Das Konzert

If you love music this will quickly become a favorite for you.

This movie is all about music. An orchestra conductor is given a second chance 30 years later and he definitely grabs it.

Life flows through this movie. You can detect how music mixes with life and how music is a part and at the same time is not a part of life.

Music lifts you beyond life.

I also liked the comedy parts. Life is tragedy and comedy and music encompasses it all.

Be advised that the director likes to play and the mixture between fantasy and real life is present throughout the whole movie.

Also, please note the gypsy who arranges the passport issue. In real life he is a member of the Romanian music band Taraf des Haidouks (http://www.myspace.com/tarafdehaidouksbandofgypsies). They have amazing music and you will also be treated with a small sample in the movie. He is one of my favorite characters in the movie and one of my favorite performers on stage.

I'm trying to find any downsides to this movie but I personally can't. The person who accompanied me to the cinema said it was too...soapy. I was just sorry I was not alone in my home...This is a movie where you meet yourself so you'd better not have witnesses.

Greetings again from the darkness. Typically when a film is billed is a "French comedy", we can expect a farcical good time with self-centered characters who flitter their days away. Director Radhu Mihaileanu delivers something completely different and unexpected.

Two really fine performances drive this story. Aleksei Guskov plays Andrei Filipov, the one time conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, who lost his beloved job because he employed Jewish musicians during the harshest of Communist days. Nearly three decades later he finds himself as the janitor in the same hall where he once conducted. Because of this, an opportunity presents itself that allows him to seek redemption in his own life, and that of another.

Melanie Laurent, who was so outstanding as the theatre manager with a nasty plan in Inglourious Basterds, plays Anne-Marie Jacquet - a violin virtuoso who Filipov demands to have in his orchestra for a show in Paris. Ms. Laurent displays tremendous screen presence with minimal dialogue. She is quite a talent and I hope she spends more time in the U.S. making movies! The comedy portion of the film occurs as Filipov frantically assembles his orchestra from all over the city. They have each gone their separate ways and some no longer even have their own instruments. Of course, none of the musical portion is believable, but as I said, this is a story of redemption.

The film climaxes with a wonderful onstage performance combined with a startling montage that really puts the details into the story that's been skirted for the first 90 minutes. It is a wonderful ending to a decent film that really had the potential to be amazing.

The movie gives you an accurate feel for what it feels to struggle to survive and find your way in post-communist Eastern Europe. The tragedy of the past is still present and yet the human nature freed up from restrictions turns in completely unexpected directions. The only way to escape the day-time TV feel is to bring in plenty of sense of humor.

Radu Mihaileanu creates a master piece. I can vouch that it captures the crazy spirit of the last 20 years and the need to make sense of it all. The resolution of the movie is childish and so there were the hopes and dreams of us all in 1989.

The movie is a modern fairy tale told with harsh truths and love and compassion.

This is a gem of a movie. Do not miss it! Amazing rarely seen Russian actors, hilarious comedy, emotions by the bucket, tears, sublime music, tension, suspense, it's been a while since I saw anything like it. I was weary that the director, prize winner of art-house fame, would make a slow pompous contemplative film. At the contrary Le Concert is a fast moving beautifully shot comedy about music, artists, Russia, Paris and communism. The director makes the actors brilliant, even average French actors like Miou Miou or the young soloist whose name I forgot. Do not wait for the DVD: it's worth watching on a big screen with a loud digital surround to enjoy the violins and the magnificent soundtrack. Bring your tissues you will laugh and cry, a great night out guaranteed!!!

The Concert is a French/ Italian/Romanian/Belgian production shot in Moscow and Paris. The publicity blurb says that the musical finale is worth the ticket price alone, but I would say even reading the list of exotic names floating over the opening credits is worth a good percentage of the price.

We travel back 30 years to when Andrei, talented young conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, was humiliated and sacked by Breshnev for refusing to get rid of his Jewish musicians. Fast forward to the present, and we find him still working at the Bolshoi - but as a cleaner. One lucky day he finds himself alone with the office fax machine. What follows is an audacious plot to get his old sidekicks to Paris, using borrowed instruments, hired suits and fake passports, posing as the real Bolshoi for a concert at the Theatre du Chatelet. If you can imagine a story as full of colour and drama as the TV rock 'n' roll serial epic Tutti Frutti, jammed into just one cinema experience, this could be it. It's rare to see so many set pieces in one film.

I laughed out loud once or twice - and if you know what a grumpy old man I am you would realise what that means. I was also moved to tears, but I'm not telling you why. That would spoil it all - just saying that under its layer of manic fast-cut comedy the story carries a deep, dark and passionate secret which gradually reveals itself as the comedy peels off. The music is, I have to add, beautiful - whether it's Roma dance jigs in the street or Tchaikovsky in the concert hall. Bring a hanky!