Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with Quartet, a dramatic comedy with an all-star cast headed up by the great Dame Maggie Smith, recently awarded another Emmy for her role in the ever-popular Downton Abbey.
The film is set to be given an Oscar-qualifying limited release this side of the New Year in the US, and after catching a brilliant new music featurette last week, The Huffington Post have debuted a new clip from the film.
“Lifelong friends Wilf (Billy Connolly) and Reggie (Tom Courtenay), together with former colleague Cissy (Pauline Collins), are residents of Beecham House, a home for retired opera singers. Every year on Giuseppe Verdi’s birthday, the residents unite to give a concert to raise funds for their home. But when Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a former grande dame of the opera fallen on hard times, also Reg gie’s ex-wife and the fourth and most celebrated member of their former quartet, moves into the home to everyone’s surprise, the plans for this year’s concert start to unravel.”
Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, and Sheridan Smith star alongside Smith as part of the promising ensemble, with Hoffman directing from a script by the Oscar-winning screenwriter/playwright, Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), who adapts his own play.
Quartet will be given a limited release in the US on 28th December, before opening wide in the States on 4th January in the New Year. Here in the UK, the film will open on New Year’s Day, making for a perfect choice with which to start the year at the box office. For now, here’s the new clip from the film.
