Quintet (1979)

Director:

Robert Altman

Writers:

Robert Altman (story) &
Lionel Chetwynd (story) ...

Release Date:

24 August 1979 (West Germany)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Mystery

Tagline:

One man against the world.

Plot:

During a future ice age, dying humanity occupies its remaining time by playing a board game called "Quintet." For one small group, this obsession is not enough; they play the game with living pieces ... and only the winner survives. |

Plot Keywords:

Game | Board Game | Ice Age | Loss Of Wife | Stabbed In The Head

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Essex
Vittorio Gassman	...	Saint Christopher
Fernando Rey	...	Grigor
Bibi Andersson	...	Ambrosia
Brigitte Fossey	...	Vivia, Essex's Wife
Nina Van Pallandt	...	Deuca
David Langton	...	Goldstar
Thomas Hill	...	Francha (as Tom Hill)
Monique Mercure	...	Redstone's Mate
Craig Richard Nelson	...	Redstone
Maruska Stankova	...	Jaspera
Anne Gerety	...	Aeon
Michel Maillot	...	Obelus
Max Fleck	...	Wood Supplier
Françoise Berd	...	Charity house woman

Runtime:

118 min | Argentina:116 min | Portugal:110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Italy:VM14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Expo '67, Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Lions Gate Films

Trivia:

The pavilion was to be razed after filming was complete. 'Robert Altman' had developed an affection for the silk-screened glass panels that he had used to heighten the lost-world sense of the movie's setting. He salvaged the 44 panels and for a time displayed them at his Lion's Gate studio. When he and his wife found an apartment in Manhattan in 1984, about a dozen of the panels - some as tall as 18 feet - became the dominant decorative feature. (The history of the panels and the apartment, with photos, became an article in the March 1990 issue of "Architectural Digest", preserved online at http://www.sopot.org/altmanresidence.pdf.)

Movie Connections:

Featured in Developing the World of 'Quintet' (2006) (V)

The only film that puts the cold war in true perspective.

This film seems almost universally despised, but even its harshest critics note how effective Altman was in creating mood. Despite the fact that the mood is terribly gloomy and unappealing to most, it makes perfect sense to me because this movie is about the cold war.

Many, many films deal with the cold war, but they jazz it up and accentuate the "glamour" of the spy game and ignore the futility of the paranoia that raged for 50 years (34 when the film was released), and that is still one of the dominant forces in international politics.

Some of the best cold war films such as Michael Caine's three roles as Harry Palmer, or Fred Schepisi's "Russia House" bring parts of the cold war home while showing us the ways of international espionage, but what other film besides "Quintet" shows how it affects an average family man, "Little Nikita"? Perhaps some others do, but none provide the gloomy, desperate, futile feel of "Quintet", which I appreciate because for me that's what the cold war is all about.

I believe those who see "Quintet" simply as a film about the next ice age and its favorite board game missed the point that Altman made so convincingly, and with such ability that even those who don't care for "Quintet" can't forget it.