Pscreened in competition at the last Venice Film Festival, Master is available today on Netflix. This is the second film of Bradley Cooper After A star is born – and again with a triple role: actor, director and screenwriter. The story is that of the life of Leonard Bernstein – legendary composer and conductor who died in 1990 at age 72. A story in color and black and white that lightly touches the master’s art, preferring the troubled relationship with Felicia (Carey Mulligan), the wife who for years had to deal with her husband’s bisexuality.
Masterthe plot of the movie
From replacing Bruno Walter for a concert at Carnegie Hall to the appointment of assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, then the progression towards success also in film soundtracks. In the middle, or rather immediately, the film focuses on the stumble of Felicia Montealegre (Mulligan), whom Leonard meets at a party, he is affable and naturally centralizing. A marriage that lasted over 30 years, but which was undermined by Leonard’s sexual relationships with various men, starting with his relationship with David Oppenheim (Matt Bomer), without however ever declaring that he is gay.
Divorce – in order to live with Tom Cothran (Gideon Glick), radio manager and composer – arrived in 1976. A year later, however, the couple returned to live together and Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer (she died in 1978). He takes over then Kunihiko Hashimoto, Bernstein’s great love – a young Japanese employee of an insurance company who remained close to Leonard until his death in 1990.
Bradley Cooper in a scene from “Maestro”. (Netflix)
But these other loves are background characters, touched upon with little conviction. Like the genius Bernstein, resolved in sequences of musical inspiration of grandeur which sacrifices introspection in favor of the grand scenographic gesture.
Who was Leonard Bernstein
Born in 1918 into a Polish Jewish family, Leonard burns the stages in a very short time. Becoming – after graduating in orchestration in Philadelphia and at just 27 years old – director of the New York City Center Orchestra.
In 1953 he was the first American to conduct the La Scala orchestra in Milanstaging Medea with Maria Callas who will subsequently direct in There sleepwalking And La Boheme. At the same time he dedicated himself to the composition of operas, symphonies, soundtracks (Harbor front by Elia Kazan) and musicals. Which they will become some of the biggest hits of both Broadway and Hollywood. In fact, he wrote the scores of One Day in New York, Peter Pan and the legendary West Side Story.
Leonard Bernstein in 1977. (Getty Images)
Always politically involved on the leftin January 1970 Bernstein organized, together with his wife Felicia Montealegre, a reception for VIPs and artists for raise funds for the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary group Black Panthers.
For this occasion, the journalist Tom Wolfe writes a famous essay on New York Magazinein which coined the ironically derogatory definition of “radical chic“. Still used today but to indicate exactly the opposite of what the writer intended. In recent years, Bernstein has also been president and honorary director of the Orchestra ofNational Academy of Santa Cecilia From Rome.
Bradley Cooper’s dream of being an orchestra conductor
The project, much pampered by Cooper, was originally a Steven Spielberg film with Cooper himself in the role of Bernstein. However, the actor’s other commitments compromised its gestation, until Spielberg approached Cooper about directing the story. With Steven and Martin Scorsese producers.
«When I received the script – Bradley told a Variety –, within an hour Steven received a mountain of messages from me with lots of ideas.” Cooper subsequently worked on the script for over four yearsmaking it the project of a lifetime, an obsession.
Sarah Silverman (Shirley Bernstein) and Maya Hawke (Jamie Bernstein). (Netflix).
Why “As a child I always wanted to be a conductor. I was so obsessed with it that I asked when I was 8 years old a wand to Santa Claus. I listened to the music, I fell in love with the notes and I could recognize every single step of a piece, for example Tchaikovsky’s Opus 35 in D major, in the violin concerto. That’s why I couldn’t wait to embody Bernstein.”
The controversy over the nose and the (positive) comments from the children
Immediately after the release of the trailer for Master it exploded a small case on the bulky nose used by Cooper to physically resemble the composer.
The controversy centered on the anti-Semitism of a prominent and hooked nose describing Leonard’s Jewish origins. Luckily – to smooth everything over – the Jewish NGO Anti Defamation League intervened with a statement on the site Tmz: Wearing a denture is not inherently anti-Semitic.
Bradley Cooper and Matt Bomer (David Oppenheim). (Netflix)
As for instead the reaction of Bernstein’s three children upon viewing the film (and Cooper’s performance), Major Jamie became spokesperson for all three, declaring to the portal Collider That “Bradley’s energy is so similar to our father’s and we all immediately thought how well suited he was for the role. Bradley was simply perfect.”
On Carey’s interpretation Mulligan added «We didn’t know what to expect because our mother was a very complex person and he had many idiosyncrasies. Mom was also very reserved, so we didn’t know if an actress would be able to convey the essence of her. And she is simply amazing how great Carey was in doing this.”
The cast of Master
The main cast includes: Bradley Cooper as Leonard Bernstein. In that of his wife Felicia, Carey Mulligan. Matt Bomer instead plays the first lover: David Oppenheim. Sarah Silverman is Leonard’s sister, Shirley. Maya Hawke is Leonard’s daughter, Jamie. Gideon Glick he is the lover for whom Leonard leaves his wife: Tom Cothran.
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