A musical love story

"Maestro" with Bradley Cooper - A musical love story

"Maestro" is a memorial to Leonard "Lenny" Bernstein (1918-1990). The conductor and composer, including of the musical "West Side Story", is followed through various stages of his career in the film (in selected cinemas since December 6, available worldwide on Netflix from December 20). But it is above all his relationship with his wife Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (1922-1978) that takes center stage, turning the classic biopic into a tribute to a special love story.

Background to the movie

Bernstein is portrayed by Bradley Cooper (48), who, after "A Star Is Born" (2018), once again not only set the pace in front of the camera, but also directed and produced behind the camera and wrote the screenplay with Josh Singer. Steven Spielberg (77), who handed over directing duties to Cooper due to too many other projects, and Martin Scorsese (81) were also on the production team. And to complete the line-up of big names, Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan (38) plays Bernstein's wife.

Cooper spent six years working on "Maestro" and his transformation into the music legend. He also consulted with Bernstein's children, who provided him with their father's composition catalog and their home in Connecticut as a filming location. The prerequisites for a successful portrayal were therefore in place, but can Cooper deliver?

Complex personality becomes a challenge

A major moment in the conductor's life is placed at the beginning of the film: A coincidence leads to Leonard Bernstein standing in for a colleague at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1943, taking to the stage and proving his talent as a conductor.

It was the beginning of a great career; Bernstein later became the first US music director of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (1958-1969) and appeared as a guest conductor. The works of Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) attracted his particular attention and admiration. However, he not only wanted to conduct, but also to compose. Stage works such as "On the Town" (1944) or "West Side Story" (1957) became a great success. The term maestro not only stands for a great musician or composer, but can also mean master or teacher, which does Bernstein justice, as he also passed on his skills as a teacher.

However, it is not primarily the major breakthroughs in his career, but his relationship with the Chilean stage and television actress Felicia Cohn Montealegre that is highlighted in the film over the course of decades. It quickly becomes clear that the conductor and composer's passion for music is not the only thing that keeps him busy and restless. He also seems to enjoy his freedom in his love life and wants to spread his great love for people over different people. Even when Felicia enters his life, he does not want to concentrate on his family. His wife realizes that she cannot stop him and accepts his homoerotic evasions from their marriage - on one condition.

The pursuit of authenticity

To allow the decades in the couple's life to pass in the picture, the film begins in black and white. The scenes about Bernstein's first successes and the story of how the couple met become a pale memory and initially create a certain distance between the viewer and the characters. Only the change to color brings us closer to the characters and their intense relationship.

The visual changes that Cooper and Mulligan undergo in their roles are also crucial for experiencing the different time periods on and off screen. Using various prostheses, they skillfully adapt to the advanced age of their characters, so that Cooper in particular, as the ageing Bernstein, disappears more and more behind his role.

Bernstein's daughter Nina Bernstein Simmons confirmed in an interview that the physical transformation was authentic: "I remember one day when I got a FaceTime call from a number I didn't know. I took the call and it was my father. It was Bradley after the make-up and styling and I couldn't stop laughing. It was totally crazy. I saw him with a cigarette and glasses and it was all just totally weird."

Cooper, who also relied on a not uncontroversial nose prosthesis ("Jewfacing" accusation) and changes to his voice to look as much like Bernstein as possible, also strove for authenticity in his portrayal of the musician's work. With full and sweaty physical commitment and expressive facial expressions, he skillfully devoted himself to Bernstein's typically wild style of conducting, which is particularly evident in the strong performance of Mahler's 2nd Symphony in Ely Cathedral. The fact that Cooper had the works composed and conducted by Bernstein at his disposal as the basis for scenes and as film music is a decisive factor in the expressiveness of the film.

The acting of Carey Mulligan, who is not at all overshadowed by Cooper, is also expressive. The actress, artist and activist Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein portrays her as a strong woman who feels a deep love for her husband and is dissatisfied and hurt despite the apparent acceptance of his love affairs. At the end, she provides the most touching scenes of the movie, which show her vulnerable soul particularly clearly.

Conclusion

The fact that the Bernstein marriage is at the center of the film means that the deeper examination of the composer's work, such as his work on his musicals, falls by the wayside. His fluid sexuality is also addressed, but with few details or explicit scenes. Instead, Carey Mulligan rightly gets more screen time and provides the emotional highlights in the film.

"Maestro" certainly doesn't answer all the questions and doesn't show every facet of Bernstein's life and his complex personality. However, the film does arouse interest in him and his multifaceted art, especially among viewers who were previously less familiar with his works. In the vastness of the Internet, it is worth taking a supplementary look at old recordings, for example of Bernstein's performance as conductor of Mahler's 2nd Symphony, which bring the film scenes back to life and show how authentic Cooper's performance really is.