"Maestro" - There's So Much More

Right off the bat, the new Bradley Cooper film, “Maestro”, grabs you.

The film is beautifully and artfully photographed (Matthew Libatique, cinematographer) and is acted with great passion. Bradley Cooper, who wrote, directed and starred in this highly anticipated movie, wanted to get into the heart of the conductor, thought by many to be the greatest musician of the 20th century., and he did so resoundingly.

Cooper plays Bernstein with an uncanny sense of his mannerisms and vocal style. Much has been written about his prosthetic nose, but this, to me, is nonsense.  He looks just like Bernstein and sounds like him too. He threw himself into the part, showing Bernstein’s explosive energy and commitment to music and to people.

But as good as Cooper is, Carey Mulligan is even better as Bernstein’s wife, Felicia. Although Bernstein pretty much remains the same throughout the movie, Felicia changes dramatically because of health issues and life changes she experiences.  Mulligan, in what may be her greatest role to date, is intense and emotional as Felicia. She is the heart of the movie as she suffers though a marriage knowing that her husband loves men as fervently as he loves women. 

Bernstein had a very interesting and dramatic life, and exploring all of that in one movie is an impossible task.  What Cooper chose to concentrate on, is his beautiful love affair and marriage. 

This provides for plenty of juicy plot lines in the movie, the most provocative being Bernstein’s double life as public family man and a private gay man. 

Bernstein was such a charismatic person, whose lust for life was remarkable, that this element of his story is difficult to ignore.  However, as a musician I was waiting for more time to be spent telling us about his life as a musician showcasing his profound gifts. 

There were memorable moments of Cooper emulating Bernstein in conducting a great choral piece from “Candide” (which he also wrote), Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, as well as two smaller scenes with Bernstein conducting his historic  first concert with the New York Philharmonic and also conducting his “Mass” at Lincoln Center, which were all extraordinary.  

I saw the movie in a real live theater which I recommend. The great sound system enveloped the audience. It is now streaming on Netflix.

But I was disappointed by not seeing much at all about “West Side Story” (maybe his ultimate career highlight), when and how he was hired as the  Music Director of the New York Philharmonic (a full ten years after his celebrated first appearance) and it didn’t even mention his groundbreaking “Young People’s Concerts” which were broadcast nationwide. 

Yes, Bernstein had a personal life that was a bit salacious and very entertaining, however he was an extraordinary musician and communicator who was a concert pianist, composer of classical works, composer of theater music, a master teacher and had a robust international conducting career. Also, we heard nothing about how he developed as a musician, through Harvard, Curtis Institute and Tanglewood. “Maestro” focused too much on his non-musical life.

The problem with the movie is that despite the missing musical elements of his life, Cooper did a masterful job of portraying Bernstein’s personal life and the soul of the man with all of his layers. And the movie making was forceful and compelling. 

But for those who do not know a lot about Leonard Bernstein, you must understand that there is much more to him than what was depicted in “Maestro.”