gill_shave

I only caught the last hour of this film last night on TV. I thought that it was subtle and intelligent. Obviously one is not going to get a full uncut performance of a late Beethoven quartet in a film about the psycho dynamics of the players and their devotion to the music that they performed. However inevitably the music did take centre stage because of its profundity and without it I would not have understood so well their individual stories. This meant that for me, the background music that appeared elsewhere was a massive irritation. Would it not have been better to have no background music in a film that was about great music? I think so. In a few films (The Talented Mr Ripley comes to mind) every note has been calculated in minute detail and contributes to an extraordinary overall experience. In this film, the background music as a massive minus point for me...although I can't wait to see the film again in its entirety.

I saw this film first when I was twenty and, for me, it summed up all the anguish of being young, female and alone in London. The performances are magnificent, and at the time, I found Tom Bell to be quite attractive. I later went off him when he was successively portrayed as a seedy villainous type. The thing which completely mesmerised me at the time was the music (Brahms First Piano Concerto). I haven't read any other comments about the music and I am interested to know if anyone else was as affected by it as I was. It is, of course, a fabulous piece but this was my first introduction to it. I was a music student in 1962 but in common with many other music students of the time, not very knowledgeable. I immediately became very passionate about this piece.