Maestro, a Film Directed by Bradley Cooper (2023, USA)

I happened to watch Maestro, the 2023 biopic of Leonard Bernstein, a week after seeing Elvis, the eponymous 2022 movie directed by Baz Luhrmann.

Both films are about men renowned for their musical prowess—and criticised for their excessive convolutions on stage. Each eschews a conventional chronological account of their life stories and focuses instead on a central dyadic relationship. In Maestro’s case, it is on the love affair between Bernstein and his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre, whereas in Elvis it is on his bond with his manager, Tom Parker.

The direction and story of the turbulent life of Elvis Presley made me feel as if I had been on a horror-inducing fairground ride. Maestro touched me on a more cerebral level.

I was curious about the attention to period detail—hair, clothes, even the use of a prosthetic nose to make Bradley Cooper (director/conductor/leading man) look like the Jewish Bernstein. I also admired the acting, cinematography, script, and the use of musical sequences. The 1973 scene where Bernstein conducts Mahler's Second Symphony in Ely Cathedral lasts six minutes, nearly five per cent of the film's running time, and gives a brilliant sense not only of the conductor's passionate involvement but also of the intense participation of musicians and singers. I was intellectually appreciative of all these aspects, but somehow the film failed to move me on an emotional level.

Tension and Jeopardy

This failure may be due to the absence of a sense of jeopardy for the characters or the audience. Very early on, we find Bernstein catapulted to fame after getting a call asking him to conduct the New York Philharmonic for an orchestral concert due to be broadcast nationally on radio. Bernstein is twenty-five, already assistant conductor to Bruno Walter, who has fallen ill that day. The concert takes place in 1943 and Bernstein's fame and success continue to rise from this point on. At no point in the film does his career s