Leonard Bernstein (1918-2990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American-born conductor to receive international acclaim.
Some of Bernstein’s honors and accolades include seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award), as well as an Oscar nomination.
Now, acclaimed filmmaker/actor Bradley Cooper has made a film that centers on the relationship between Bernstein and his wife in the Dietrich Winter Film Festival selection, ‘Maestro.’
‘Maestro’ is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, ‘Maestro’ at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.
The latest directorial effort from Bradley Cooper (who last directed ‘A Star Is Born’) delivers great performances from Cooper and Carey Mulligan, beautiful music and shows an overview of the extremely talented conductor’s life.
Before viewing this film I really didn’t know a whole lot about Leonard Bernstein’s life. The only thing I knew about Bernstein was that he was an amazing conductor/composer. The film focuses heavily on Bernstein’s marriage with Felicia Montealegre and the conductor’s lifestyle.
Throughout the film, we get to hear some of the amazing works from the late composer-conductor. The film’s soundtrack and Bernstein’s compositions were performed by the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of pianist-conductor Yennick Nezet-Seguin.
Quick fact: Nezet-Seguin also served as Cooper’s conducting coach and trained him for six years to perform the orchestral conducting live on set. And, it’s really impressive that Cooper performed the conducting live during those sequences since I’m sure that conducting can be difficult.
Cooper does a remarkable job portraying Bernstein. You can tell that the talented actor and filmmaker gave it his all to bring the late conductor back to life for this film. The prosthetics that they used for Cooper to look like Bernstein as he gets older are really convincing.
Carey Mulligan absolutely knocks it out of the park as his wife Felicia. The talented actress pulled the accent off nicely and can be emotional at times. There are even a few moments after it is revealed that Montealegre is suffering from cancer that Mulligan’s performance can really move you.
‘Maestro’ does feature a few scenes of Bernstein conducting and shows in the opening few minutes how his conducting career took off. The film also shows that no matter where his lifestyle took him, he always loved Montealegre, which you can really see when it’s revealed that she has cancer.
This is a great feature to check out during the film festival. If you enjoy the works of Leonard Bernstein and want to see some of the life of the renowned conductor on the big screen, then ‘Maestro’ is the film for you.
The cast: Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre; Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein; Matt Bomer as David Oppenheiml; Vincenzo Amato as Bruno Zirato; Michael Urie as Jerry Robbins; Brian Lugman as Aaron Copeland; Maya Hawke as Jamie Bernstein and Sarah Silverman as Shirley Bernstein, among many others.
‘Maestro’ is written by Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) and Josh Singer (First Man; The Post; Spotlight) and also directed by Cooper.
Both Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg were attached to direct the film. But once Cooper showed them a cut of ‘A Star Is Born,’ the acclaimed filmmakers decided to only produce the film and told Cooper that he should direct.
The film has also been nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay.
‘Maestro’ is rated R for some language and drug use and has a running time of 129 minutes.
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