THE MUSICIANS ((Les Musiciens)

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Storyline (warning: spoilers)

A wealthy heiress, four priceless instruments and a string quartet whose members can barely stand one another: it sounds like the set-up for a farce, but in Grégory Magne's hands it becomes something warmer and far more rewarding.
In The Musicians (Les Musiciens in French), Astrid Thompson (Valérie Donzelli) is determined to realise her late father's dream. An industrialist and devoted music lover, he set out to reunite four Stradivarius instruments that have never been played together in concert. Astrid has secured the last of them, commissioned a performance of a little-known score and booked a grand villa in the French countryside for rehearsals. All she needs now is a quartet, and she has six days.
The players she hires are brilliant individually and hopeless as a team. As rehearsals fall apart, Astrid goes in search of the one person who might hold them together - the reclusive composer of the piece, who has his own reasons for keeping his distance.
Much of the film's charm comes from its authenticity. The quartet are real chamber musicians so there are no cutaways and Grégoire Hetzel's original score is allowed to become a character in its own right.
It is a beautifully observed comedy that treats music, musicians and its audience with respect. The Hetzel piece, being specially composed for the movie, is unfamiliar to everyone, so the audience also has to pay attention to the process and music to see how it comes together.
Beneath the bickering and bruised egos sits a hopeful film about listening, compromise and the hard work of finding harmony. Anyone who has ever played in an ensemble (or tried to keep one together) will recognise every raised bow.