Maestro

Bradley Cooper teams up with Academy Award-winning writer of Spotlight (2015) to bring the personal life of Leonard Bernstein to the screen.

When the New York Philharmonic's guest conductor is struck down by the flu, wunderkind conductor-on-the-rise Leonard Bernstein finds himself urgently subbing into a high-stakes, unrehearsed performance at Carnegie Hall. Instantly propelled to fame, his star's trajectory collides with actor Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) kickstarting a lifelong partnership.

Curator's Note

After a directorial debut adapting A Star is Born for a new generation, Bradley Cooper hitches his creative wagon to the prodigiously talented American composer Leonard Bernstein carving out a penchant for folding music and performance into cinema form. Cooper delivers on all fronts: his performance as Bernstein is excellent, the screenplay smartly favours the personal over the professional and his direction pays beautiful homage to the periods it retraces with stylistic awareness. However, it is Carey Mulligan who will stun audiences with one of the finest performances of the year.

Maestro made its world premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival.

– Reece Goodwin; Curator (Film & TV)