ugeh37 ...now I wish it had remained that way.WARNING: If you stumble upon this movie while surfing TV, keep surfing!This isn't even a good one time watch. It's the most boring, senseless piece of trash I've ever watched. I can't believe someone made this move. I can't believe Paul Newman signed on to play in this movie. I can't believe it was ever released.This is a bad, bad, bad, movie.

Andrew Barclay Altman's most underrated work, Quintet's dreamy other worldly aesthetics are as mesmerising in their bleak detached white wash, as 2001: A Space Odesseys lush elegant space scape's were, only Altman's vision is one of despondence without respite, and it's that which alienates some from enjoying this slow, often perplexing near masterpiece. Well overdue a new critical appraisal with regards it's standing amongst Altman's other more celebrated films. Despite the widely held view its one of Robert Altmans lesser achievements, Quintet still enjoys a comparatively small but loyal cult following that will hopefully grow in time.

tieman64 In a post-apocalyptic future, in which the Earth is blanketed by snow, two travellers journey to a distant city. Once there, they discover the last remnants of humanity living a primitive existence within the battered remains of what was once a thriving plaza.After a bomb kills one of the travellers, the survivor, a seal hunter played by Paul Newman, is sucked into playing a local board game called Quintet. As the film progresses, the sinister rules of the game are slowly revealed.Shaped like a pentagon, it becomes apparent that the Quintet game board resembles the layout of the film's ruined city. Similarly, when a player is "killed" on the game board, those who did the "killing" must literally assassinate the opposing player in real life. Presiding over this deadly game is a referee who strongly resembles the film's director, Robert Altman. He exists "out of the game world" and is treated as a God/Satan figure, playing devilish games of life and death with the poor humans. Furthermore, the film links the "five sides" of its city/game to what one character calls the "five stages of life". These stages are "primum" (the pain of birth), "secundum" (the labour of maturing), "tertium" (the guilt of living), "quartum" (the terror of ageing) and "quintum" (the finality of death).Altman thus takes this simple board game and uses it as a metaphor for the hopeless lives of Earth's few remaining survivors. This is an existential tale of humans coping with the imminence of death, our seal hunter hero surviving only because he plays by his own rules.On another level, the film seems to set up numerous Biblical and religious allusions, only to purposeful knock them back down. There are references to the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary, Satan, Jesus, God, The Passover, St Christopher, white "doves", rituals etc, which Altman playfully introduces then promptly undermines. Altman loves to deconstruct myths, whether he does so here I'm not quite sure.6/10 – An inferior rip off of Bergman and Tarkovsky's "Stalker", much of this film simply consists of people huddled around a game board or walking in the snow. Chop 40 minutes from the film and you'd have a pretty decent flick, but as it is, there's not enough material or depth here to warrant a 2 hour running time. Worth one viewing.

kjcowzlan One of the few SF films that fulfill one of my central aesthetic criteria: plunge the viewer into a world and events with minimal explanation or hand-holding. The negative reactions to "Quintet" constitute nothing more nor less than culture shock. The pace of the movie reflects the perception of time in the society it depicts. It has the feel of a real-time depiction of events in the city, a boreal Brasilia under siege from solid (frozen) water. It has the sense of progressive immobilization, of decay and entropy.NOTE: If somehow you encounter the rules for the titular game, pay attention to them. The game is *the* central plot armature for the movie, and quite ingeniously designed. You may contend that a film must make its own brief and not require additional materials to be understood. What would the filmmakers themselves have done without these materials? And it's grand fun examining the various Quintet boards in the film, seeing the rules applied and their further evolution. Metanoia may well await.Sundry random observations: I loved "Quintet"'s score, with its five-note sequences, 5/4 time, 9/8 time signatures, the percussion that recalls Taiko drumming. I loved the visual tips of the hat to the paintings of Bruegel and Bosch, with their half-hidden backgammon boards. I loved the city directory seemingly adapted from Duchamp's "Large Glass". The adjudication scene is a macabre marvel. Amazing. If you want to woo the muse of the odd (in Lafcadio Hearn's words), you could do much, much worse than "Quintet".