The Concert
The Concert
Thirty years ago, Andrei Simoniovich Filipov, the renowned conductor of the Bolshoi orchestra, was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Now a mere cleaning man at the Bolshoi, he learns by accident that the Chƒtelet Theater in Paris invites the Bolshoi orchestra to play there. He decides to gather together his former musicians and to perform in Paris in the place of the current Bolshoi orchestra. As a solo violin player to accompany his old Jewish or Gypsy musicians he wants Anne-Marie Jacquet, a
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The revenge is about to come!,
Radu Mihailenau built a demolishing, irreverent and sentimental portrait that began in the extinct U.R.S.S. Twenty-five years after losing his position as the conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra for his refusal to fire the Jewish musicians, a once-famous musical director attempts to stage a late-career comeback. Andreï Semoinovitch Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) was at the top of his game when the Soviet regime ended his career. Two decades later, he’s working as a janitor in the same theater where he once conducted. In his spare time, Andreï and his wife stage mock communist demonstrations to entertain the locals. When Andreï happens across an invitation to Paris’ famed Théâtre du Châtelet, he contacts his old orchestra friends in hopes of staging a performance that will bring the crowd to their feet for a standing ovation.
During the development of the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, a sudden and unpleasant fact occurs. Such event will withstand in the mind of an untamed director as well as his musicians by then.
The movie is developed like a Symphony in three movements. The first two deal with the efforts against the bureaucracy and obstacles to surmount to materialize a dream to perform a concert at the famous Hall in Paris. Hovered by a fine irony and bitter humor until the dramatic conclusion.
A magnificent and original movie. An invaluable fine jewel. One of the best films of the year.
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|At Last!,
I love this film so much I recently ordered an all region dvd player for no other reason than to enable me to watch the European region 2 version since the Weinstein Co. in its dubious wisdom seemed determined not to release this delicious film on dvd in the USA. Happily that is now an unnecessary purchase. This movie is not without its imperfections, but it is also uniquely satisfying as it swings with gusto from broad farce and roughneck socio/political silliness to its deeply moving finale. I defy anyone with the least shred of appreciation for music to watch the last 20 minutes without tears rolling down your cheeks. It is difficult to believe the director is the same man who made the remarkable Go, Live and Become (Va Vis et Deviens), which is one of the most serious and powerful films of the last decade.
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