Maestro

Started by scenicdesign71, Aug 19, 2023, 12:56 AM

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scenicdesign71

Variety:  First Trailer for 'Maestro' Finds Bradley Cooper Embodying Composer Leonard Bernstein


Neither Sondheim nor Laurents is currently listed as a character on the film's IMDb page.
But Jerome Robbins is.  (Played by Michael Urie, no less).  So make of that what you will.



scenicdesign71

#1
Spoilers, I guess?, albeit so vague and general that they not only spoil almost nothing, but hardly even justify the article's existence, under this or any other headline:
(Your mileage may vary).

NYT - Venice Film Festival: All Your Questions About Bradley Cooper's Maestro Answered


The gist: Kyle Buchanan got to go to Venice and see the Bernstein/Montealegre biopic love story three months before its US release, and you didn't.

Spoiler: ShowHide
Also, there's a dream ballet.


I found Bilge Ebiri's mixed-but-intriguing Vulture review (linked in Buchanan's teaser) much more informative, though still not to a degree that I'd call spoilerish.

More reviews here (currently rated 93% Fresh on RT).



scenicdesign71

#2
Interesting profile of the the sculptor and prosthetic-effects designer Kazu Hiro ...

The New YorkerThe Makeup Artist Behind Bradley Cooper's Prosthetic Nose


You cannot view this attachment.
(Jason McDonald/Netflix/AP)


And an interview with Cooper ...

The New YorkerBradley Cooper on Lenny, Lenny's Nose, and "The Hangover" Part 4



scenicdesign71

#3
To celebrate the film's arrival on Netflix:



Genius.com:  "The Saga of Lenny" (lyrics)




scenicdesign71

#4
A dissenting opinion (with which I'm sorry to agree, at least in part -- though Cooper's film, even while giving somewhat short shrift to LB's work, still offers many compensatory pleasures), from a classical-music critic:

NYT:  Maestro Won't Let Leonard Bernstein Fail


And a graceful fact-check/overview of the relationship between the real Bernstein and Montealegre:

Smithsonian magazine: The Real History Behind Maestro


Plus, a Times podcast dissecting Cooper's [mimicry of Bernstein's] skill at the podium:

NYT Audio:  Our Critics on the Conducting in Maestro




scenicdesign71

#5
For a movie that hasn't, either in its premise or its execution, actually fascinated me as much as this thread might seem to suggest, I have admittedly been plowing through a fair amount of its surrounding press over the past month or two.  The following article is a bit older, from 2018, and non-film-related; but I found it the most interesting piece I've yet come across -- a review of Jamie Bernstein's book Famous Father Girl: A Memoir of Growing Up Bernstein ...

The New YorkerLeonard Bernstein Through His Daughter's Eyes

...Which still isn't to say that I've become a passionate devotee of LB* or his family, or of Maestro, though I will probably give the movie another look at some point.  On the basis of the review, I might possibly give Famous Father Girl a read too, though not right away; for the time being, at least, I'm feeling a little Bernsteined-out.


* But for what it's worth, I did also find a YouTube playlist of all 53 of his Young People's Concerts, which originally aired on CBS from 1958 to 1972; and another playlist of his 1973 Norton Lectures at Harvard.  Both series are also available on DVD from Kultur International Films, here and here respectively.  The Norton Lectures were published as a book in 1976, while the TV scripts for most of the Young People's Concerts can be read on the Bernstein Office's website or purchased in a paperback edition here.