Maestro – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Bradley Cooper
Writers – Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer
Stars – Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer

Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) was born in 1918. For his seventieth birthday, a great celebration concert of his lifetime achievement was held in Tanglewood. It is available on YouTube. It gives you some idea of his enormous, varied musical gifts coupled with his enormous personality. It all takes place in the company of his family including his three children.

Maestro starts that story in Manhattan in a bedroom with blinds drawn when a telephone rings. A bleary-eyed young man answers. You hear only his side of the conversation. It informed him that he was to conduct that day the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall as the great conductor Bruno Walter had fallen ill with flu. There was no time for a rehearsal. The young man was Bernstein. He was only twenty-five years old. Overnight he became a success. However, this opening bedroom scene also makes clear an aspect of his personality which was not then the subject of publicity. He shared his bed with another young man. Maestro then tracks Bernstein’s stellar musical career and his complex love life.

That love life is dominated by Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) who is a successful Broadway actor in her own right. While that marriage produces three children Bernstein has male lovers as well. All the while Bernstein is conquering internationally the classical musical world. He is a powerhouse.

The film is laced with music throughout and includes a recreated extract of Bernstein conducting of Mahler’s 2nd Symphony in Ely Cathedral in 1977. But it is his relationship with Felicia which is the dominant force of the film. It includes the challenging scenes for his family when inevitably aspects of his homosexual life come to the fore. Cooper is magnetic as Bernstein. He exudes energy, joy and sheer exuberant confidence and talent. Mulligan shows her love for him and from a great inner strength, how to handle his other side while being a successful actor in her own right.

The cinemaphotography is magnificent throughout. The black and white camera work of the initial scenes captures the essence of the forties and early fifties. Cooper’s direction makes you feel that you were part of that time. Similarly, as Bernstein’s career becomes ever more successful so does the technology of cinema advance so the grand scenes of his success are splendidly filmed. However, by the end while in awe of his musical achievements and his panache one is left knowing little more about this uniquely engaging man.

Cooper is not Jewish so there has been considerable controversy about him using prosthetics to make himself look more like Bernstein. His nose has been the subject of considerable debate but Bernstein’s children have defended the film. Perhaps more important is the skill of the make-up artist, Kazu Hiro which manages to age Cooper so he can convincingly depict Bernstein in old age. The lines in the face and the folds of flesh in the neck display unmercifully the accretion of time. Even a genius like Bernstein is subject to the laws of time passing.

Maestro lays emphasis on Bernstein’s bisexuality against a backdrop of international musical acclaim as a conductor and composer.  Maestro gives you an insight into the glamour of his life. As a film, it is thoroughly enjoyable even if Bernstein remains a distant colossus.