Movie releases. "The Musicians": an engaging quartet, between agreements and disagreements

If there were any doubt that this film has a soul, we should immediately refer to this great little journey into the interior of a cello, through which we enter Grégory Magne's new subtle comedy. It is very beautiful, and very inspired – according to the filmmaker's own admission – by the work of the artist Charles Brooks, transforming the interiors of rare instruments into vast architectural scenes, reminiscent of movie sets and concert halls.

From the small to the greatest: this is also the beautiful intention of the story of The Musicians, a lighthearted comedy which, starting from the inside of this cello, goes on to compose a beautiful escape around the formation of a quartet of virtuosos brought together by a vibrant woman – normal, she is played by the whimsical and fabulous Valérie Donzelli.

So, of course, Gregory Magne creates a gallery of very well-defined characters with these four – there's the egocentric one, the inconsiderate one, the young hipster, the virtuoso diva. All this to give depth to their agreements and disagreements, to stage a whole little theater of pettiness and rivalries.

The great music of human comedy, bitchy, cruel, ferocious, but very endearing, with a bitter laugh. The burlesque also finds its place in the scope of a four-handed script, written to the letter by Grégory Magne and Haroun.

This lighthearted comedy is made with great seriousness. None of the members of this musical quartet on the verge of breaking up are pretending. The casting doesn't compromise on the truth of the fiction: real musicians play this string ensemble: Marie Vialle, Emma Ravier, Mathieu Spinosi, and Daniel Garlitsky.

Frédéric Pierrot, a music-loving actor, also doesn't cheat with the character of composer Charlie Beaumont, and the score of great classical music that the composer of the original music, the great and important Grégoire Hetzel, brings to the film.

The whole thing holds up well, with skill and inventiveness in its tones, these variations that turn the film sometimes towards the most unbridled fantasy and sometimes towards the most bitter melancholy, where it is a question of the artist and his solitude. It is at once touching, entertaining, charming.

The Musicians of Gregory Magne. In theaters this Wednesday, May 7. Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes.