Tim Slade's new movie 4 has a failsafe premise. Take an all-time classical chart-topper like Vivaldi's Four Seasons and transport it around the world from cherry-blossom time in Tokyo to autumn in New York. Enlist an inspired cameraman like Pieter de Vries and follow four different violinists asthey work through Vivaldi's musical year.
Sayaka Shoji gives us Spring in Tokyo. The movie cuts between her playing the piece (with a fairly ordinary ensemble) and coaching some youngsters in it (frustratingly without subtitles*). In between, alas, there is far too much talk around and about those cherry blossoms.
Niki Vasilakis does not take Summer lying down. This livewire young Australian is transporting her Vivaldi concerto north to a spirited performance on Torres Strait's Thursday Island. On the fringes, in between cantabile and cadenza, Slade gives us homely observations from train drivers and a spectacular dance turn from the islanders.
As the old song says, autumn in New York lifts you up when you run down; especially when Cho-Liang Lin is so eloquent in Vivaldi's Autumn concerto. The Big Apple is as much the star as Vivaldi and his concerto; at one point there is the poignant realisation that this is the city wounded, but not mortally so, by 9/11. Then there are those heart-warming scenes in which Lin and his musician colleagues meet at the local deli to share bread, dill peppers and memories.
There are few places on earth chillier than Lapland and you almost feel the ice and snow when Pekka Kuusisto launches into Vivaldi's Winter. There is more irritation at having to cope with patches of incomprehensible Finnish, although Kuusisto and his musicians offer lively English commentary and the man himself warms us up with some smooth jazz stylings.
Music has been around forever and he is just touching it a little, the Finn concludes, and the director saves his neatest cinematic touch for closing as the four fiddlers harmonise in a celebration of eternal spring.
What: 4
Where and when: Opens today, Academy Theatre
Reviewer: William Dart
* The film will have subtitles when it plays in cinemas.
