Maestro at the Rex Berkhamsted

 

As Netflix avoid showing their films in regular cinemas, it was off to the Rex at Berkhamsted to see Maestro. Now I'm never sure about movies where the characters age all of a sudden. The story about Leonard Bernstein's  relationship with his wife Felicia Montealegra covers a period of 27 years and there are sudden jumps in time punctuated by aging faces, voices and children grown. For me, this is like a book of short stories rather than a novel. So thank goodness for Carey Mulligan as the wife who holds the whole thing together. As for Bradley Cooper as Bernstein, I have seen an awful lot of his movies and I always get the impression he is working too hard. Think Silver Linings Playbook , Limitless and A Star is Born. Or is it just me. He does have a certain charisma and that is here in spades. Even of at times his diction is inaudible. (Apparently I was not the only one). He should take lessons from Mulligan whose speech is perfection.  

Theirs is an unconventional marriage due to Bernstein's bi-sexual activities, something that his wife knew about from the start. I just found his double life  awkward. (As was his make-up. A nose to rival that for Nicole Kidman as Virginia Woolf in The Hours). But Felicia loves him no matter what. Although he has to deny rumours to his teenage daughter. What did I think about the black and white picture for the early years and a bright colour for later? Pretentious! This is Bradley Cooper as director, but in this role, failing to get an Oscar nomination. Although inexplicably one for director at the BAFTAS, and both for original screenplay. I cannot really argue with the acting nominations that Carey should win. It gets an Oscar best picture nod only because they have to make up ten, but nowhere near for the five BAFTAS. 

Back to the story. There is very little about Bernstein as a composer and hardly any of his music on the soundtrack. We get a fantasy dance number from On the Town and the introduction to  the Jet Song from West Side Story. There is much more about him as conductor and teacher. However the stand out performance was that at Ely Cathedral where he conducts Mahler's Resurrection Symphony No 2 with a full orchestra. With wonderful sound at the Rex, this is a magnificent six minutes. For once Bernstein has no cigarette in his hand.