The Concert (2009)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

or from the past. simple. and powerful. for the script, the acting and the different problems who defines a concert of Bolshoi Theater. the humor, the memories, the desire to create the present as revenge of the past failure, the strange characters and the flavor of different cultures, mixed, defined one by the other are marks of Mihaileanu. the Concert preserves each of them and use the nuances in a splendid fresco about art and success. it is something magic in this film. the scenes about past, the meetings, the old secrets, the crumbs of the every day reality , the respiration of a dream who becomes reality. a film about a trip to yourself.

First of all, I'm very familiar with classical music because it's played all the time at home, so I guess I wasn't impressed or felt emotional at all by Tchaikovsky's music, like other reviewers were, since I've listened and watched the whole Violin Concerto many times before. Because of that, I was expecting some more from this movie besides the music, something that entertained me, or at least interested me. The top reviewer of this movie said it was worthy of paying a ticket just for the opening credits. THE OPENING CREDITS. Bravo. The problem is after that comes a 2-hours long (an editor, somewhere?) colossal bore about some orchestra conductor who was fired for defending Jewish musicians (same Jewish that are later completely ridiculized with the same old boring clichés I'm very sick of), and now works as a janitor in the same theatre where he used to conduct. Right, unbelievable. Any normal person would never come back to work at the place where he was humiliated that way, and much less to clean the floor. Dignity, anyone? Then he cheats the Bolshoi and reunite his old orchestra (they haven't played in 30 years) to cheat on the French making them believe they're the famous Bolshoi Theather Orchestra instead of a group of gypsies, and perform a concert in Paris. Everyone says this is a very funny movie. Well, I didn't laugh once, for the simple reason I'm not a racist, and that I've seen this dusty clichés in at least another 350 movies. Nobody in Paris notices they're not the Bolshoi Orchestra, even when they doesn't act or look like professional musicians, they go get drunk and play in the subway instead of rehearsing, in fact they didn't rehearse at all, AND A FAMOUS Paris THEATRE LETS THEM PLAY ANYWAY WITHOUT EVEN CHECKING WHO THEY ARE! Haha yeah I know, I should suspend my disbelief because it's a farce. Sure, and it's a very cheap one too. You suspend it, I didn't. They play awfully the first notes of the Concerto, and then, when the blonde violinist I was supposed to cry for when I couldn't care less about starts to play, the magically got it right and play it beautifully. Terrific. But of course, I'm just insensitive. You can go and laugh and cry and stay at the edge of your seat for 2 beautiful hours. Cry when the director tells you to cry, even when there's nothing to cry for, and believe that all those implausible situations might be real hilarious facts. Thank God I'm not another puppet. Goodbye.

In Moscow, the former conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra Andrey Simonovich Filipov (Alexeï Guskov) is presently the janitor of the theater. Andrey felt in disgrace with the Communist Party thirty years ago for protecting the Jewish musicians and was no longer allowed to conduct an orchestra. One night, Andrey reads a just-received fax while cleaning the office of the Bolshoi's director Leonid Vinichenko (Valentin Teodosiu) and he hides the document. He learns that the Châtelet Theater in Paris has just invited the Bolshoi Orchestra to perform a concert in Paris within two weeks. Andrey shows the fax to his friend and musician Aleksandr 'Sasha' Abramovich Grosman (Dimitri Nazarov) that drives an ambulance and he decides to reunite fifty-five former musicians of Bolshoi to travel to Paris and perform The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He invites the Communist leader and former KGB Ivan Gavrilov (Valeri Barinov) to manage the orchestra and he requests the solo of the prominent musician Anne- Marie Jacquet (Mélanie Laurent) and to stay in Paris for three days. When they arrive in Paris, Andrey meets Anne-Marie while the musicians wander in the city, partying and raising money. The unprofessionalism of the Russian musicians forces Anne-Marie to call off the concert; but Sasha convinces her to come to the theater. Meanwhile Andrey grieves the incident with the violinist Lea thirty years ago and hides a secret from Anne-Marie. What is the connection between Andrey and Anne-Marie?"Le Concert" is a film not only for movie lovers, but mainly for music lovers. This dramatic comedy tells an adorable bitter-sweet story about losses and second chance in life through music, or better, the wonderful and awesome Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. The director Radu Mihaileanu, from "Train de Vie", once again plays with tragic situations, using a witty screenplay with charismatic characters and making laugh and cry out of joy. I have seen the sequence of the concert at least eight consecutive times, full of emotion and with tears in my eyes. This is one of the most beautiful and touching climax I have ever seen in a film.The cast is fantastic and Mélanie Laurent is awesome, giving credibility to her violin solo during the presentation. Last but not the least, this film should have been at least nominated to the Oscar. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "O Concerto" ("The Concert" – not available on DVD or Blu-Ray)Note: On 10 August 2011, I saw this outstanding film again on DVD.

Andrei Filipov, a talented Russian conductor, has been reduced to being a janitor in the theater that he loved and showed a promise some years ago. He had the audacity to defy the then president Brezhnev when he gave the order to fire all the Jewish musicians of the orchestra, by going ahead in a performance with all the Jewish musicians the higher ups wanted to banish. In fact, Filipov suffers the ultimate humiliation as he is conducting the Tchaikovski violin concerto. Ivan Gavrilov, the head of the Bolshoi comes to him on stage and proceeds to break his baton.Some years later, Filipov cleaning the Bolshoi's manager office, reads an incoming fax in which the head of the Chatelet theater in Paris is asking his Russian counterpart for an appearance since a slot has become available. Andrei has no problem in stealing the fax and sets out a plan in which to dupe the French into believing the real Bolshoi will be appearing at the Chatelet. For that he must ask his old rival, Gavrilov, to help him at last finish his rendition of the famous concert."Le concert" is a Russian-French co-production conceived and directed by Radu Mihaileanu, although it is based on a story by Hector Cabello Reyes and Thiery Degrandi. The comedy is basically seen from the Russian point of view. Andrei is able to assemble a motley crew of old Jewish musicians that were banned from playing in their native land because of prevailing prejudice against talented people that were seen as a threat to the government because of their intelligence.Andrei Filipov, through Gavrilov, demands the present of a young French violinist, Anne-Marie Jacquet, whose past, we get to know, has a connection with the maestro. The revelation is not earth shattering since the viewer has already guessed why Andrei wants Anne-Marie as the soloist for the Tchaikovski.Aleksei Guskov appears as Andrei Filipov, the disgraced musician. His sidekick is played by Dmitri Nazarov. Melanie Laurent makes an appealing Anne-Marie. Miou-Miou, Laurent Bateau and Francois Berland are seen in supporting roles.