‘It’s the Meryl Streep of the orchestra’: why cinema loves the cello

From Audrey Hepburn to Pedro Pascal, cellists have become a movie shorthand for sensitivity, intensity and emotional depth. But why has Hollywood turned one orchestral instrument into a character in its own right? There’s a throwaway line in 2012’s The Avengers, after a character’s death, when his partner is alluded to. “There was a cellist, I think,” muses Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark. It’s a spot of pathos amid the punch-ups – but also rather telling. Because when even a superhero blockbus...

By Jonathan Wells