"Maestro"

[Mik]

I like opera live. Not so much just to listen.

[Doctor Phibes]

@George-K said in "Maestro":

Were we unusual in that we took an interest in this stuff, relative to our peers? We knew all the music because of Looney Tunes and the Lone Ranger. Do today's youths (I can't believe I just typed that) have any such interest in exposure? Of my 4 kids, only one does. If I say "Brahms" to the other 3, they look at me, smile, and are thinking "That's nice Dad. Let's get you to your room now."

Hardly anybody I know in Real Life has any interest in "serious" music (which I consider jazz to be part of). My Russian friend listens to classical music, but that's it, partly because that's who he is, and also because his wife teaches piano. Pretty much everybody else seems to think Led Zeppelin and the Beatles are classical. The fact that I listen to Beethoven and Michael Brecker pretty much singles me out as a weirdo.

[taiwan_girl]

The only thing constant is change. I wonder how many of the great composers, if they were born in todays world, would be creating the same type of music? Or would they be pop artists? Hip hop? rap?

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in "Maestro":

The fact that I listen to Beethoven and Michael Brecker pretty much singles me out as a weirdo.

I see your Beethoven and Michael Brecker and raise with reading Auden on my lunch break.

[George K]

On Netflix now.

[Horace]

I like Bradley Cooper. Disappointed and a little surprised that he struck out with this one.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Aqua-Letifer said in "Maestro":

@Doctor-Phibes said in "Maestro":

The fact that I listen to Beethoven and Michael Brecker pretty much singles me out as a weirdo.

I see your Beethoven and Michael Brecker and raise with reading Auden on my lunch break.

Yeah, but you are a weirdo

[Aqua Letifer]

@Doctor-Phibes said in "Maestro":

@Aqua-Letifer said in "Maestro":

@Doctor-Phibes said in "Maestro":

The fact that I listen to Beethoven and Michael Brecker pretty much singles me out as a weirdo.

I see your Beethoven and Michael Brecker and raise with reading Auden on my lunch break.

Yeah, but you are a weirdo

Fair.

[George K]

Watched it on Netflix.

It was ... okay.

Cooper was great, the directing was great, the acting was great, the costumes and music were great.

But the story...

So much time spent on his relationships and not enough (as the WSJ review says) on his career. We don't know where he came from, how his ascendency to a world-class conductor happened, and his growth as a conductor and composer.

It was good, it wasn't great, much to my disappointment.

[Copper]

My sources say it is bad.

So I removed it from my watch list.

[Renauda]

Do be honest it was never on my watch list. Now there is no chance it will ever be on my watch list.

Will watch Napoleon though if and when the director’s cut and/or long version is ever released on BR. Never in a cinema mind you.

[George K]

It was okay - a pleasant, mostly, way to spend a couple of hours.

Favorite scene was the ballet from "On the Town."

Least favorite scene(s)

1. Lenny snorting coke off a platter
2. Sweaty Lenny dancing in a homoerotic way with a conducting student.

2 ½ stars. Maybe three, just for Carrie Mulligan's and COoper's performance.

[jon-nyc]

@kluurs said in "Maestro":

Loved Hersey Felder's one man play - also titled Maestro from about a decade or so ago. Felder can play the piano (gorgeously) and did a wonderful retrospective of Bernstein's life.

I just saw his Monsieur Chopin last week. Outstanding.

[Doctor Phibes]

@Renauda said in "Maestro":

Will watch Napoleon though if and when the director’s cut and/or long version is ever released on BR. Never in a cinema mind you.

Mrs Phibes saw Napoleon in a cinema yesterday. She said it was a lot of fun, but she approached it in much the same way as you would Gladiator or any other Ridley Scott movie come to that.

[George K]

Maestro, reviewed by an orchestra conductor: is Bradley Cooper really conducting?

Link to video

[Mik]

Watching Maestro now. Acting and cinematography Oscar worthy. The story is an insult to his legacy. And boring as hell.

[George K]

@Mik said in "Maestro":

Watching Maestro now. Acting and cinematography Oscar worthy.

Fabulous, isn't it?

The story is an insult to his legacy. And boring as hell.

Sad, isn't it?

It's not really a "biopic," is it? If you knew nothing about him, walking out of the theater, what would you have learned?

1. He was gay, or at least bisexual.
2. He got the job on a fluke.
3. His marriage was troubled, as was his relationship with his kids
4. He looks like a pretty good conductor.
5. He smoked - a LOT
6. Mahler could be cool
7. If you paid really close attention, you might learn that he composed West Side Story, Fancy Free...but you have pay really close attention.
8. He probably took good care of his wife as she was dying.

Anything else?

[Mik]

It’s really a gross invasion of their privacy, another example of how oversharing has become popular.

[89th]

I may watch it at some point. I don't really know much about Bernstein and I was turned off a bit when I saw a clip of Cooper "conducting" in the movie, very passionate, sweaty, and the title said he had trained 6 years to make the conducting look real, when he just seemed like a glorified metronome as I believe many conductors are. Zero chance it took him 6 years to train for that... maybe he took a class once a year, six times?

[Mik]

You won’t know much more about him from this movie. About the only possible message is how happy he would have been if he could have been openly gay. At least that’s what the ending says. First hour is great filmmaking with a very weak story. After that it’s just another soap opera.