Director/ Producer/ Co-writer/ Star Bradley Cooper gladhanded and hugged his wildly happy audience at the newly refurbished Geffen Hall, having been given permission by SAG to attend his passion project premiere of Maestro, centerpiece of the New York Film Festival. That his subject Leonard Bernstein had begun his career in this very place, conducting the Philharmonic, gave the evening extra resonance. Fervidly researching, Cooper was said to have attended many a performance in the past five years, seated in the conductor’s box hanging dangerously over the rail, rapt to the sound and feverish body movements of the job. His devotion extended to every aspect of the film, and it shows.
After an initial craggy faced vision of Bernstein in his last years—Cooper’s makeup is extraordinary, beyond the discussion of his nose—Bernstein is seen in five ages of his stellar career, ending every concert, gladhanding and hugging. Clearly Cooper meant to morph into his Maestro, taking hours in makeup time, insisting on being fully made up by the time cast and crew arrived at 5AM.
Glimpses of Bernstein’s musical genius pervade the film and are especially beautiful in a scene when a balletic dance of sailors in Wonderful Town cuts to Bradley Cooper in sailor dress, joining in, making his dips and turns. The Requiem in St. John the Divine is the longest musical interlude, showing Cooper completely following in Bernstein’s conductor chops. As noted later in the Q&A, performers who had worked with Bernstein actually imagined him back in action. That’s how authentic Bradley Cooper seemed to them.
At the Q&A, Cooper’s insistence upon authenticity was lauded over and over. Bernstein’s daughter Jamie Bernstein, who had written a memoir, Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein, talked about the genesis, how it started fifteen years ago and gained traction once Cooper took the film on. Josh Singer, co-writer with Cooper, said that not a word from his original script remained. Cooper chose to focus on the love affair of his marriage, giving Carey Mulligan as Felicia Montealegre top billing. She is truly divine in this Oscar worthy role, devoted to her husband, and devastated by his dalliances with other men, even though, as she says repeatedly, she knew what she was getting into.
Excellent as it is, and many will love this film, anyone interested in Bernstein’s complicated relationship with his father, a cruel disparaging figure, or Bernstein’s politics--there’s not a Black Panther in sight—may be disappointed. The movie nods to the suggestion that Bernstein change his name to Burns, and his steadfast objection, but goes nowhere near his embrace of Judaism, seeking instead to emphasize his love for Felicia, which actually works well for this Hollywood styled version of a biopic of a genius.
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