For his second achievement after A Star Is Born (A star Is Born), Bradley Cooper remained in the musical and marital themes with Maestro (VF). So the rising pop singer and the fading country idol give way to the actress who nurtures the talent of a genius conductor. And after fiction, reality, that of Felicia Montealegre and Leonard Bernstein, composer of West Side Story. Built like a symphony, this second film, very ambitious on the narrative and formal levels, proves to be a dazzling success. Carey Mulligan and Cooper, as leading figures, have a lot to do with it.
The concept of the symphony is in this case appropriate to talk about this feature film co-written, directed, produced and performed by the star of Silver Linings Playbook (The bright side) And Nightmare Alley (Nightmare Alley).
In that Bradley Cooper and his co-writer Josh Singer (Oscar winner for Spotlight/Spotlight. Special edition) opted for a series of movements to tell the story of the Montealegre-Bernstein couple. Each one is distinct, complete in its micro-narrative, but at the same time, complementary to the previous one and a harbinger of the content of the next one.
The result is a flow of sequences of admirable fluidity. By portraying, in the opening, a grieving Leonard Bernstein who grants an interview, Cooper immediately summons a Wellesian sensibility (Citizen Kane), even Proustian, with an influx of reminiscences.
Impressionist charge
Here we are in 1943… Assistant conductor at the New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein (Cooper, astonishingly natural) lives with his lover, clarinetist David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer, brief but memorable). At short notice, Leonard replaces, without any rehearsal, guest conductor Bruno Walter, who is looking pale. Triumph and instant fame.
During an evening at his sister’s house, Shirley (Sarah Silverman, excellent against the job), Leonard met, in 1946, the Broadway actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, astonishing in strength, intelligence, pain which smolders…). It is not only love at first sight, but the meeting of two great minds who understand and complement each other.
From ellipses to pivotal moments, the impressionist charge grabs, envelops and carries away in its ample thrust through the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s…
Aware of Leonard’s bisexuality before even knowing him, Felicia completely accepts the occasional presence of lovers in her husband’s existence. At least until she feels that he no longer relies on her, but on the darling of the moment.
Then comes the only real dissonance in the couple’s little music. And again, in the long term, the episode only separates them to better unite them again. A singular and indestructible union that of “Lenny and Felicia”, as everyone calls them. Only death could overcome it, and even then…
Mind-blowing mastery
Formally very accomplished, Maestro takes place first in black and white, then in color. Again, the transition between the two is perfect. In the technical department, Bradley Cooper has made giant leaps since the already accomplished A Star is Born. The virtuoso passages are indeed numerous.
Inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s show On the Townthe musical-fantasy number where Felicia Montealegre and a handsome sailor on leave compete for the composer’s attention is remarkably precise.
The apotheosis at Ely Cathedral, where the protagonist once led the Symphony no2 by Mahler, is even more grandiose, both visually and emotionally (Cooper trained for years with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin). Eminently complex, not that it is a single moment apparent during the unfolding, this sequence shot filmed with the Technocrane (a telescopic crane used here for a mixture of vertical, lateral, and especially circular movements) is of incredible mastery.
Knowing that said sequence shot was a plan B designed the very morning of filming by Cooper (as revealed by the actor-filmmaker during a discussion recently attended The duty), it is all the more admirable. A true piece of cinematic bravura by an authentic one-man band.