By Peter Maddern
Scott Hicks’ Highly Strung is his latest classical musical documentary after the acclaimed work he undertook with Phillip Glass. It follows the path over two years of the newly constituted Australian String Quartet (ASQ) blessed with the use of four Guadagnini instruments sourced for it by Adelaide arts patron Ulrike Klein. As such, the film is quite appropriately named.
The 90 minute production also covers the heritage of these instruments as well as the painstaking production of one of their ilk all counterpointed against the brash, self seeking Carpenters, an American sibling team who see the name Stadivari as nothing more than a brand for the pleasure of their egos and the making of money.
Documentaries pretty much sink or swim on life taking its unexpected courses and being able to capture that drama on the camera. Documentary makers need as much skill sensing the story as they do eking it out of the participants under the full glare of cameras and a future cinema audience. In this Hicks does his best but comes up short in getting to the bottom of what comes between the members of the quartet – the really juicy bit of the film – especially the motives and maybe the madnesses (dressed up as they often as genius) of its first violin leader.
As such, the balance of the final may seem a little out of kilter and the rapid fire editing a similar distraction but fine music and motives underpin a most intriguing picture of a world few of us are likely to otherwise encounter.
Kryztoff Rating 3.5K
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