***The Telegraph’s Film Critic Robbie Collin writes:***
The big, honking problem with Maestro – Bradley Cooper’s long-planned biopic of the conductor Leonard Bernstein – was, per the early buzz, as plain as the nose on its star-slash-writer-slash-director’s face. When a trailer was released earlier this year, social media bristled at the prospect of a non-Jewish actor using facial prosthetics to play a Jewish figure. Not an issue, shot back Bernstein’s own children, all three of whom had been involved with the project. “Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance,” they said, “and we’re perfectly fine with that.”
It’s hard to stress just how unfortunately cut that trailer turned out to be. Cooper’s nose doesn’t just look natural, but wholly inconspicuous: in a film whose every frame is crammed with sumptuous, show-offy craft, it virtually qualifies as a background detail. Maestro is the first film the Hangover star has directed since his tremendous 2018 reimagining of A Star is Born – and while it lacks that picture’s stoutly carpentered emotional thump, it more than makes up for it in head-spinning ambition and ravishingly staged individual scenes. When we critics complain that studio pictures don’t take risks any more, Maestro is exactly the sort of film we wish they’d make instead. Not everything in it lands cleanly, but even its misses excite, and its direct hits are knockouts.
With returning cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Cooper has made the mind- and eye-boggling decision to shoot and stage Maestro’s two halves in completely different styles. Happily, both are gorgeous. The early portions of Bernstein’s adult life are captured in glittering black and white, and played in the style of an urbane comedy from classical Hollywood, with Cooper suavely tripping around the place like Herbert Marshall. Then, as the plot leaps forward to the late 1960s, the vibe switches to the heightened naturalism of Robert Altman: rich autumnal colours, overlapping dialogue and shot compositions of almost cubist complexity.
This movie demonstrates what’s wrong with the movie industry. I heard about this movie about 6 months ago, and I heard so much that I thought it was out. Now I’m seeing multiple reviews of it, and I’m asking if it’s out now? I just have no idea. Things get advertised so far ahead that I never know anymore, and that makes me lose interest. Some day I’ll see it on cable and probably watch it.
You can absolutely see why they had the prosthetic nose in this photo, it changes his profile so much
3 comments
***The Telegraph’s Film Critic Robbie Collin writes:***
The big, honking problem with Maestro – Bradley Cooper’s long-planned biopic of the conductor Leonard Bernstein – was, per the early buzz, as plain as the nose on its star-slash-writer-slash-director’s face. When a trailer was released earlier this year, social media bristled at the prospect of a non-Jewish actor using facial prosthetics to play a Jewish figure. Not an issue, shot back Bernstein’s own children, all three of whom had been involved with the project. “Bradley chose to use makeup to amplify his resemblance,” they said, “and we’re perfectly fine with that.”
It’s hard to stress just how unfortunately cut that trailer turned out to be. Cooper’s nose doesn’t just look natural, but wholly inconspicuous: in a film whose every frame is crammed with sumptuous, show-offy craft, it virtually qualifies as a background detail. Maestro is the first film the Hangover star has directed since his tremendous 2018 reimagining of A Star is Born – and while it lacks that picture’s stoutly carpentered emotional thump, it more than makes up for it in head-spinning ambition and ravishingly staged individual scenes. When we critics complain that studio pictures don’t take risks any more, Maestro is exactly the sort of film we wish they’d make instead. Not everything in it lands cleanly, but even its misses excite, and its direct hits are knockouts.
With returning cinematographer Matthew Libatique, Cooper has made the mind- and eye-boggling decision to shoot and stage Maestro’s two halves in completely different styles. Happily, both are gorgeous. The early portions of Bernstein’s adult life are captured in glittering black and white, and played in the style of an urbane comedy from classical Hollywood, with Cooper suavely tripping around the place like Herbert Marshall. Then, as the plot leaps forward to the late 1960s, the vibe switches to the heightened naturalism of Robert Altman: rich autumnal colours, overlapping dialogue and shot compositions of almost cubist complexity.
**Read the full review (without a paywall): https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/maestro-venice-film-review-bradley-cooper-bernstein/**
This movie demonstrates what’s wrong with the movie industry. I heard about this movie about 6 months ago, and I heard so much that I thought it was out. Now I’m seeing multiple reviews of it, and I’m asking if it’s out now? I just have no idea. Things get advertised so far ahead that I never know anymore, and that makes me lose interest. Some day I’ll see it on cable and probably watch it.
You can absolutely see why they had the prosthetic nose in this photo, it changes his profile so much