Bradley Cooper faithfully plays the role of the late composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in his film “Maestro,” which was shown Saturday in the official competition of the Venice Film Festival and explores the private life of the famous musician.
The actor and director of “Very Bad Trip,” “A Star is Born,” and others, was not present to accompany the screening of his film at the 80th edition of the Italian festival due to the strike of actors and screenwriters in Hollywood.
This film, which deals with the biography of the musician and has the blessing of his family, is seeking to win the Golden Lion Award. It is produced by Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for Netflix and is scheduled to be available on the streaming platform on December 20.
In two hours, "Maestro" focuses on the love life of Leonard Bernstein, who died in 1990, and deals with his homosexuality and his troubled relationship with his wife of Chilean origin, Felicia Con Montealegre, played by Carrie Malligan.
The film's backdrop to the distinguished career of the composer who led the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and made music history by composing the music for the famous musical "West Side Story."
As in his film A Star is Born, in which he starred with Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper explores the artist's connection between music composition and love life. The film also touches on Bernstein's relationship with his children, from whom he hid his homosexuality.
Maestro Jamie Bernstein's eldest daughter, whose memoirs the film was based on, said during a press conference in Venice, "I don't know why my father denied everything."
She noted that Bradley Cooper "made a great effort to make (the character) real." "Actually, it's a love story, our parents' love story," she added.
Bradley Cooper gave a distinguished acting performance that makes him a serious contender to win the Venice Film Festival.
The film was preceded in the United States by controversy over Bradley Cooper's decision to wear a prosthetic nose to play the role of Bernstein, born to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. Some saw this as a way to feed stereotypes about Jews, but the composer's three sons gave the actor and director their support.
