Venice 2023: Bradley Cooper’s Portrait of Leonard & Felicia in ‘Maestro’
by Alex Billington September 2, 2023
One other legendary conductor has landed on the Lido for the 2023 Venice Movie Competition. Final 12 months, Lydia Tár arrived to current her movie Tár, the most effective movies of Venice 2022 (my evaluate). Actor / director Bradley Cooper returns to Venice (after premiering A Star is Born again in 2018) to current his new movie Maestro, a portrait of American conductor / composer Leonard Bernstein. It is truly extra of an examination of his relationship with the actress Felicia Montealegre, who he married in 1951. There is not as a lot time spent on making an attempt to painting him as a musical genius, or displaying how he gained this intelligence, or something deeper about how precisely he made a mark on the world of traditional music by changing into one of many few nice American conductors. It is all about his time at house, at events, along with his household, and interacting with varied males and some girls. Maestro is targeted very distinctly on Leonard & Felicia, as a “pair”, and the way their passionate relationship empowered & impressed them throughout their unimaginable decades-long careers within the arts.
Maestro is Bradley Cooper’s second function movie as a director, following an analogous idea as with A Star is Born – each are about musicians, each are a few relationship between two tremendously gifted folks. This movie, nevertheless, is described by Netflix: “A love letter to life and artwork, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of household and love.” It is not meant to be the story of a genius like Leonard Bernstein, and what makes him such a gifted man, it is about how his most distinguished relationship / marriage was invigorating and tumultuous. After assembly and falling in love with Felicia Montealegre, as performed by Carey Mulligan, they ended up having three kids collectively. It does not take lengthy for the movie to, subtly at first and bluntly later, reveal that Bernstein can also be a homosexual man. He begins to have amorous affairs with varied males and sooner or later the movie reveals that Felicia is aware of this and is okay with it. Or is she…? She appears to be, because the movie then continues on all through the remainder of their lives – they by no means cut up up. It is all introduced linearly, beginning along with his early days engaged on Broadway reveals into his years as an excellent well-known conductor and composer.
It is an interesting movie to observe, crammed with rapturous performances from your complete forged concerned. Nonetheless, it by no means achieves the identical greatness that Bernstein achieved in his personal work. The largest issues lie within the depiction of this relationship. By the tip of the movie, I had extra questions than solutions. If Cooper desires to maintain the story targeted on their connection, analyzing how they are often so good for one another, whereas Lenny is off with different males, there’s not sufficient to work with. He shies away from investigating this and analyzing the way it even works between them. My greatest questions which can be by no means actually answered: HOW was she okay along with his life and his lovers? How lengthy did she know? Why was she advantageous with it? Was it just because they’d a reference to one another that was extraordinarily sturdy even with different lovers? Was it an agreed upon open relationship or did she simply nonetheless love him and could not cease being with him? There’s hints, and there is some fantastic scenes, however I needed him to drag again the curtain additional. Maybe with the Bernstein household concerned within the manufacturing they could not dig any deeper than this or take tougher storytelling dangers.
I may spend the remainder of this evaluate raving concerning the attractive cinematography from DP Matthew “Matty” Libatique. Even when I do not completely love the movie, that is simply among the finest cinematography in any movie from 2023. Each final shot is completely composed, mirroring the superbly carried out orchestras all through Lenny’s life. There’s one wonderful shot the place Lenny is conducting and his shadow dances atop the curtains whereas Felicia stands within the center watching. There’s one other phenomenal scene involving Lenny conducting a efficiency inside a church, with the digital camera circling round him, intensely targeted on his face. I’m sucker for completely composed and completely lit cinematography, and I will not be stunned if Libatique finally ends up profitable awards for Maestro this 12 months. Whereas it could not soar to the identical musical heights as Tár, Cooper’s Maestro is nonetheless nonetheless a significant and compelling movie about ardour. Not solely a ardour for music, additionally a ardour for folks, for love, for household, and for dwelling a full life. Maestro’s final lesson could also be that nobody is an ideal individual, everybody has flaws, however that should not cease true greatness from shining anyway.
Alex’s Venice 2023 Ranking: 7 out of 10Observe Alex on Twitter – @firstshowing / Or Letterboxd – @firstshowing
