Quintet Movie Review

Many consider this atypical Robert Altman sf effort one of the unpredictable director's worst films, but the Hound thinks it has…something. Setting is a nuke-inspired second Ice Age, where Paul Newman and wife Brigitte Fossey wander into the last known city. There, peasant-garbed inhabitants, having given up hope for tomorrow, play an assassination game called quintet, which Newman learns quickly. Bizarre frozen production design and heavy symbolism (like ubiquitous carrion black dogs) make this tough sledding, but the hypnotic musical score and general aura of fatalism set it apart from more conventional apocalyptic fare. Main complaint: a buildup to an action climax that just doesn't happen.

1979 118m/C Paul Newman, Bibi Andersson, Fernando Rey, Vittorio Gassman, David Langton, Nina Van Pallandt, Brigitte Fossey; D: Robert Altman; W: Lionel Chetwynd, Patricia Resnick, Robert Altman, Frank Barhydt. VHS, Beta FOX