LE CONCERT

France, 2009, 119 minutes, Colour.
Aleksei Guskov, Dimitri Nazarov, Melanie Laurent, Francois Berleand, Miou- Miou, Valeri Barinov.
Directed by Radu Mihaileanu.

A very entertaining film, especially with audiences who have a love for classical music. Radu Milheanu is a Jewish Romanian director who has lived in Paris since his student days. He has made a number of socially conscious films like Va, Viens, Deviens about the Ethiopian Jews and their migrating to Israel. Here he combines some familiar themes of the experience of Communism, especially for Russian Jews. His story enables him to tell part of it in Moscow and the other part in Paris (and filming in Bucharest).

There is an amusing sleight of vision in the opening where we see a conductor passionately working with an orchestra and then finding that this is not quite the case. We then learn about a Bolshoi orchestra that was shut down in mid-performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major in 1980 and the Jewish musicians have not been able to play since and have menial jobs. An opportunity arises for them (or is surreptitiously set up for them) to play at Le Chatelet in Paris. The conductor chooses to play the Tchaikovsky concerto and wants a young French violinist (Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent compelling in this role) to be the soloist. So far, so lucky.

What follows is comedy, comedy of errors, comedy of apprehension, comedy of exploitation, the kind of scenario that the Ealing Studios comedies of the 1950s might have loved. Can the conductor (Aleksei Guskov) and his best friend (a celloist, now an ambulance driver, the genial Dmitri Nazarov) find enough musicians to play? Can they be trusted (not entirely!)? What about passports and visas?

There are also plenty of absurd moments when they get to Paris and we wonder whether the concert will ever go ahead – and even whether the musicians will turn up.

There is a sub-plot about the conductor and his collaboration with a young Russian violinst who was playing when the 1980 concert was interrupted. The screenplay seems to be leading us in one direction about the young violinist in the present time for us only to find that we had allowed ourselves to be misled (and to have made rash judgments).

We know that the concert will go ahead. Audiences will not be disappointed with the performance. It is very moving with the Tchaikovsky music and the violin artistry.

So, we have plenty of comedy and plenty of serious moments, plenty of pathos and the delight of the music.

1. The appeal of the film? Acclaim? The European audiences? Beyond?

2. The film anchored in Soviet history, the Soviet Union, communism, ideology, repression? Anti-Semitic? stances? Change, the Russian tradition, meeting French culture?

3. The handling of the Jewish issues, at the time of Brezhnev, the Jewish members of the orchestra, sent to the gulags?

4. The music, Tchaikovsky, Russian musical traditions, the comments about harmony? The love of music, the obsession, in Filipov, in Lea? The visuals of the gulag and her imaginary plane? The achievement for Anne- Marie in the concert? The audiences, weeping, Anne-Marie? weeping, Filipov and his achievement?

5. Moscow in the 21st century, homes, the Bolshoi Orchestra, Red Square, offices? The musical score?

6. Paris, the chatelet, the streets, the restaurants, hotels? The communist hall?

7. The opening joke, the musical score, the editing, Filipov conducting, discovering that he is a cleaner, his boss? The chance cleaning and the fax arriving, the beginnings of the plan?

8. Filipov and his wife, thirty years, her support? Sasha, his friend, driving the ambulance, losing his wife and children? Confronting Gavrilov? Sasha’s hostility? Filipov knowing that he was the best manager? The phone call to Paris, the agreements, the contacts, the contracts and conditions, Duplessis and his discussions in Paris, the condition of the restaurant, the per diem, the ride on the Seine, the hotel accommodation? Filipov and his beginning to recruit the players, the memories of the past, the range of players, his visits around Moscow? The Jewish father and son? The gypsies?

9. 1980, the flashbacks, the visual style, black and white? The ideology, the Jews, patriotism? Brezhnev? Gavrilov and his halting the concert? Lea and her husband, playing, Lea’s annotated score, their love for each other, the concert and Lea’s obsession, Lea and her husband giving interviews, arrested, going to the gulag, playing in imagination, her death, her husband’s death six months later from grief?

10. The comedy concerning contemporary Russia, organising the crowds for political rallies, getting guests for the weddings, the rivalries for having more guests than others, the gangster shootouts at the wedding? The entrepreneur – and his mother suggesting he buy a football team rather than support an orchestra?

11. Paris, Duplessis and his assistant, the boss, the Los Angeles orchestra pulling out, the phone calls, the contracts, the deals? The phone call in the middle of the wedding reception? The bluff about negotiations?

12. The passports, the forgeries, no bus, their walking to the airport?

13. At the airport, the man to meet them? Paris, their demands, going to the hotel, the riot for the per diem? The Frenchman and his credit card, the phone to the boss, paying the money? The orchestra disappearing, on the town, not going to the restaurant? Gavrilov and his losing control? Going to find the old restaurant – and the arrangement for it being redone and disguised? Sasha and Filipov eating the burgers?

14. The request for Anne- Marie, her being guided by Guylene? Guylene as her manager, control, the negotiation for her performance? Anne- Marie and her fear of Tchaikovsky? Her decision? Wanting to play with Filipov? The background of her origins, Guylene and her fear? The secret? Anne- Marie going to the rehearsal, the failure, the tantrum? The gypsy playing and her change of heart? Going to dinner with Filipov, the talk, the drinking, the story of Lea? Guylene and giving Anne- Marie Lea’s score? Anne- Marie going to the concert?

15. The orchestra’s behaviour in Paris, wandering, the Jewish father and son and their sales? Wanting to get back the mobile phones? The irresponsibility of the orchestra? Not turning up for the rehearsal? Filipov covering, Duplessis and his comments on the Russians?

16. The issue of television rights, the conditions – and using the satellites?

17. The fax back to Russia, the minister going on holidays, his assistant reading the fax? The minister, the family, tourism? Meeting Gavrilov? Gavrilov locking him in the room?

18. Gavrilov and his communist affiliations, packing the flag, going to the headquarters in Paris, meeting and discussing the issues? Going to the hall? His change of heart, going to the concert – and praying to God, if he exists, for the success of the performance?

19. The waiting, the Jewish father and son arriving late? The initial bad playing, seeming failure?

20. Anne- Marie and her beautiful playing, the response of the orchestra, improving, the success of the performance?

21. The final recital, the screenplay inserting narrative aspects within the performance, Filipov’s wife listening in Moscow, Sasha’s family seeing their father on television, the story about Lea and her husband told in flashbacks, the transporting of the baby from Russia to Paris, Guylene’s role? The success of the performances, the extra concerts, the collage of the favourable reviews in the papers?

22. The achievement, the reparation of thirty years? The ecstasy of their music, the applause?

23. A serious story but told with the light touch, comic and satiric aspects?