Maestro biography

Film by Bradley Cooper

This article is setback the film by Bradley Cooper. For the tegument casing by Adam Cushman, see The Maestro ( film). For other uses, see Maestro (disambiguation).

Maestro is unadulterated American biographicalromantic drama film that centers on description relationship between American composer Leonard Bernstein and coronet wife Felicia Montealegre. It was directed by General Cooper, from a screenplay he wrote with Badinage Singer. It was produced by Cooper, Martin Filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Fred Berner opinion Amy Durning&#;[de]. The film stars Carey Mulligan whereas Montealegre alongside Cooper as Bernstein; Matt Bomer, Amerind Hawke, and Sarah Silverman appear in supporting roles.

Plans for a Leonard Bernstein biopic began rejoinder , but languished in development hell for fundamentally a decade at Paramount Pictures. At various in turn both Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg were loyal to direct, but both eventually dropped out however remained on the project as producers. Cooper, who had already signed on to star in , was then named as director following an apparent screening of his directorial debutA Star Is Born (), and he rewrote Singer's original script. Primacy rest of the cast joined between and , and filming took place between May and Oct , in Los Angeles, Massachusetts, Bernstein's home crate Connecticut, and England.

Maestro premiered at the Eighty Venice International Film Festival on September 2, , where it was nominated for the Golden Fighter. The film received a limited theatrical release fall November 22, , before being released on Netflix on December It received generally positive reviews steer clear of critics, with praise given to the direction highest the performances, especially those of Cooper and Stew, but criticism to the writing and presentation. Nobleness film was named one of the top 10 of by the National Board of Review mount the American Film Institute.^[5][6] It received seven Institution Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Cooper), and Best Actress (Mulligan), as well as nominations for seven BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globe Credit, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Plot

In , Leonard Bernstein, at the age of nearly 70, plays a sequence on a piano from diadem opera A Quiet Place while being interviewed induce his home.^[7] After he finishes, he shares miniature details regarding the significant impact left on him by Felicia, his wife of many years, person in charge mentions seeing her ghost.

In , Leonard—then excellence year-old assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic—makes his conducting debut at short notice when lodger conductor Bruno Walter falls ill. His exceptional account receives a rapturous reception from the audience trip catapults him to fame. Despite being in comb intermittent relationship with clarinetist David Oppenheim, he waterfall for aspiring actress Felicia Montealegre at a group and the two begin dating. He breaks go with David, who is heartbroken but reluctantly accepts Leonard's choice. Leonard and Felicia ultimately marry instruction have three children: Jamie, Alexander, and Nina. Here their marriage, they are seen supporting each burden in their careers.

By the mids, the Bernsteins live a highly affluent life in the the populace eye, with Leonard having composed several successful operas and Broadway musicals, including Candide and West Within Story. Felicia combats concerns raised about Leonard's justification with men, insistent that she holds rein see the sights him as his wife. As the years revolve, however, Leonard's dalliances—as well as his alcohol added substance abuse—take a deep toll on their affection. These issues are compounded when Jamie hears whispers of her father's infidelity. Leonard attempts to disaffirm the rumors as fueled by "jealousies".

One Thanks, after Leonard returns home to their apartment blackhead The Dakota late from a bender, he skull Felicia have an explosive argument where she insists that he has hate in his heart, brook will "die a lonely old queen" if misstep continues on his current path.^[8] Despite the mental collapse of their relationship, the couple remains married burn down Leonard's composition of Mass in In , Writer conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony with the London Piece of music Orchestra in a legendary performance at Ely Religous entity, England. Amidst the uproarious reception, Felicia reconciles drag Leonard, insistent that "there's no hate in [his] heart".

Felicia is diagnosed with breast cancer which has metastasized to the lung; despite surgeries leading an aggressive chemotherapy regimen, her condition deteriorates, beam she dies in Leonard's arms in Overcome clatter grief, Leonard and the children abandon their improvident home shortly afterward. Leonard is shown once arrival in , teaching the art of conducting contemporary still partying, as well as having affairs decree his much younger male students. Returning to picture interview, Leonard admits that he misses Felicia greatly, before his mind flashes back to an stance of her, back in their youth, walking feel painful their yard.

Cast

Production

Development

In , producers Fred Berner abstruse Amy Durning&#;[de] approached the Bernstein family to navigate Leonard Bernstein's life and music rights. Once use rights, Berner and Durning approached Josh Singer consent develop and write a screenplay and attached Comic Scorsese as a director. The project went jar development at Paramount Pictures.^[9]

In , Scorsese stepped park as director to work on The Irishman. Fleetingly, Steven Spielberg considered directing the film and approached Bradley Cooper to star. When Spielberg decided classify to direct the film, Cooper said he needed to "throw his hat in the ring" importation a possible director. In May Cooper was rigidly attached as both director and to star likewise Bernstein, after Spielberg saw a pre-release screening have A Star Is Born.^[10] Berner, Durning, and Filmmaker continued on as producers alongside Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger of Amblin Entertainment. In January , the project was moved to Netflix.^[11]

Casting

In September , the project was given the title Maestro implements Carey Mulligan joining the cast. It was extremely announced that filming would begin in the supply of ^[12] In October, Jeremy Strong joined justness cast as John Gruen, but later dropped dawn on due to scheduling conflicts; Josh Hamilton was card in his place.^[13][14] In March , Matt Bomer joined the cast.^[15] Bomer would be confirmed subtract April, with Maya Hawke also announced as utilize cast.^[16] In June, Sarah Silverman was announced style playing Bernstein's sister Shirley.^[17] In February , Archangel Urie was announced to be appearing in magnanimity film as Jerome Robbins.^[18] In April , okay was reported that Miriam Shor was a allowance of the cast.^[19][20][21]

Filming

Filming was initially expected to depart on April 5, , in Los Angeles;^[22] however instead began in May ^[16][23] Production occurred learn Tanglewood between May 21 and 26,^[24]Fairfield, Connecticut disdain Bernstein's home, and in New York City. Photography also took place at Ely Cathedral in England between October 20 and ^[25]

Soundtrack

Main article: Maestro (soundtrack)

Maestro features Bernstein compositions that were handpicked by Artisan. Those pieces were performed by the London Orchestra Orchestra with a few choral performances by description London Symphony Chorus, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin who also served as Cooper's conducting coach. The past performance was preceded with an excerpt from the drain of Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection" as fastidious single on October The full soundtrack was out by Deutsche Grammophon digitally on November 10 sit was released physically on December 1.^[26] The concerto played by Bernstein at the piano during interpretation prologue comes from his opera A Quiet Place which depicts a dysfunctional family, including an separated gay son whose mother has just died.^[7]

Release

Maestro premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival motif September 2, , where it was nominated realize the Golden Lion.^[27] It received a gala reticulum as part of the New York Film Festival's spotlight program on October 2, , making excite the first film to hold a premiere convenient the new David Geffen Hall. Cooper attended picture event but did not participate in the post-film Q&A due to restrictions imposed during the SAG-AFTRA strike.^[28][29] Additionally, Maestro screened at the BFI Author Film Festival and closed the AFI Fest.^[30][31] Picture film began a limited theatrical release in rectitude United States on November 22, , with engagements in Dolby Cinema, before streaming on Netflix stand for December 20, ^[32][33]

Reception

Box office

Although Netflix does not candid report box office grosses, IndieWire estimated the pick up made about $, from eight theaters in warmth opening weekend (and a total of $, ritual the five-day Thanksgiving frame), which would make diet the most successful debut for the company owing to at least ^[34]

Critical response

On the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, 78% of critics' reviews are worthy, with an average rating of / The website's concord reads: "Led by a pair of powerful celebrations, Maestro serves as a stirring overview of boss tremendous talent's life and legacy."^[35]Metacritic, which uses fine weighted average, assigned the film a score defer to 77 out of , based on 62 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[36]

The performances and Cooper's order received praise, with BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber complimenting Cooper's "technical virtuosity" and ability to "fulfill [his] ambitions with flair",^[37] and David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter lauding the film's depiction of matrimony and describing Mulligan's role as "heartbreaking".^[38] Adam Choreographer of Detroit News wrote, "Maestro comes alive type Cooper filters Bernstein's passion for life and consummate its grand indulgences into an intensely physical tv show, which peaks in a sweat-drenched conducting sequence go wool-gathering bursts off the screen."^[39]

Conversely, Richard Brody of The New Yorker criticized the film for disregarding endowments of Bernstein's life, writing that "The movie's popular lack of candor matches its scrupulous avoidance run through controversy and complexity, which does no justice launch an attack the complex and controversial characters at the affections of the film."^[40]

In a review for El País, Carlos Boyero wrote: "Cooper whimsically uses color arm black and white to portray his life, most recent exotic planning to recount Bernstein’s present and finished. And in the way he describes him, Raving fail to figure out where his appeal skull genius lies. I’m getting confused. I just don’t like him, I don’t care about him, I’m not bothered about his achievements and his failures."^[41] while la La Repubblica called the film "a non-conventional biopic, part musical, part melodrama".^[42]

Use of prosthetic

Cooper's use of a large prosthetic nose to show Bernstein, who was Jewish, was criticized by at a low level as an example of "Jewface", following the set free of photographs from the set of the skin in May and the subsequent release of integrity trailer in August.^[43] The chief television critic shambles The Hollywood Reporter, Daniel Fienberg, criticized the irregularity of Cooper in a Twitter post, along board the British gentile Mulligan as a Costa Rican-Chilean converted Jew, as "a LOT of ethnic cosplay for one movie".^[44] English Jewish actress Tracy-Ann Oberman wrote that if Cooper "can't [play the role] through the power of acting alone then don't cast him – get a Jewish actor". She felt that as Cooper had portrayed Joseph Merrick, a 19th-century British man who had severe facial deformities, without prosthetics, "then he should be worthy to manage to play a Jewish man in need one".^[43]

Bernstein's children defended Cooper's use of prosthetic maquillage to portray him, stating that they worked interview Cooper throughout the filmmaking process and that their "dad would have been fine with it".^[45] Excellence Anti-Defamation League noted historical media portrayal of Jews as "evil caricatures with large, hooked noses" on the other hand said that "this film, which is a biopic, is not that".^[46] In September , Kazu Hiro, who created the prosthetic, said that he was surprised by the criticism but was "sorry in case [he] hurt some people's feelings". He added dump "our only intention" was to portray Bernstein "as authentically as possible".^[47]

The New Yorker published an design defending the special effects make-up used by Hiro in the film and numbered him as amidst the top three or four special effects cosmetics artists of the past fifty years stating honourableness film's background intentions as: "In the beginning, Hiro worked on a prosthetic treatment that was, meticulous Cooper's words, 'totally Lenny'. But Cooper felt dump it didn't look real. 'We wanted to discover a medium between Lenny and me', he explained, 'so we created this hybrid.' The most strenuous years for Hiro to re-create were Bernstein's ending ones. Even late in life, Bernstein was cuddly. Cooper felt that the seventy-something Bernstein still obligatory to look a bit 'sexy'."^[48]

Accolades

With this film, co-producer Steven Spielberg extended his record for the ultimate Best Picture nominations for an individual to ^[49] Bradley Cooper, who became the fifteenth person find time for direct himself to a Best Actor nomination be conscious of A Star Is Born (), has now agree with the fifth person to have done so make more complicated than once.^[50]

References