Bradley Cooper, who wrote, co-produced, directed and stars in Maestro, leaves us in no doubt about brilliant composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein’s sexuality.
Although married to wife Felicia for 27 years, and having three children, he is an out and out gay man, who also sleeps with women. From his lifetime working and social relationship with equally closeted composer Aaron Copeland, to his flings with musicians, writers and a trainee conductor, Bernstein is portrayed as a driven, obsessive, almost manic creative genius, full of self-doubt and depression.
Carey Mulligan as the long-suffering Felicia, who sacrifices her acting career to effectively become his slavish carer, emotional crutch and as it used to be called his “beard”, is mesmerising. She telegraphs her inner sadness, suppressed anger at his queer flings, and general unhappiness with everything in life but their children. Her painful smiles and withering looks are a wonderful masterclass in close-up acting.
Director Cooper begins the film with sharp, staccato inter-cutting between scenes which merge from indoors to concert hall to outdoors in a few seconds. After a while this becomes annoying and thankfully the second half of the film abandons it as a technique.
Where it does work is in a magical dance section of the three sailors from Bernstein’s musical On The Town, doing a mystical routine, apparently on a rehearsal stage, and where Bernstein eventually becomes one of the free-flowing dancers.
The other great joy in the movie is the music – often using Bernstein’s own recordings – everything from the wonderfully joyous finale to Candide, to the energy of West Side Story, the other-wordliness of his Psalms, and the final grandeur of Mahler.
Cooper, ageing disgracefully from young man to 70-year-old, is the spitting image of the chain-smoking maestro of the title, and even in close-up, the prosthetics, including the much publicised false nose, stand up to scrutiny.
In the end it’s a story of a giant ego, hiding insecurity and a loveless life. In a pivotal scene of high tension, and about to leave him, the distraught Felicia tells him: “if you’re not careful, you’re going to die a lonely old queen”.
It’s a telling analysis.
Maestro, which failed to win at the Golden Globes, is on Netflix – it’s a magnificent piece of cinema.
