Leonard Bernstein is one of the greatest legends in music history. As a conductor, composer and pianist he has several memorable works created, whose cultural impact can still be felt today. Among other things, he was involved in the timeless musical masterpiece West Side Story, which has already been filmed twice.
It is all the more surprising that Bernstein himself has not yet received a cinematic monument in the form of a major biopic. His life story is this perfect fabric for a prestige film. With Maestro it now arrives at Netflix after Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg were previously involved in the project as directors.
Maestro on Netflix: Bradley Cooper tells the life story of Leonardo Bernstein
Paramount Pictures wanted to bring a Bernstein film to the cinema as early as 2018. Scorsese and Spielberg were them Top favorites for directing. In the end, neither of them found the time to implement Maestro. Scorsese took on The Irishman while Spielberg directed his own version of West Side Story.
You can watch the trailer for Maestro here:
Maestro – Trailer (German) HD
The project then changed the studio and its creative head: actor Bradley Cooper, who not only starred in A Star Is Born five years ago strong directorial debut, but also delivered a really good music film, Maestro took over the direction. From then on, the film was developed under the umbrella of Netflix.
Scorsese and Spielberg remained loyal to the film as producers. In addition to directing, Cooper also took on the lead role. Thanks to make-up and mask He transforms himself into Leonard Bernstein in front of the camera and covers various phases in the music creator’s life, from young age to old age.
Maestro is no ordinary biopic: Bradley Cooper shows his ambitions as a director
However, Maestro is not a conventional biopic that drags us from one obligatory station to the next and merely deals with the most important points from Bernstein’s Wikipedia entry. Instead, Cooper chooses one freer formwhich is more comparable to films like Netflix’s terrific Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde.
Netflix
maestro
Cooper picks out individual moments from Bernstein’s life and uses them to create larger scenes that represent individual periods of his work. Sometimes it is a detailed representation of one historical moment, such as the performance of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in C minor in Ely Cathedral.
Sometimes Cooper lingers in the private environment and focuses on the relationship between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre, played by a great Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby). The conflict at the center of the marriage: Bernstein also longs for men, while Felicia is lonely.
The verve with which Cooper stages his film is particularly impressive. From extravagant tracking shots to light-hearted musical sequences: Maestro is bursting with cinematic ambition. Not everything works, but there’s no denying Cooper’s ambition. We can’t wait to see what he shoots next.
Maestro is streaming from today, the December 21, 2023on Netflix.