I just saw a movie preview of this film and enjoyed it!
I was wondering though, which of the cast (the quartet) were players before the film or did they learn for the film?
Do they play and then did they dub in their performances with a real quartet?
I really enjoyed it because of the subject matter and acting, especially Christopher Walken.
An interview with Walken in the NY Times Magazine quotes him as saying all the cast studied string instruments enough to (maybe) at least look like they were playing. He said that Keener and Hoffman learned quite a lot but that he was much less successful. Of course the music was dubbed in; they couldn't learn that fast.
A cellist who I know from my gym told me that the actors did NOT NOT NOT look like they were playing. I couldn't tell, but I am not even an amateur musician, never mind a pro like him.
Not sure if this is the exact article buff-29 is referring to, but if not, it covers the subject of their lessons, etc anyway:
http://bit.ly/117gBl4
Thanks for the link!
It really irritated me that the writer of the article got the daughter's real name wrong...but otherwise a good article.
I was surprised to see how little Christopher Walken practiced and came across as knowing how to play!
The woman who played Nina Lee was terrible! Her timing was so far off, I can't believe the director didn't re-shoot her scene. I know nothing of playing music, but her atrocious attempt at playing the cello was plain laughable!
sharethe movie was great ... Nina Lee is an actual cellist.. she was fine. had like 2 seconds.. fabulous movie
shareWow! For somebody who admits that they know nothing of playing music, I'm surprised that you would criticize her performance.
When I saw her performance, I suspected that she was a real cello player and that turned out to be correct.
I'm watching her scene right now and she is way off. Maybe it was the way the movie was cut, but it appears as though her timing is off compared to everyone else. (It might just be that everyone else is off!)
shareRegarding Nina Lee: The music in the movie is played by the Brentano Quartet of which the cellist IS Nina Lee. She was exactly what a true cellist looks when playing like that. She was way on, the others were off because they don't understand the passion of playing professionally. Check out a video on youtube and you'll see what I mean. (and I play violin, well, I used to)
shareNo Eli, what he is saying is her bow stroke was off in timing. Her ability is not disbuted. Her dramatic style is not disputed. It's her bow stroke. No matter if she is the second coming of the cello, she was not in time with the rest of the cast. This should have been picked up by the director and re-shot. It's egg on the director's face, not anyone else's.
shareCould it be that Ms Lee's timing appeared to be off because in the DVD I saw everyone's lips were not in synch with the sound track? Midway through I began to think that a couple of the actors were foreign and their lines were being dubbed.
shareThe reason I could tell Nina Lee was a real cellist is because of her expressions while playing. Only a real cellist would look that into it or emotional while playing. I think the acting was great all around, but the main 4 leads in the movie simply didn't display it.
shareNina's bow was not off in timing, and even if it was, nobody could know that because we *never* hear her play. Even if she had played perfectly during the filming of that scene, they couldn't have used the recording because of all the noises the other actors were making. It was dubbed, even if she had prerecorded the dub.
shareUh, yeah her strokes were off timing. You obviously never played the instrument.
sharemaybe she was just playing a different rythm compared to the others? that doesnt mean she is off.....
o are you saying that you could identify the sound of the cello in the soundtrack and that the notes that she was playing were not matching the sound???
if you happened to download this film (not that i would ever dream of doing such a thing) the version going around is actually slightly out of sync with the audio track.
i actually found the shots where the actors are playing a little off putting because I felt I could tell they could not play. I am a professional musician but not a string player. And there seem to be violinists here who felt they looked good. maybe it was just me
Nina played herself!
shareAs was stated she was the only real cellist, so if something was off (and it did look off), it was either the fault of the editors, or more likely the other actors.
It seemed like the actors had the music being played to them while they played, because there would be a slight delay between fingering and bowing - I'm guessing they would hear the notes change on the recording and then switch there bowing, and of course fingering is harder to keep track of and remember so they'd do it after they bowed. Most of the close ups were of the slow movements, and the only real fast bit was the last movement. If you watch it, you'll notice the first time they play it with Walken, it looks terrible all around - they obviously couldn't keep up with the fast tempo. I'm guessing when Nina Lee joined in, she was the only one playing up to tempo, which is why she looked so different than anyone else.
They really should have just done close ups of the actors faces while playing, and then gotten actual players to be their body doubles. It would have allowed the actors to actually act, instead of just looking terrified and concentrated (which is not how performers of that level look). I thought Walken pulled it off the best, and it's funny that he practiced the least because that's probably what helped. He was less concerned with 'doing it right' which allowed him to actually act and be in character while he played.
Uh, you are correct that you know nothing of playing music. Nina Lee is part of the actual quartet the played the soundtrack and actually looked like she was playing the cello. The actors did not look like they could play.
shareNone of them had any prior training. Mark Ivanir is the only who played a stringed instrument beforehand. He taught himself guitar in his 20s so he could at least fake it a little better than the rest.
shareI liked the movie in general but the fact that they were so very obviously not playing was a real problem for me. I wish they'd filmed it differently somehow so it wasn't quite so blatant, maybe from a distance? Or they could have used Mission Impossible masks on real musicians. :)
shareNon of them play the instruments their characters play.
The lady who replaces walken at the end of the movie is a cello player.
I can tell.
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The credits say at least opus 113 was played by another quartet. I liked the movie and Walken was a master. I did not find the "pretending to play" distracting. It would be impossible to find accomplished actors who could play those instruments so well. The music can be dubbed. The superb acting can't be dubbed.
shareIn terms of 'faking' their instruments, as a real-life totally mediocre cellist, I thought the actors here did one of the best overall jobs I've seen from a cast.
Everyone did well, and the vibrato fakery was really good from Walken too (I know he had trouble with it but he looked fine). The bowing is often the hardest thing to fake actually, but I thought all did fine.
Compared to stinkers like Jack Nicholson's terrrrrrrible fakery in "The Witches of Eastwick" (Sarandon meanwhile is great though) or "August Rush" or the otherwise excellent "Hilary and Jackie," I thought everyone here did a great job. I wasn't distracted by a lot of obvious breaks in bowing or non-vibrato.
An underrated movie that stayed with me.
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I keep thinking I'm a grownup, but I'm not.