas Hill).
Essex and Vivia eventually meet up with Francha at his apartment, but the reunion is short-lived. While Essex is in the neighborhood buying firewood, a gambler by the name of Redstone (Craig Richard Nelson) sneaks into Francha's apartment and bombs it with a vial of alcohol, killing Francha, Vivia and the apartment's other inhabitants in the process. Essex, who sees Redstone fleeing from the scene of the explosion, chases him to the sector's "Information Room"; it is here that Essex then witnesses the subsequent murder of Redstone by a Latin-speaking gambler named St. Christopher (Vittorio Gassman). When St. Christopher leaves the scene, Essex finds a piece of paper in Redstone's coat pocket. On the paper is a list of names: Francha, Redstone, Goldstar, Deuca, St. Christopher, and Ambrosia.
Puzzled by the mystery of this tragic chain of events, Essex discovers that Redstone had previously checked into the Hotel Electra, a gambling resort in another sector. Taking matters into his own hands, Essex visits the Hotel Electra and assumes Redstone's identity. Immediately after checking in, Essex is given an unexpected welcome by Grigor (Fernando Rey), who is the dealer in the casino downstairs. Insisting that he means no harm, Grigor invites Essex (who is going by the name of "Redstone") to the casino, where gamblers are now heavily involved in a "Quintet" tournament. It is here that Essex first makes acquaintance with Ambrosia (Bibi Andersson), who always plays the "sixth man" in the game.
Essex is unaware that those who are taking part in the current Quintet tournament have been pitted against each other in a survival of the fittest. Those who are "killed" when playing the board game are to literally be slain in real life. Because Grigor and St. Christopher are aware that Essex is not the real Redstone, they ignore him and instead focus on the other victims in the tournament. First the clumsy Goldstar (David Langton) is killed, and then Deuca (Nina Van Pallandt), until the only two official players left in the game are St. Christopher and Ambrosia. Ambrosia, however, insists that because Essex has dared to assume Redstone's identity, he should be counted as a player in the game. Grigor agrees, and informs St. Christopher that he will not be allowed to face off against Ambrosia until he eliminates Essex first.
Essex and St. Christopher have a showdown out in the tundra, where St. Christopher eventually meets his own demise- not by Essex, but by a falling avalanche. Essex then returns to Francha's apartment, wondering if Francha possessed the same list that Redstone had. Ambrosia follows Essex to the apartment in a presumably well-meaning manner, but then Essex slits her throat just before she is about to stab him with a hidden knife. Returning to the Hotel Electra to cremate Ambrosia's body, Essex confronts Grigor to demand what "prize" he has won, since he has come out on top as the winner of Quintet. Grigor reveals that there is no prize at all- except for the fact that Essex has survived the game all in one piece. Although Grigor insists that Essex must stay and participate in the tournaments to come, a disgusted Essex condemns the entire practice of Quintet and leaves the Hotel Electra for good. The film ends with another lengthy camera shot, this one showing Essex walking further out into the barren Northern distance until he can be seen no more.
Production
Quintet was filmed on the site of Montreal's Expo 67 world's fair.
