“The Concert,” a tale about a group of former musicians that goes to Paris for a major engagement without the real Russian orchestra finding out, is an entertaining movie that is both screwball comedy (with some implausibilities) and earnest human drama. Andrei Filipov (Alexei Guskov) used to be the conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra in Russia, but was fired by Communist pressures after he refused their order to rid the Bolshoi of all its Jewish players, among them his pal Sacha Grossman (Dmitri Nazarov). Now, decades later at the age of 50, Andrei still works at the Bolshoi, but as a custodian, spending his nights immersed in booze and severe depression. When he intercepts a fax inviting the Bolshoi to take on a last-minute Paris engagement in two weeks, Andrei reassembles his old orchestra and passes them off as the real thing. He also manages to entice a world-renowned violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet (Melanie Laurent) to join them as a guest soloist. Andrei has ulterior motives for wanting her to join the orchestra as the climax reveals.
The comedy stems from the various musicians suddenly set loose from their grim Russian existence on the magical streets of Paris. They are people who have been repressed all of their lives and unsure how to react to this freedom. In particular, Guskov, as Andrei, captures the sense of how meaningful it is for him to have his dream within his grasp. And Laurent is genuinely impressive as a virtuoso violinist. She reportedly studied for three months on the violin to ensure that the film’s final concert scene be authentic. But at the heart of “The Concert,” directed by Radu Mihaileanu, is the importance of art, its ability to fill the soul and transform life, which comes in the form of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Concerto for Violin and Orchestra.’ This is definitely a feel-good film and definitely worth your time. 8/1/10
1 comment:
“The Concert” is a French/Russian film with a very uplifting if not implausible story of an orchestra the was destroyed politically by the KGB in the USSR 30 years prior to this films time. It was destroyed primarily because of the Jewish musicians involved who where considered "enemies of the state" (apparently because they were jewish). The story is about the reassembly of these musicians who played miraculously impersonating the Bolshoi, all this without rehearsing?? The music was wonderful and I loved the ending to this fairy tale. Go see it, it's one of the best films of the hear.
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