Maestro * * *

Maestro is a  film that is mostly being shown in the Art House Cinemas.  

Given its credentials you'd think the multiplexes would be wanting it on their screens alongside  Napoleon. But I'm guessing that whoever chooses movies for the big houses took one look at it and went .."Eeeeeew".   (Or maybe they already knew something I found out later - wait another week and you can watch it on Netflix. I'm getting a bit sick of this!)

In the first thirty minutes it looks old and faded as though it was shot in the forties. With a screen that is almost square, it's all in a soft grey, even the sound is a bit lowkey.   

Maestro is about the working life of Leonard Bernstein, conductor/composer and household name.   It's directed by Bradley Cooper who stars as Leonard.  He also co-wrote the script. This follows Bradley Cooper's last DIY project, the hugely successful A Star is Born.  If  you liked that film you might not like this.  It's quite a different kettle of fish...

Waiting for some colour

As I said, it's starts off in square screen B+W.   Bernstein is in his twenties.  Without wasting a minute they let us know he is bisexual as we see him being "very friendly" with his boyfriend.  But that is secondary to what has happened.  He has just received the phone call that changes his life. With the chief conductor falling ill, Bernstein is invited to conduct the New York Philharmonic and he knocked everyone's socks off.  Now everyone knows who Leonard Bernstein is. 

But it's not too long before he meets Costa Rican actress Felicia Montealegre.  They immediately fall in love. Their relationship is primarily what the film is about.  Felecia is played wonderfully by Carey Mulligan, almost upstaging Cooper.   

Soon it is the fifties and once again the look and feel of the film is as though it was shot in that period. It's still a small screen but now we have colour. This is his mid career.  We find Leonard is becoming a little too indiscreet with his philandering with boys, causing a strain on their otherwise loving relationship.  Meanwhile the kids are popping out of Felicia. They have a very fine home and they have lots of parties where everyone smokes and smokes.  Incidentally the cigarette consumption in this film is  terrifying, and almost revolting to witness; though they really did smoke that much apparently.  

In the last part we have full screen and colour. The time now is the seventies and it goes through to the  eighties and Felicia's tragic terminal illness followed by Leonard Bernstein's time as an inspiring tutor and gay club attendee in his latter years.

Aside from the changing of  colour and format I should mention that the photography often has a sense of imposition.  As though it is being illicitly filmed through an open door or from an awkward position.  Sometimes actors are only partially in the frame. 

Set over forty years, the major events in Bernstein's professional life are ticked off.  The night he was a stand-in conductor and shot to fame, his groundbreaking arrangements of Mahler  Though his famous West Side story is only seen in rehearsal.  What is missing (or barely focused on) is his passion for civil rights and his loud opposition to the Vietnam war.

Yet, this is a good portrayal of the relationship between Leonard and Felicia.  Lots of characters (mostly Bernstein's "friends") satellite around them with no ability to disrupt things in the Bernstein home. They cannot steal his heart, or split them.  They pose no real threat, which make this tribe of extras somewhat forgettable and lacking dramatic presence.

The trouble with Maestro - for me anyway - is that it's boring!   Half the time the naturalistic dialogue comes across as inane natter. It didn't intrigue me or drawer me in.   I felt like I had to force myself to tune in and try to pay attention.  Cooper's interpretation of Bernstein's voice doesn't help either.  It mostly sounds like he has a very bad cold.   

It is nearly all interiors, so not too much had to be spent trying to recreate New York which is where it is mostly set. 

It looks good (or terrible) depending on whether you think making a new film to imitate the cinematic technique of another time is a good idea or not. Either way, I found it somewhat informative and clever, but hardly inspiring or moving.