Maestro on Netflix: How much is Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic worth?

What is it about?

The Maestro is the story of a grandiose and reckless love that will unite Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein for the rest of their lives. An ode to life and art, the maestro paints a moving portrait of a family with love.

Maestro, directed by Bradley Cooper, written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke…

who is he with

In his second feature film behind the camera, Bradley Cooper decided to play the great Leonard Bernstein himself. His desire to play began at university, long before he learned about the project – about the genesis, which I will tell you about soon. He played the maestro for five decades, from the 1940s to the 1980s.

After Lady Gaga’s A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper turned his attention to Carey Mulligan to portray Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein, an actress, artist, activist and Leonard’s wife. Together they make an iconoclastic and terribly disturbing couple.

Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke and Sarah Silverman in supporting roles. Matt Bomer plays David Oppenheim, an American clarinetist, classical music and television producer, and a young Leonard Bernstein lover.

Maya Hawke plays Leonard and Felicia’s daughter Jamie, and Sarah Silverman plays Leonard’s sister, Shirley Bernstein.

Is it worth checking out?

Although he began his career in comedy, Bradley Cooper has experienced a meteoric rise to become an actor-director who is now one of the regulars of Oscar season. With his new film, Maestro, he wants to prove that the success of his first feature film, A Star Is Born (2018), is no fluke.

Cooper directs and stars in this biopic about Leonard Bernstein, the famous composer best known for the musical West Side Story. Bernstein is presented as a character struggling with himself, both professionally and personally.

In the world of music, his spectacular and passionate way of conducting an orchestra contrasts with his solitary work as a composer. In his private life, he was deeply in love with his wife, the actress Felicia Montealegre, but this bond was tested by his romances with younger men.

Leonard Bernstein never denied his homosexuality. And Felicia always knew. The love that unites them transcends conventions, especially at a time – their meeting dates back to 1943 – where homosexuality is still considered a deviance…

It’s a complex and ambitious film, almost too much at times, but no less compelling, as many aspects of the human being are explored with real visual strength.

And, at first glance, it’s a pleasant surprise to see that Felicia Montealegre is also a character in her own right, a co-lead, just as important to the story as her famous husband.

And then we get the idea quickly when we look at the maestro’s poster showing Felicia from behind. Also, when we remember that it was Bradley Cooper who revealed Lady Gaga as an actress in A Star Is Born, putting her on the same level as him in her first film.

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Carey Mulligan will no doubt be the talk of the town as she delivers a performance that many already consider the best of her career. Bradley Cooper is not left out. He plays the maestro himself with gusto, under Kazu Hiro’s make-up, which is truly stunning.

Her chemistry with Carey Mulligan is crucial to the film’s success and doesn’t undermine her bond with Matt Bomer, who plays Bernstein’s lover.

Many biopics have either ignored the subject’s bisexuality or made him into an inner demon, so it’s a relief to see everyone involved handle this aspect of his life maturely and without trouble.

The Maestro is not without its flaws. We can criticize it for not better introducing the audience to Bernstein’s work and the stages of his career (just to mention). Or I want too much to be an anti-Wikipedia wizard, only interested in what is written between the lines. This is what makes it so powerful, portraying an intimate and moving portrait of the couple.

From a purely aesthetic point of view, Bradley Cooper has taken a step forward from his previous achievement. He made a bold choice for a so-called “platform” film, offering the first part entirely in black and white, in 4:3 format, and as an energetic tribute to Hollywood’s golden age.

The second part, in color, looks less spectacular, but does not lack some nice visual discoveries. The long, drawn-out argument over the Thanksgiving parade should go down in history.

His mastery of composition is admirable, especially for an actor who, perhaps too quickly fell into the “pretty boy” category, is just good at making school comedies that have grossed nearly a billion and a half dollars worldwide. . With the Maestro, it seems like he’s in the big leagues forever.