'Maestro' Is A Masterstroke in Direction and Editing
Stupendously acted and masterfully framed, Maestro is a work of art that demands the audience's attention. Bradley Cooper's work behind the camera is quite impressive for a second directorial feature post, A Star Is Born. Instead of chronicling the lives of fictional characters, Bradley Cooper sets his focus on American composer Leonard Bernstein. In a nutshell, for those unaware of Leonard Bernstein, he was a composer and pianist who became the music director for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and later, in 1966, composed for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He also traveled around the world composing for the London Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and many others. He's best known for his work on West Side Story.
Maestro is a delicate film about how art moves us. In one of the film's biggest confrontations, Bernsetine's wife, Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan), slams Leonard, telling him that his art comes from a place of hatefulness. It's not until later, when Bernstein performs a gorgeous piece in a church, that the beauty of his work vindicates that his composures come from a place of love, bringing Felicia close to him once more. The film begins with a quote from Bernstein stating, "A work of art does not answer questions; it provokes them, and its essential meaning is the tension between the contradictory answers."
A good piece of composition is similar to a good film. If it's good, it gives you all the answers, and you can walk away feeling gratified. A great film is something that doesn't give you answers, only more questions. 2001: A Space Odyssey wouldn't have lived on in popularity to this day if it were not for the questions that it poses. Are we beasts from beginning to end despite our vast knowledge? Is there a God? Are we alone? What happens when we give power to artificial intelligence? If the characters or a narrator explained everything that was going on, the movie would be an open-and-shut story. Maestro, ironically, isn't a film that leaves many questions except one, but more on that later.
The film is a stagey yet also withdrawn picture. It displays the quiet we have when not in the madness of our work. When Leonard is composing, the walls in my theater were shaking with the brimming beats of the orchestra. There are scenes where the camera work and blocking is stellar. There's a sequence early in the picture where Bradley Cooper gets a phone call while he's in bed. After ending the call, Leonard swings open the drapes, puts his clothes on, and within one single shot, we go from a flat to a hotel building, ending with a massive two-story orchestra hall. The transition is like something from Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
The camera goes from one location/setup to the next almost seamlessly. The single take tells you within a few seconds what kind of life Leonard has. The blocking is impeccable. The shot begins with a flat angle, only focusing on the hotel drapes; when Leonard exits his hotel room, the camera floats above his head with a birdseye view; the camera then goes back to the front of Leonard's face to the opening doors of the concert. When arriving at the concert, the frame cranes all the way out, revealing the massive venue. It's quite the spectacle of a shot. Unfortunately, the concert hall does look like a CGI creation. The CGI was probably the only way to pull off the shot. That or it was a more cost-effective manner for getting the job done.
There's also a stylish shot of Leonard taking a bow in one location. When his head goes down, dipping out of the frame, Felicia's head comes up, indicating a time and location shift within the same framed shot. It's an effective graphical match that would make Orson Wells blush. When the picture isn't being stylish, it's very restrained. Conversations that happen in most films are done with a wide shot and two over-the-shoulder (OTS) shots. Instead of just cutting to the next person talking, Cooper keeps the camera locked and wide. It not only draws you deeper into a character's conversations but also captures the mundanity of life when not composing that Lenny must feel. That's not to say Maestro is dull; it's slow cinema mixed with thrilling moments of musical composition. Cooper is cleverly making you concentrate on the small moments, as most occasions in life aren't met with melodrama. The film is mostly quiet, focussing on the actors giving it their all for the camera without the need for coverage to ruin the fluidity of their performance.
Although the star of the film is Bradley Cooper, it's the Maestro's muse who delivers the film's best performance. Carey Mulligan is spectacular. She is required to deliver a lot dramatically. She must be charming, wounded, and upset. Mulligan goes through a range of emotions seamlessly. A lot is asked of her to give in this movie, and she gives it her all. From elegance to rage and tears, Mulligan is engrossing to watch.
Bradley Cooper, on the other hand, sounds like he's trying to do an impersonation. Cooper doesn't sound much like Leonard Bernstein or look like him for most of the film. It's not until old man makeup is applied that Cooper looks the part. When watching the film, I couldn't help but keep thinking, "Why is he doing that voice?" I thought maybe that's what Bernstein sounded like until I looked up an interview of him on YouTube, only to be surprised to learn how differently the real man sounded compared to Bradley Cooper. When Cooper is conducting, he shines the most. BC really looks like he's exhausting himself. Plus, having to memorize all the conductor's moves must take a lot of work to learn. When composing, the camera stays on Cooper for a long period as he sweats out another complicated piece. With every sweat drip and forceful energy unleashed with his maestro stick, I would find it hard to believe that Cooper was faking his composition moves. As good as Bradley Cooper is, his fake accent hinders what could have been a great performance.
As good art invokes more questions than answers, there is a glaring question the film leaves audiences with. Why didn't Falicia ever encounter Leonard about his unfaithfulness? Leonard Bernstein is a good yet complicated man in the film. He's the life of the party and genuinely loves people. Lenny loves them so much that he goes out with other men. He's almost blatantly open with his sexual orientation when in company with Felicia, even holding hands with another man in front of her during a concert. Yet, Felicia never says anything about it to him. Even when they're fighting, Felecia doesn't bring up his sexual life outside the house. Why torture herself? Does she think being closeted is painful enough for Lenny, and it's not worth ruining a marriage over?
That's the big question the film asks. It already knows what greatness is. That's Leonard Bernstein's composed work. Was Leonard Bernstein a great man? In terms of career and the way he treated people, yes. The way he cheated on his wife requires a more complicated answer that offers several contradictions depending on the individual viewer's perception of Bernstein. A masterstroke in compositing the frame and soundtrack, Maestro is a brilliant feat of filmmaking that captures the genius, humanity, and flaws of one of America's greatest composers.
