MAESTRO
USA, 2023 Directed by Bradley Cooper With Carey Mulligan, Bradley Cooper, Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola Distribution Netflix Running time 129′
Venice brings good luck to Bradley Cooper. Here he came with his first film as director, the fourth version of A Star Is Born, starring pop superstar Lady Gaga, and then went to the Oscars with eight nominations and the statuette for best original song taken home. Now he is back with Maestro, the biography of Leonard Bernstein, the legendary conductor and composer who wrote the music for West Side Story. A project that had long been coveted by Steven Spielberg himself, who made his magnificent film version of the musical written by Stephen Sondheim inspired by Romeo and Juliet. The E.T. director then abandoned the film to devote himself to The Fabelmans. But Mr. Spielberg, from the height of his generosity, decided to please Cooper, who instead yearned for a chance to work on the brilliant and controversial figure of Bernstein. As in his previous film, the actor and director focus on feelings, putting the relationship between the musician and his life partner, Felicia Montealegre Cohn, played by Carey Mulligan, at the centre of the narrative. The passion for the Bernstein figure comes from afar for the protagonist of The Hangover, as he recounted in the director’s notes. “We listened to many opera and classical music albums in our house. I spent hours conducting an imaginary orchestra to the best of my ability as an 8-year-old. And my favourite record was a Leonard Bernstein recording. The light for Maestro came on many years before I came across the project. After a year of researching, I realized that the most interesting and assimilable aspect for me was the marriage between Lenny and Felicia.” Maestro is one of those movies that doesn’t come along often for a filmmaker, and it is a shame that Bradley Cooper cannot be in Venice to enjoy the warmth of the audience at the world premiere in the Sala Grande. He decided not to take advantage of the opportunity to be in the Lagoon as a director not to betray his fellow actors fighting for their rights by striking. However, he stopped by privately at Palazzo del Cinema a few days before the Venice Film Festival to attend technical rehearsals for the film. There was also a controversy, but it is already forgotten.
