Il concerto

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 the first film of Radu Mihaileanu that really did it to me. It is moving, I resonated with the subject, I laughed when it was funny and I was close to tears when it meant to be emotional. Yet, as his previous films, it is not a masterpiece just a good film to remember. Which is no small matter either.

Mihaileanu's previous films were each of them based on original and different ideas. in each of those the ideas hold above the execution. 'Train de vie' was one of the first films to deal with Holocaust from a comic perspective, and maybe the most interesting idea of all, better even as Begnini's maybe. 'Les pygmees de Carlo' dealt with the communication between cultures in an unusual way. 'Vas, viens, et deviens' is the only movie until now to deal with the Ethiopian immigration to Israel. Here, in 'Le Concert' two main ideas dominate the action. One is about the new culture of vulgarity and mediocrity that dominates the life after the fall of the Communism. The main hero (wonderfully acted by Aleksei Gluskov) is a great conductor. His life and career were broken during the Communist rule for having opposed the regime of Brezhnev. Yet, the change of the social order did not put him back in place, as the collaborators of the old regime and the new oligarchs took the place of the rulers, siding the real values. The second idea is that music redeems, transcends politics, and is worth any risks and sacrifices.

'Le Concert' is correspondingly divided into two parts. The first one is a brilliant comedy, one of the best that I have seen lately. It is based on stereotypes one may argue, the stereotype of the Russians and French, of the Jews and Gypsies, of musicians and impresarios, Communists and oligarchs, but in these case they work, and the result is true and funny. The Russian orchestra of former musicians, sided away by the new times makes it to Paris under the label of the Bolshoi to give the concert of their lives, the proof that Tchaikovsky, and Russian music, and value are still there despite all. Then the second part begins, the one in which all becomes personal, Then the second part begins, the one in which all becomes personal, with a seemingly love story which turns to be something completely different, a much more dramatic story in which music is not only revenge but also personal redemption, is not only survival but also coming from beyond the graves of a tragic history.

This is were the strength and the weakness of Radu Mihaileanu's art meet. All the film converges to the final scene, the one of the concert in Paris, we know it from the beginning. All the explanation will be present in that scene, and this is the bet and the risk of any music film in the history of cinema. The result is only a partial win. Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin provides the appropriate background, and the emotional result is immediate. The doubts start after the screening ends. The situation is certainly less than credible, from an intrigue and musical point of view. Mihaileanu's execution is too direct, he plays too much on short term emotions, tears are too apparent. He has huge ideas, and one day he may turn them into one or more great movies. 'Le Concert' is too explicit, it lacks the patience and the sophistication to be that one .

It was the screening of the Japanese film Nodame Cantabile earlier this year that piqued my interest in classical music being featured on film, but I suppose it's Le Concert that sealed the deal, although this European film did exude similar sensibilities like the Japanese one in having a conductor face insurmountable odds in turning around a makeshift, rag-tag 55 piece orchestra into one befitting of the name "Bolshoi", building up to a crescendo of a finale that just begs for an encore.

Nodame Cantabile provided a lot more romantic fluff and a quick 101 introduction to classical music and its famed composers, sort of like a McDonald's way of a fast-food sampling rich musical pieces, but it is Le Concert that persisted in wanting to use Tchaikovsky's The Violin Concerto, which is considered as one of the most difficult for the violin, to center this film around it, complete with a huge and critical backstory that makes this film well rounded, and in keeping you engaged especially with a tale about passion bordering on obsession, and the redemption of the sins of the earlier generation.

But don't get me wrong that the film is solely filled with such serious themes, as it's almost comedy all of the way to its centerpiece performance. We follow the story of Andrei Filipov (Aleksei Guskov), a one time hotshot conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra who was cut down to size, and now works as the janitor in the halls of his glorious past. He chances upon an opportunity from Paris which had invited the Bolshoi, but hence decides to hijack this opportunity, and to bring his own team of musicians on a trip that they would never forget. He's a man on a mission, and you just might wonder why he would want to take such a big risk, other than the fact that the current Bolshoi orchestra is playing like crap, but it adds to the mystery of the man, and the past that he's hiding from through the bottle.

Together with best friend Sacha (Dmitri Nazarov) who's now an ambulance driver, they go back to assemble a team comprising colleagues from the past, who have each moved onto different occupations, to convince them in joining their madcap mission - to showcase their talent once again after 30 years since their disbanding. The first component of the narrative is steeped in their mission to raise funds and sponsorship, and to seek the help of one time adversary Ivan Gavrilov (Valeriy Barinov), an ex-KGB agent who had a hand in their demise, to see them through this 3 day trip through deliberate misrepresentation because of his fluency in French.

But of course things aren't exactly the same as some 30 years back, and everyone has their own personal agenda in wanting to go to Paris, and more so when they cross borders through forged credentials, complete with a whole slew of comedy of errors when they touchdown in the City of Lights. Some may find it a tad offensive when the Russians are portrayed as boorish, from their drunk behaviour to their unreasonableness in demanding per diems immediately, for services yet to be rendered, or that Jewish Father-Son team who's more interested to fleece unsuspecting victims in their get-rich schemes.

Otherwise, director Radu Mihaileanu will keep you guessing just how this group under Filipov will succeed given their disastrous start pointing to an early debacle, and more so when star violinist Anne-Marie (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds fame) start to see through their ruse and refuse to take the stage with a bunch of unprofessionals. There's a little mystery here with regards to Anne-Marie's lineage that I have to applaud Mihaileanu for his red herrings and writers Hector Cabello Reyes and Thierry Degrandi for avoiding the obvious. Herein lies what would be a touching theme of music and harmony, of how it can bring out a unifying set of emotions, which leads on to pure aural bliss in the final act that one cannot help but to clap out loud at the end, as narrative threads get resolved, even though it resembled pretty much like a typical Japanese zero to hero tale.

The Concert won the Cesar for Best Music Written for a film and Best Sound, and it's not difficult to see why. With an excellent ensemble cast, sights, sounds and of course, Tchaiskovski, this is a film that succeeded in making classical music so integral to itself, without being too stifling for the masses to be a crowd pleaser. Highly recommended, and it goes into my books as one of the best this year!

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.

I received warm recommendations before going to see "Le concert" and, as a consequence, was prepared to like it.

I must admit that hearing one of my favourite classical pieces at the beginning induced a positive outlook; however, as I am rather critical, this would not have made up for a boring experience afterwards.

Yet the rest was delightful, and there was no moment left for fatigue or dissatisfaction. Those clichés criticized by some are still well understood in Eastern Europe; as to the exacerbated kitsch - it can be found today, with no difficulty, within the society I live in.

The plot may have seemed straightforward, but a whirlwind of colour, wonderful music, sadness and humour carried me swiftly to the end and to the applause of the audience in the cinema.

It may not be the best film I have seen, but it certainly possesses the "je ne sais quoi" that makes you want to see it again, that makes you feel different for having experienced it. And for this, I think "Le Concert" should be accepted and loved just as it is.