Abstract
Maestro, 2023
Runtime: 2 h 11 m | Drama
Director: Bradley Cooper
Writers: Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer
Producers: Martin Scorsese, Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger, Fred Berner, and Amy Durning.
Awards: Nominated for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2023.
“Maestro,” released in November 2023, is an engaging film about the conductor composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. The film has received copious reviews, some of which highlight the portrayal of the immense and brilliant character of the conductor himself, and others which focus on the creative elements of the filmmaking or on the performances of Bradely Cooper (Leonard Bernstein) and Carey Mulligan (Felicia Montealegre).
A viewer is presented with Leonard Bernstein, who is intensely preoccupied, enormously talented, and emotionally ambivalent. He has incredible abilities, ones that exceed his capacities to contain and express them without turmoil. His desires for love and sex with men, and the inability to express those passions freely in mid-century America, add unique complexities to his life, as they appear to impact his ability to be emotionally fulfilled.
A viewer will witness Bernstein's expressive energy as a conductor and mental rigor as a composer. The film extends those traits beyond his compositional and extravagant conducting style to his tendency to fall in love quickly, effortlessly, and often.
The visuals immerse viewers in the story, portraying the tension in Bernstein's and Montealegre's life, alone and together. Excellent choices were made selecting music that was almost entirely excerpts of his compositions.
One moment in the film captured my attention by raising a personal reflection to a universal comment on loving relationships. Felicia was aware of Bernstein's attraction and sexual relationships with men from the start of their relationship. The film never suggests that Felicia thought she could change him. Instead, she demanded discretion. However, in one reflective moment, Felicia is talking with Bernstein's sister, Shirley Bernstein (Sarah Silverman), and says, “It's my own arrogance to think I could survive on what he could give.”
In a film that captures our attention with music and personalities, Felicia's words add potency to the story. Speaking aloud those few words, Felicia's suffering is made clearly visible. With that utterance, there is no suggestion that ultimately, Felicia will succeed in receiving greater love and attention from her husband or that she will receive some reward for the love she has given him thus far. She won’t be compensated for the suffering she has already endured.
The silent ways of the processing mind remain curiously mysterious. In this instance, viewers hear how long the knowing was before it became a concrete reality. It was then that Felicia let these words slip out. As a viewer, I imagined the misery she felt knowing that stable, trustworthy love with Bernstein was unattainable.
Maestro moves forward, as life does, and surprises viewers with a different focus, one that suggests Bernstein's loyalty to Felicia, as rigorous as his creative spirit often was.
How common it is that in our fervent desire to love we put aside all that we know about ourselves, all that we know about the other, overestimating our capacities and underestimating the force of love.
We may recognize an occasion of gripping love in our own life. As mental health and spiritual care providers we are familiar with distress and grief caused by an unfulfilled desire to love and be loved. Any love unfulfilled is painful. We know that refusal to accept that reality brings about suffering and a dearth of energy to create a new path and restore love's meaning and possibilities.
