Maestro

[dirac]

On Pointe writes;
 

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Roger Ebert often said that it was the obligation of the critic to review the film that the writer and director made,  not the one the critic wished they had made.  Of course viewers whose opinions aren't going to appear in print or on a website have no such restriction,  but I've read so many opinions on Maestro written by specialists who can't accept that,  like it or not,  Bradley Cooper told the story he wanted to tell.  Before this film,  I'd never heard of Tom Cothran,  and now that I have heard of him,  I wouldn't necessarily have been interested in his relationship with Bernstein any more than what we see in the film.  Maestro is about Lenny and Felicia.

I am left wondering why the Bernsteins married each other in the first place.  Lots of women find out their husbands are gay years after the wedding,  but Felicia knew that from the jump.  The Fancy Free/On the Town sequence indicates that they found each other dazzling and irresistible.  At first.  Maybe that was enough at the time.

 

I’d say they married because they loved each other and also Bernstein would have understood that it would be good for him socially and professionally to marry, even if many of his gay friends did not. Bernstein came from an uncommonly close family background and presumably he wanted that for himself as well – not to mention that a wife and children are also another audience 😊.

 I understand what Ebert was getting at but in the end I don’t agree. I don’t know how you can comment on a picture critically without saying or implying that something about it should have been done differently or that something is missing. As has already been noted in this thread, calling the movie “Maestro” was a major error, given that they’re telling the story of a marriage and Carey Mulligan even gets top billing. A lot of people came to the movie with different expectations.  If the movie is about Lenny and Felicia, call it that.

AnthonyNYC writes:

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Well, maybe a little self-deceived.

Very probably yes.

[Quiggin]

I'm just finishing "The Magician" after reading "The Master" – the kind of titling "Maestro" may have been trying to follow. In both books Colm Tóibín handles complex gay/straight, family/out of bounds relationships with great tact – so it's not impossible to do.

What the movie does is lock Leonard Bernstein into a certain set of restricted ideas, very comfortable ones, that will be associated with him from now on. And clips of Bradley Cooper's Bernstein will likely supersede the real thing.

Sidebar: In "the Magician" – about the Thomas Mann family – there are some very funny scenes that kind of criss-cross "Maestro." One is about Alma Mahler trying to sell the original copy of the Bruckner Third to Adolf Hitler and another alludes to Erika Mann's affair with Bruno Walter, who is insufferably boastful. Plus there's a great impersonation of Virginia Woolf by W H Auden. Am looking forward to the Schoenberg/"Dr Faustus" pages.

 

Edited February 8 by Quiggin

[Helene]

I would have assumed from the title that "Maestro" was about Bernstein the conductor, not a depiction of his marriage.

I'm glad I've been following the thread.

[On Pointe]

7 hours ago, Quiggin said:

What the movie does is lock Leonard Bernstein into a certain set of restricted ideas, very comfortable ones, that will be associated with him from now on. And clips of Bradley Cooper's Bernstein will likely supersede the real thing.

Unlike the Great Men of the past,  Leonard Bernstein left behind a wealth of recorded material as a conductor and a television performer.   Future generations won't have to wonder what he was really like (publicly).   In last year's film Tar,  where Cate Blanchett portrayed a sort of venomous female version of Bernstein,  one of the few moments that depict her as vulnerable and human was when she returned to her childhood home and caressed her collection of videos of LB.   Bradley Cooper did a great job in my opinion,  but his performance isn't going to supersede the actual image of Bernstein.

[Mashinka]

The film's title defeated an ITN newsreader who pronounced it as May Estro.  Such bloopers are becoming increasingly common in Britain.

[dirac]

16 hours ago, Mashinka said:

The film's title defeated an ITN newsreader who pronounced it as May Estro.  Such bloopers are becoming increasingly common in Britain.

Sounds like something they'd name a post-menopause medication here in the States.  Oh, dear, now I'm seeing a commercial in my head. ("Maestro can help you during those difficult days and nights of hot flashes and other discomforts. Do not take if you have X, Y, or Z.....")

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Bradley Cooper did a great job in my opinion,  but his performance isn't going to supersede the actual image of Bernstein.

 I thought Bernstein was cuter than Cooper as Bernstein.

[Drew]

2 hours ago, dirac said:

 

 I thought Bernstein was cuter than Cooper as Bernstein.

No comparison--though I guess I'd say Bernstein was sexier....I think that's allowed 🙂.

[dirac]

I was struck by the extensive digitizing of the faces of both Cooper and Mulligan as the young couple. Cooper's makeup as the older man was quite good, though.

[Mashinka]

Interesting article about Carey Mulligan in the film

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68216440