Quartet & The Pope

We just saw the most delightful film, Quartet, about aging and the old people who live in Beecham House, a retirement community for old musicians in lovely English countryside. I think if I couldn’t live in Sun City West, Arizona, I’d like to live out my days in Beecham House, especially if I could live there with this cast of delightfully wacky and talented musicians. Dustin Hoffman directed. Thank you, Dustin, for giving us this funny and moving film. Every October 10th, the residents of Beecham House put on a show to celebrate Verdi’s birthday and to generate enough money to keep the place running for at least another year. When prima donna diva Jean Horton (Dame Maggie Smith) moves in, just knowing she’ll hate living like any other old person without much money, the three other people with whom she once sang Verdi’s “Quartet” from Rigoletto try to convince her to sing it again with them, she violently tells them no.. Reggie Paget (Tom Courtney) is one of the four, an ex-husband of Horton’s who has never gotten over their breakup. The other two are splendidly funny—Wilf Bond (Billy Connolly) as the handsome, lecherous old devil who propositions every female in sight, even though he probably wouldn’t know what to do with any of them if they should take him up on his propisition; and Cissy Robson (Pauline Collins), a forgetful lady with, as Wilf, describes her, the best tits in the UK. The acting is all top rate, the English scenery breathtaking, the music throughout excellent . . . and the humor is to die for. This isn’t a movie that would have a lot of appeal for anyone under fifty, but for anyone over fifty it’s a must see.

Pope Benedict is now officially out of office, having abdicated his “throne” because of ill health. I don’t know why this should have been such a big deal to so many Catholics. I don’t know why he should have been the first to step down in almost seven hundred years. Is any pope a leader or is he just a human symbol to those in the Catholic faith? If he is, indeed, a leader, then he or any other pope before him should have stepped down when age and failing health make it impossible for him to lead. If he’s just a symbol, then I guess he can continue his popedom until he dies, even if he’s lying in a coma in Vatican City. I guess, not being a Catholic, I just don’t understand all the popish pomp and circumstance of the Vatican nor of the Catholic service.