One of the most revealing things I have learned about Leonard Bernstein was that he insisted on being called “Lenny” by everyone who knew him, from housemaids to cab drivers to ushers at the theater.
He had great fame but few airs and pretensions.
He was a person of great love and passion.
He conducted orchestras with every part of his body and soul, transferring his emotions to the dazzled audiences who came to see him.
As someone who cried every time I saw him conduct, I was eager to see this movie.
I liked it, but I didn’t love it. It is an excellent movie, but not the great one I was hoping for. I think Cooper stumbled when deciding to focus on his marriage rather than his music.
I was a little wary when I saw “Maestro” this afternoon.
The movie is the touching and sad story of one of the world’s most famous and revered conductors and the first great American composer in history.
The reviews suggested that this was mostly the story of Bernstein’s troubled but loving relationship with a Broadway actress. Felicia Montealgegre, played by Carey Mulligan.
The reviews were correct.
I should preface this essay by saying I have always had a deep love and respect for Bernstein and the music he conducted.
His passion and emotions were so deep and open that they made me cry whenever I saw him conduct at the New York Philharmonic or in his many televised performances.
His open emotions go through me like a blood transfusion. It might have been difficult to please me.
Bradley Cooper, who plays Bernstein, set out to capture the agony and ecstasy of Bernstein’s love. “Lenny” was a genius who loved music of any kind and could create it brilliantly in almost any form – plays, dances, songs, teaching.
Cooper did a valiant job, but I wish he had used a more practiced and charismatic actor than himself to capture a person who was and is more significant than life.
He did his best, and it was very good but Bernstein doesn’t look like him, and I quivered a bit when the movie ended with the real Berstein conducting an orchestra. I cried when I saw that. I don’t think Cooper was up to it, for all the hype about Hollywood tricks for disguise and detail.
At several points in the movie, I also felt that a lot of it, if not most, was centered on Felicia, who loved Bernstein as he loved her but could not reconcile herself to his public and indiscreet romances with men.
Other people might react differently, but I was puzzled to see her dominating the movie so much when she wasn’t nearly as interesting as her husband.
This was a chance to learn how Bernstein made and conceived his music and how he became the most famous conductor in the world. Not this time.
I’ve read various Bernstein biographies that detail his relationships with men, including the great composer Aaron Copeland and perhaps his most intense male lover, David Oppenheim, came about.
I wanted to know how he conceived of his music and the process he used.
One of the tragedies of Berstein’s life was to see several of his closest male lovers die painfully from Aids.
Bernstein was unfailingly generous and supportive of these victims at a time when the President of the United States wouldn’t even speak the word “aids” in his public appearances.
Almost all of his genuine and intense relationships with men were treated as fleeting, even casual, if at all. It might be that they were the most meaningful of all.
Bernstein was known for paying for health care, rent, and nursing support for his gay friends and lovers.
The relationships I read about were not one-night stands, they were deep and long lasting.
Bernstein and Felicia did love each other, but like so many married couples of the time, they had to live a lie since it was a dangerous time to admit being gay or being married to someone who was.
At the movie’s end, Bernstein is shown as utterly devoted to Felicia, whose life he had made miserable for years. But his real commitments seemed elsewhere, at least in real life.
And Felicia admits to a friend that she was the one who was dishonest, not Bernstein.
(Why wasn’t this film titled “Lenny?”)
At times, I thought this was the story of Felica as much as it was the story of Bernstein. It feels like a Hollywood version of Bernstein’s life, almost honest but somewhat too choreographed and slick.
Cooper has made a fast-packed, beautiful, and touching chronicle of a famous and brilliant life, a whole of highs, lows, creative passions, and artistic milestones. But to me, this is more evidence that we cannot safely, efficiently, or lovingly lie to our partners or the world outside and have a happy and lasting relationship.
Bernstein was openly gay and happy about it, but he couldn’t keep up the lie for Felicia; he just wouldn’t or couldn’t be discreet about it.
She knew that and accepted it, but it wasn’t enough for her, and she turned angry, even vicious, at times when his sexuality came unapologetically into the open. It seemed to me that they loved one another as best friends and as people who had given birth to three beautiful children. It wasn’t enough.
It felt like the two kept unconsciously using one another: Felicia to be married to this remarkable human and have children, and Bernstein, happy to use his marriage as a cover to hide who he was.
One of the film’s most potent moments can be found at Bernstein’s country home in Connecticut after the birth of one of his children.
The scene opens with Berstein walking across the vast lake with his daughter in his arms. He strolls over to his best friend and sometime lover, Aaron Copeland, another brilliant and gifted musician.
“Lenny,” as he was known by everyone, even maids and hotel doormen, holds the baby gently and holds him up so that Copeland can see the baby’s face.
Bernstein holds the baby close and cuddles him, and the two men sit quietly. The moment’s tenderness says as much or more about Berstein’s true self than almost anything else in the movie.
Almost all of the film’s most deeply felt and touching scenes involved Bernstein with his children and closest male friends and lovers.
This bothered me about the movie; I felt it was as much about Felicia’s sad, disappointing, and painful life as it was about Bernstein’s remarkable generosity, love for people, and immeasurable genius.
That was the movie I feared I would see, and the movie I did see.
His genius, not his music, made him one of the most beloved people in much of the world. I would have loved to learn more about that or see it in action.
The reviews are almost all raves; I’m in the minority here.
The camera work is lovely and imaginative. I ended up being fascinated but somewhat disappointed. It wasn’t the Bernstein I saw and loved.
Bernstein was a great man, one of the greatest of his time.
He alone brought classical music back to life, and after his death, it has been receding rapidly once more. It was astonishing to see teenagers showing up in droves at Lincoln Center to see him conduct classical music. Now, they’re all on TikTok and YouTube.
Bernstein succeeded with his talent but failed to revive classical music for the long haul, which was his great goal. It didn’t stick as he did.
I had this feeling that political correctness might be part of the reason the movie focused so much on a character who was not the star, as represented. She was a woman humiliated.
I have no trouble recommending it. It is one of the most compelling movies of the year and will surely win many Oscars and other awards.
I was troubled to see that the accurate Bernstein, the real one, appeared just as the credits rolled, which was my best evening performance. Cooper looked much like Bernstein but could never capture his incredible and passionate emotion.
If Carey Milligan stole the show a bit from Cooper, then the real Lenny in the cameo blew both off the stage.
Well, rats! I was hoping this movie would be about the man and his internal thought processes and love of music, rather than the typical Hollywood stuff about the relationships. I am still going to see it. Thank you for your honest review.
It’s worth seeing, Karla, I just found it surprisingly disappointing…you might love it..
I agree with you completely about the movie. I too was disappointed and wanted more focus on the music not his wife though she did a marvelous job. Found this movie to be far less compelling than his remake of a star is born. Happy Christmas to you all!!
Thanks Susan, I had the same exact feeling, thanks for writing..
Wow. Your reviews covers any and all questions I had about the movie. Thank you for all the time and thoughts you put into it.
Thanks Diane, I had the feeling they missed the point, really…but I wasn’t bored..
I was not diissapointed it was what I expected as the revienws had clearly explained. There is so much vidéo footage of Berbnstein which I have really enjoyed, it was nice to have another slant on Bernstein who I really adore and respect.
Thanks Simon, we both adore and respect him, I’m glad you enjoyed it and thanks for posting.
I think that we have to take the film for what it is. A portrayal of a genius who also happened to be a monster and a huge egotistical narcissist; however expressive emotionally he might have been. Had he kept his affairs under wraps, as Aaron Copland did throughout his life, he would have spared Felicia a great deal of pain. Copland was a homosexual, as Bernstein was, but Copland understood the value of moderation in personal relations. We know this from the shock that Copland expresses in his letters to Bernstein about his behavior. Bernstein’s exhibitionism and looseness were qualities that were destructive to a person as reserved as Felicia was. I think that this film is one of the most devastating portrayals of a tragic marriage or relationship that I have seen lately. I think that, with time, the true nature of this film will be understood. That is, that to be connected intimately(whether one be a woman or man) to a narcissistic personality such as Bernstein was, is tragic in the extreme. This is precisely why I ultimately like this film, though this kind of effect will not be popular with many.
Thanks for your comment Alexander, very interesting. I did not feel the movie portrayed Bernstein as a monster in any way. As Felicia herself says in the film, he was the one who was honest and open about his life. Copeland was his closest friend for life I can’t imagine him thinking his best lifelong friend a monster. That is to me the harshest way to consider him. To me his sexual life and marital troubles are the least interesting thing about him, and not the nation’s business.
His musical gifts were stunning and unprecedented. Almost everyone he met loved him, and he loved them back, sometimes too much. To focus the film on his troubled marriage seems the narrowest and least interesting thing about him. As to the film, the movie is quite popular, the reviews have been wonderul. Netflix reports the movie made $300,000 the first five days in a handful of theaters, (they won’t say how many people watched it online) making it its biggest movie take in years.
The story of Bernstein to me, is his music and his love for music, and his genius, not his sex life and preferences. No public figure seems able to survive the curse of the media and entertainment world’s obsession with private lives and sex. No one can survive the standard of moral perfection.
Cary Mulligan was terrific, stronger in my view than Cooper in some ways.But she was also miserable, angry and perpetually brooding and complaining. To me, she threw the movie out of balance, since the Bernstein in the movie was full of love, hope and energy. He was also nuts, as geniuses tend to be. I don’t judge him for loving men, in his time it was essential to lie about it, hide it, or deny it, which he often did. He’s not a monster to me, he was the victom of medieval American bigotry, coming back to haunt us now, which he overcame.
Wikickpedia: “Although Netflix does not publicly report box office grosses, IndieWire estimated the film made about $200,000 from eight theaters in its opening weekend (and a total of $300,000 over the five-day Thanksgiving frame), which would make it the most successful debut for the company since at least 2019.’
P.S. Alexander I agree that for a heterosexual person to marry someone like Leonard Berstein is a disaster that can only have one ending. Tragedy is the right word, but both of them are responsible for that. They each got what they wanted and raised there lovely and successful children together, a small miracle. He didn’t force her to marry him, and she always said she knew what he was.
That isn’t the story I wanted to see, that’s just me. I’m no one to judge Leonard Bernstein. It sounds like you did get the story you wanted to see.
I don’t take movies at face value, I love to dissect and times, criticize them. I was a critic for more than a few years. l love writing criticism still, but just on my blog.
Jon, thanks for your impressive review of MAESTRO. I must see this movie.
In the CD “for lenny” by pianist LARA DOWNE & friends, who are Rhiannon Giddens, Thomas Hampson, Javier Morales-Marinez and Kevin “K.O.” Olusola, with an essay by Adam Gopnik (October 2017), Lara writes: “Of all the many musicians who inspire me, it’s Leonard Bernstein who turns up, more or less every day, by my side, over my shoulder, reminding me of what a musician can be. Of what music can be in this world – how it can reach and teach and make things happen. Just remember what happened to American music when Lenny came along, everything he changed. He never stopped searching, questioning the status quo, redefining the possible, imagining the future. Something’s coming…
“This album is a tribute to Lenny’s vision for American music. The artists who join me here – the composers who have written new Anniversaries for Lenny: the performers who sing and play and reimagine his songs – we’re only here together because of the rules he broke and and the doors he knocked down, the future he imagined. We com from all over the landscape of American music, from bluegrass to beatbox, conservatory to cabaret, the Met to the multiplex. Because of Lenny’s legacy, there’s a place for us.
“This is a celebration of his life, his music and his imagination. It come with joy and gratitude – for Lenny, with love.”
“It would be nice to hear someone accidentally whistle something of mine, something, just once.” – Leonard Bernstein
Jon,
A day or so ago, I started viewing “Maestro”…but stopped…as I had to answer the kitchen call of my housemate for breakfast, the all important daily meal. Most definitely I will go back to it later. I just do not know when. There are so many distractions.
Several months ago, I viewed the video below regarding the song, “Somewhere” from “West Side Story,” one of my favorite musicals. I was fascinated and shocked both during and after the astute analysis of this much beloved piece of musical theater.
My housemate and I traveled to see Spielberg’s version four times, call us crazy!
Although I play piano, I am not classically trained; therefore, I would not have realized what I learned from the following video. I have wondered if my friend who is classically trained and who tells me that this is her favorite musical, has made the connection yet. One of these days, I will have to ask.
https://youtu.be/rBZuDj15EEc?si=si7dMLwt9JZXEJjY
Winter blessings to you and Maria.