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Also Known As: - |
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| Year of first release: 2009 | |
| Director: Radu Mihaileanu (Train of Life) | |
| Actors: Aleksey Guskov, Dmitriy Nazarov, Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds), Miou-Miou | |
| Country: F, I, RO, B, RUS | |
| Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music | |
| Conditions of visioning: 10.08.2013, Blu-ray, Home cinema | |
| Synopsis: Andrey (Guskov) was a world-famous maestro when the soviet regime dismantled his orchester thirty years ago. He finds today the opportunity to re-unite the band and go play in Paris. | |
| Review: I wanted to watch something different in this intense Star Trek period, so I remembered this Blu-ray I bought some time ago on the advice of my co-blogger. One could see the story as quite classical (the gifted exile will meet glory again) but the soviet background and the world of classical music sets it apart. The comedy in the movie lies exclusively in the tricks the group has to play to make believe they are the Bolshoi while they have just been poor and not an orchester in the last thirty years. Being French you also smile at the funny way the Russians speak your tongue. You could think that everything is said after one hour, but then the group arrives in Paris and new problems arise, new characters appear, and the second hour is quite different and complementary. Guskov plays beautifully the frustated russian genius in love with music but that is not allowed to conduct anymore. He helps a lot making the movie realistic, together with the fact that everybody speaks their own language and you have to read sub-titles half of the times. Not like in many other movies in which foreigners speak English even when between themselves. And then you have the music, in background during all the movie when people have flashbacks or when they talk about music, and then in full during the last twenty minutes (with almost no dialog). Don't you dare watching the movie on a computer screen or even on TV with its built-in speakers; you would miss all the intensity of the final concert. I found it a brilliant idea to show the epilogue of the movie while the band plays so that the flow of the melody is not interrupted, and end the movie right after the last note so that you conclude the viewing with a nice feeling. The only bad comment I could make about the movie is that it contains all the clichés of the Jew looking for business everywhere, the resourceful Gypsy, and the band of drunk Russians but is is all quite funny or 'uplifting' as the poster says |
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Rating: 8 /10
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More than entertainment, an Art.
Sunday, August 11, 2013
Le Concert (2009)
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The comedy is indeed coming from the strange situations and quiproquos all along the movie. In that sense, it seems like a classical comedian theater play. But indeed some characters and the music gives a lot of drama, intensity and deepness, in particular in the last concert. I should watch it again.
ReplyDeleteMy rating is also 8/10.
So I watched it again. And I have been srprised also by the Jewish jokes. Great! And the last music play is grandiose. The actor playing the orchestra director looks really possessed by his vision. Really a good movie.
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