Quintet Quintet-a Futuristic Movie

The movie Quintet unfolds its story with a wide splash of white snows and the camera shot is blurred at the edge to present a frostbitten, chilling world. In the beginning, the plot progression is very slow with two men trekking through a wide spread of snow with few words. It is horrifying for its smothering silence and visual bleakness. Some would argue that it is futuristic and apocalyptic for its landscape, but it is argued that it is futuristic in every aspect of this movie.

It is futuristic in its landscape and casting. From the academic resource Quintet: the thoughtful essay I wish I’d written by John Kenneth Muir, it is suggested that “This unique, misty canvas is actually an ideal reflection of the film’s existential crisis: that mankind is being suffocated spiritually and physically by the re-glaciation of all corners of the planet.” However, it is inferred from the beginning that these two men came from nowhere although Essex the man of the two claimed that they are from South. There was no specified background information for these two newcomers. According to the historical resource “Interviews by James Delson”, the whole cast was international except for Newman and this “automatically throws the audience into identifying with Newman” and he was also a stranger to that world.Therefore, instead of seeing this as the whole general mankind beset by the icy catastrophe, it is better interpreted that Essex and Vivia were two new fresh life breathed by the director into this already corrupted and frozen world. Here, it seems that Altman was experimenting with the idea of the clashes between new and old. However, when the audience comes to the old which is the already set up landscape of this plot, they are again confused by its creepy weirdness. Like Essex and Vivia, little historical information was revealed for the city about how it came to be clad in icy snow and what it was like in the past. There were only hints scattered around such as the snow hidden train, the pictures on Hotel Electra’s walls and dubious words from Ambrosia about past. Nonetheless, from the same historical resource Interviews by James Delson, this is surmised to be a technique deployed by director to produce an unnerving, futuristic feeling in audience. Under a whole blanket of bleakness, only a tip of previous civilization showing through will unsettle the audience. It could be some elusive words from characters reminiscing about past or a sketch of trains or even pictures on the wall. “But that there’s a train, and it’s obviously been frozen in for God knows how long. And then you see these people walking. And then we take them into this first shelter. Which, again has a futuristic look to it, so you know that you are in some time. In other words, it’s to orient you to disorientation,” said Altman in this interview. In this manner, Altman wants to take us to a world where the past was nearly buried by hopelessness and future was frozen upon people’s morbid face. It’s like Altman was trying to shake this already frozen world by allowing a bit of warmth (Essex and Vivia) into it and see what happens next.

It is futuristic in its plot. The entire story revolves around the thread of revenge and finding secrets behind “Quintet Game”. Although many critics dismissed this movie as a lame and confusing revenge story, in a journalistic resource In Defense of Robert Altman’s Quintet, Jeff Roll states that it is more like “a classic noir mystery” embedded in a dystopian landscape. Essex was the detective trying to blow the cover off a corrupted and twisted society while Ambrosia was the femme fatale. Essex, after his wife being murder by the mechanism of this game, tried to follow leads on a list of name and discover the dark truth behind the game. But, it could not fall into the category of noir films. Noir films often develop around heroes who are flawed and troubled by an existential crisis. Essex, compared with noir heroes, was resolute in his morality and even in her wife’s death he tried to keep her pure and innocent by carrying her corpse into the river far from the degraded city. And it is argued that characters in this movie are not as important as what they try to convey by their behaviors. Ambrosia looked like a femme fatale, but she was not, for it is preferably believed that in her sleep, her reminiscence about her past, her smile and the love for her mother are sincere. That whether it is true or not, was the most moving part. During a killing game, in a night with a nearly stranger, a smile which was long forgotten lit up in her face. It’s like you suddenly see a flash of spark in the everlasting cold ashes, although it was soon put out.  That is what this plot is for, to discover the nearly buried past and this discovery is unsettling.

It is futuristic in its philosophy. There is this game “Quintet” and the new philosophy preached by the dubious priest St. Christopher. In the primary resource- Quintet (1979) Trailer, the dice throwing game is connected with survival by killing to arouse the audience’s interests.  A blade stands sharp between two dices. However, the game I propose is only part of the whole message. We need to put this game into general conditions that these people are in. In that situation when people are shut off from the past and blocked to the future, people there could not feel any presence of life except for a slow process of dying. It is regrettable that there is no movie clip to show you but in the preaching scene, St. Christopher emphasized five stages of life mirroring five sides of universe and five players in Quintet. But there is a sixth side, in life the unknown, in the universe the center and in Quintet the sixth player. It is inferred that only by taking the unknown, can these people endure this endless insignificance of life. And they invented this game to fight through to the unknown-the sixth player or die in it.  And words from Grigor about death somewhat support Christopher preaching. Only in Quintet, could players find the thrill of life and curiosity to challenge the unknown and the expression of intelligence. In my somewhat confused

moments, I began to think they lit up civilization by playing the game, by killing.

All in all, this movie is futuristic in Essex and the world both strange to each other, is futuristic in they having nearly no past and no future, is futuristic in “Quintet” and the unsettling truth behind this game.

Resource Cited:

Academic Resource: Quintet: the thoughtful essay I wish I’d written

Historical Resource: Interviews by James Delson

Journalistic Resource: In Defense of Robert Altman’s Quintet

Primary Resource: the opening landscape shot, the picture of Quintet, train hidden in snow , the St. Christopher picture clipped from movie and Quintet (1979) Trailer