A film about a dark visionary who bestrode the 20th century and changed history might be the Oscar favourite, but there’s another biopic to consider, also of a man whose genius made him one of the past century’s greatest figures, one whose creativity and musical gifts brought – and continue to bring – joy to millions. A man who also changed the world, but unequivocally for the better. I’m talking about Leonard Bernstein, of course, and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, which looks at the great US conductor and composer through the lens of his marriage to Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).
Maestro is an extraordinary achievement by any standards. Not only is Cooper totally convincing as Bernstein over a four-decade period (much credit here to the extraordinary makeup work of Kazu Hiro, also Oscar-nominated) but he also co-wrote and directed the film. He studied conducting for six years and learned to play the piano; such is his mastery of the maestro that members of today’s London Symphony Orchestra (who recreated the Ely Cathedral scene), who had also played under the real Bernstein in the 1980s, admitted to doing a double take when Cooper-as-Bernstein walked on set.
