Susan Granger’s review of “Maestro” (Netflix)
Many years ago during a 1976 Harvard University lecture, ebullient conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein said, “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them.” Director/co-writer/actor Bradley Cooper opens “Maestro” with the same statement.
Made with the support of Bernstein’s now-grown offspring (Jamie, Alexander, Nina), this is a love story, not a biopic. It begins with a shot of elderly Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) at the piano and then segues back to November 14, 1943, when New York Philharmonic conductor Bruno Walter falls ill, so Bernstein, as his assistant, is summoned to Carnegie Hall.
“To conduct an orchestra, you must conduct your life,” Bernstein was once told. So despite his on-going romantic liaison with musical collaborator David Oppenheimer (Matt Bomer), he marries sophisticated Chilean actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn (Carey Mulligan) who, at first, accepts his bisexual dalliances.
Chronicled by co-screenwriter Josh Singer and cinematographer Matthew Libatique, who utilizes different ratios, switching from black-and-white to color, the narrative about their unusual relationship moves from their chic Manhattan penthouse to their suburban Connecticut home to Tanglewood in Massachusetts – and back.
If Bernstein been more discreet, perhaps their marital melodrama would not have escalated – but he wasn’t – and it did.
Their ferocious fights encompass not only fidelity but also family and increasing fame, encompassing his innovative Young People’s Concerts, film score for “On the Waterfront” and Broadway hits “On the Town,” “West Side Story,” and more.
Bernstein’s theatrical collaborators Betty Comden and Adolph Green (Mallory Portnoy, Nick Blaemire) pop in periodically, along with composer Aaron Copland (Brian Klugman).
One of the most memorable scenes depicts exuberant Bernstein’s conducting Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with the London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire, England, in 1973. Bradley Cooper’s intensity and commitment are extraordinary.
As for the controversy about Cooper’s nose, it’s ridiculous. Japanese-American makeup-effects master Kazuhiro Tsuji (Oscar-winner for transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Churchill in “The Darkest Hour”) devised four sets of prosthetics and two bodysuits to show Bernstein’s aging process.
Last but certainly not least, there’s genuinely heartbreaking Carey Mulligan as long-suffering, self-deprecating, sorrowful Felicia, noting: “Life is not that serious.” Watch for her name among the Best Actress Oscar-contenders later this month.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Maestro” is an intimate, enigmatic 8, streaming on Netflix.
