Hello I’m Lenny hello Felicia he was one of the most significant important conductors of his time but the sweep of his career goes far beyond conducting composer educator Leonard Bernstein the subject of the new biopic Maestro It’s Bradley Cooper who stars and directs this movie it’s the
Music but it is the love story as well between Lenny and his wife Felicia oh my goodness let’s listen into just a little bit there’s a price for being in my brother’s orbit you know that ah and the price that’s a big part of the story too I can’t wait okay
Enough we bring in Eli right away I have been anticipating this movie all film season and here it’s finally arrived and I’m I’m hearing the music I just want to I just want to stop and watch and I’ve already seen it like multiple times really I I have and let me tell you
Something that is so remark able this movie starts with little Bradley Cooper a kid growing up just outside of Philadelphia and he was watching cartoons and it was Tom and Jerry and in particular Bugs Bunny there’s a Bugs Bunny cartoon where he’s conducting and that was the Gateway that was the vector
There it is right seeing bugs do his thing inspired Bradley Cooper at 8 years old he asked Santa for a con he would stand in his room putting on records by Leonard Bernstein waving his arms about imagining himself in front of the orchestra and then imagine decades later
Steven Spielberg says you know so I’ve been working on this film about Leonard Bernstein and he sees the remarkable directing and performance in A Star is Born and says okay Cooper we we need to talk and Cooper says well funny you mention that because he’d happened to
Have been a lifelong fan of the man who baton he was about to pick up is that so that’s the backstory that’s led to Maestro out on Netflix out in the theaters too but how do you cover the sweep of Bernstein’s influence I mean what’s the timeline this looks at so the
Timeline is this big and more right we’re talking I think uh 43 to 1989 but the way they do that is vignettes so moments snapshots meetings here and there almost like music notes on a page you get all these little ideas these little happenings and
They add up to what is basically I think a cinematic Symphony of you talked about the cost a complicated kind of love so we start in the beginning Burnstein gets a phone call early in the morning it’s his big break another conductor is sick he is going to go on stage and conduct
The uh Carnegie philarmonic at this time this was a broadcast this was heard Across America this was a big deal but already he is leading multiple lives when he gets that phone call he’s in bed with another man and then he has to step onto the stage in his tux and be the
Perfect American but then he meets this actress who sees him like no one else does take a look she’s so beautiful tell me about oh she’s wonderful she’s lovely girl what age are we living in one can be as free as one likes without guilt or confession please I know exactly who you
Are she sees and she sees what’s happening he’s a rising star conductor she’s on Broadway now there’s been a lot of talk about Bradley Cooper’s appearance when this was first announced the fact that he’s not Jewish but playing a Jewish composer and had Prosthetics including Prosthetics on his
Nose I’ve seen it you can see the footage there I think it’s actually quite subtle it’s the same makeup artist who got an Oscar for transforming Gary Oldman into Winston Church Hill and the effect is really family supported the family supports it and I just think
Remember Cooper has his own nose so it’s not like it was like really putting that much and it also helps make us realize okay Cooper’s kind of a handsome guy on his own so this does bring him more into Lenny territory but it’s not just the physical appearance it’s also The Voice
Work I want to show you I mean Cooper is just an amazing artist with what he can do with his vocal cords with his Timber we’re going to take you early in the beginning of the courtship and this is a scene that came out of their acting exercises they were just workshopping
Them Carrie Mulligan and Bradley Cooper and so you’ll see them back to back and he’s trying to guess a number in Felicia’s head take a look I could just call maybe I should stop and think for a second you just stop and think cuz I am sending it to you 20
No so how long do we have to do this for well we need to build up a very strong connection now they did build a strong connection and uh a lot of it required Felicia to make sacrifices as Leonard star rose higher and higher but then decades later here they are again back
To back and now it’s Felicia guessing Leonard’s number take a look I’m thinking of a number oh I don’t know nine no five no you have to think older and grayer but still support you hear the voice like that that rich baritone that you might know if you’re a
Fan of lard Burstein what happens in between those two scenes is the heart of this film and really a very complicated Kind of Love Story Carrie Mulligan as Felicia is giving us a very modern woman who entered this marriage Eyes Wide Open who talks to his sister played by Sarah
Silverman about sacrifice but it’s saying that and then living that and then years later as the movie shifts from black and white to color we start to see The Strain that it is really um calling on her not only that I’m en raptured by listening to you here but
I’m also enjoying in all of the trailer scenes that we look into MERS coming through M’s fifth the music of this film must be extraordinary so two amazing things one is like this doesn’t give you a lot of insight into actually his process but what the Master stroke that
Cooper had is he’s using Leonard Bernstein’s own music his famous electric orchestral scores from Westside Story from candid and more to accompany those moments of their life together and so this is the greatest example in the 70s this is the real deal this is the actual um performance of Mer’s second
Symphony he trained with yanek Nez Sean a conductor from Montreal learning how to be Leonard learning how to be a conductor no easy feet and so there is the rehearsal footage where you can see that’s yanic and that is the actual London Symphony Orchestra Cooper says he
Spent six years learning that and I’ll show you let me show you first the real Leonard Bernstein so we have we’re going to watch a little of that so this is I think early 1970s let’s take a look amazing you see that sense of of joy that Bliss it’s almost Transcendent and
Now let’s ceue it up and we’re going to watch the recreation Cooper directing the actual London Symphony Orchestra in the film let’s take a look you see he is in the moment and there’s the sense of unbridled Joy of Abandonment this is the place that Bernstein was most at home was most free
Was most himself you see those bows Bo frantically in the film this is 6 minutes of ecstasy it is I I almost left out of my chair and then when it ends when it finishes when he back bows his head drenched in sweat who’s waiting for
Him as always the woman in the wings there she is Felicia embracing him because this was his truth this was him at his his most pure it is remarkable it is in theaters now in Toronto and Vancouver it will be on Netflix uh December 20th see it on the biggest
Screen you can or Jam your head up to the speakers in your living room so you can feel what he felt and all of that to build up to this moment this is Eli’s number yeah just I you know it is it is truly
It is Flawless it is a masterpiece i i i i exited the theater levitating I just like the the journey he brings us and the story of those those two hearts intertwined I think it’s remarkable Maestro thank you so much thank you see you next week appreciate it
As a child, Bradley Cooper would emulate Leonard Bernstein conducting the orchestra. Now, he stars in Maestro, the biopic he also co-wrote and directed, which CBC’s Eli Glasner calls a soaring symphony.
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The expertise you share in this video is incredibly insightful. Thank you!?