“The Musicians” is an enlightening, charming movie that is sometimes as tense as a newly strung violin. The conceit is simple. What happens when you bring four world class musicians together on a one time basis to record a brand new chamber music quartet? It’s probably not what you think.
Astrid Carlson is a sheltered, entitled Daddy’s girl. Charming most of the time, she is clueless to the ways of the world. There is an element of noblesse oblige that makes her interactions effortless. Her father, recently deceased, has left her his legacy request, something only an exceedingly wealthy person would pursue as a hobby. His last wish was multi-pronged. He owned three Stradivarius instruments, two violins and a viola. He needed only the Strad cello to complete the quartet he envisioned. He would hire four of the finest musicians in the world who would then record a chamber quartet he had commissioned years ago from Charlie Beaumont, now a very famous composer.
When the cello suddenly appears on the market at auction, Astrid must go to her brother for the funds. Her brother, now the CEO of the lucrative but struggling family business, is more than annoyed at her frivolity. The business is in need of every resource they can find and buying a cello isn’t on his list, even the unique situation of bringing four such instruments together. He’d actually prefer to sell the three they already have. She is, however, quite persuasive considering that she owns a good chunk of the business. He gives her a limit on what she can spend and, of course, she exceeds it by a wide margin. Nevertheless, a coup is a coup and she promises that her marketing plans will help make up the cost. At least that’s the theory she’s working on.
Astrid has the instruments, but now she needs the musicians. Her father had already chosen the two violinists and the cellist before he died; she chose the violist. The venue is a church; the lighting and sound crew are in place; the musicians have been brought to her villa to rehearse. She awaits beautiful music to materialize. It doesn’t. Unknowingly, she has cast the wrong actors. String quartets play together for years. They are in sync; their egos in check; they anticipate and lead themselves without a conductor. Instead, here we have four individuals with four different ideas about how this previously unheard music should sound. These individuals cling to their own ideas and yield no middle ground. There are minor and major irritations between them that make for dissonance, not harmony.
The success of the recording, unique in the world because of the instruments and one that will insure the family artistic legacy, is dependent on the sale of the recording and its simultaneous streaming performance. As tensions escalate, Astrid seeks out the only person who knows how the piece should sound, the composer who had long given up hope that his composition would ever be performed. His input is not only invaluable but imperative if they are to succeed.
How he is able to bring them together, massage their fragile egos and accomplish a goal, one that Astrid was too inexperienced to achieve or understand, is the crux of the story. Entitled rich girl to the end, the lessons of this endeavor have probably passed her by because, unlike the musicians and composer, she displays very little personal growth.
A lovely movie for music lovers, “The Musicians” is stacked with life lessons and character studies. Most of the musicians have struggled and studied for years, finally reaching international status. Not so our heroine who inherited her place in the world, a cluelessness that is underscored by the maturity and struggles of her brother as he tries to find a new source of revenue to save the family business.
Starring Valérie Donzelli as Astrid, Daniel Garlitsky, Emma Ravier, Matthieu Spinosi, and Marie Vialle, musicians all, play the musicians and Frédéric Pierrot is Charlie Beaumont, all handle the moments of levity and hostility with charm and grace. This film is well worth its swiftly moving 100 minutes.
In French with English subtitles.
Opening August 15 at the Laemmle Royal
