Two different films about music
How do some films fall through the cracks? This Must Be The Place deserves some love for its view of life that is both severe and serene. TMBTP was made nearly two years ago; a collaboration of Italian helmer Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo) and actor Sean Penn. Penn plays a make-up wearing rocker named Cheyenne who lives, while not quite a recluse, a sheltered life. Having made millions during the close of the new wave era Cheyenne now lives in a manse in Ireland with his wife (Frances McDormand), refuses to play music and makes even more money playing the stock market. Yet Cheyenne’s world is racked with guilt and he can only speak slowly and in a high toned voice.
The death of his father in America breaks Cheyenne out of his isolation and soon he has traveled abroad, taken his father’s journal that recounts his humiliation in a Nazi concentration camp, and set out, with the partial aide of a war criminal hunter (Judd Hirsch) to track down a 95-year old Nazi hiding in the hinterlands of the US.
The rest of the film becomes a kind of floating series of vignettes as Cheyenne gets his revenge (gentle though it might be) on in states like New Mexico and Utah. The production was filmed in New Mexico and New York and Michigan. Weird things happen; hell the whole film is weird but in a wonderful and fulfilling way. Great visuals from Sorrentino make This Must Be The Place easy on the eyes. Eve Hewson (Bono’s daughter), David Byrne (playing himself) and Kerry Condon play pivotal roles. This Must Be The Place never escalates into pure violence but the thought of killing someone with impunity plays into the narrative.
A Late Quartet features strong performances in the story of a musician who decides to retire as Parkinson’s disease takes its toll. Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Catherine Keener headline. If you like films with classical music A Late Quartet goes out of its way to appeal to that very demographic. Despite the premise ALQ isn’t a disease movie per se but rather a well-acted depiction of the amount of sacrifice and talent needed to play in a world-class classical quartet. Essentially musicians A & B are married but B has an affair. Meanwhile their daughter has an affair with musician C, and all the while musician D just wants to get on with his life. Perhaps too austere to appeal beyond fans of Beethoven and the above actors, A Late Quartet like a fine piece of music has its crescendos and lulls.
– Michael Bergeron
