Exciting pace, crescendo of tension and drama. It’s not just a script Owner, but also, in essence, the life of the legendary composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. The life described here is not brief and didactic, but deep, multifaceted and unpredictable. An existence in which being on a podium with a baton in hand is only a small part of the whole, even if it is very stressful and difficult for the great man we see at work, sweating and engaged in moments of enormous physical activity that Cooper faces with energy with enthusiasm. . But the point of the film is something else: an attempt to tell the story of the tumultuous but authentic relationship between Bernstein and his wife Felicia. A union that, from your point of view, was quirky and progressive at the same time. This is because, although attached to her and madly in love, Bernstein had various relationships with men, which she somehow tolerated so as not to clip his wings and unconditional freedom. An important detail of this complex personality, which the film, remaining true to its mission of depicting a deep and lasting heterosexual marriage, for some reason does not gloss over.
Bradley Cooper returns to the Venice Film Festival for the second time with a film in which he is seen not only as the lead actor, but also as a director. In 2018 he actually came to Lido. A star is born where he performed alongside Lady Gaga in the remake of the very famous musical of the same name. WITH Owner, which debuts on Netflix on December 20, along with a stellar cast consisting of names like Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Maya Thurman-Hawk, Cooper brings us back the art and, most of all, the life of Leonard Bernstein, the eclectic musician who is best known for songs West Side Story, but above all a composer of symphonic and orchestral music – one of the greatest Americans – gifted with a talent that allowed him to conduct Callas for a dozen years at La Scala in Milan, the New York Philharmonic, as well as some of the world’s greatest orchestras .
There is no shortage of great moments for classical music lovers, thanks primarily to the intense tension contained in the song’s performance. Symphony of the Resurrection Mahler in “The Cathedral of Ely”, which also takes on an almost cathartic meaning for the protagonist and where his life is at the moment, or a moving audacity Unusual freewith the first exciting memories of dance problems West Side Storyor fast movements and brisk pace Quiet place. Cooper relies heavily on these three episodes to convey the message. And why not, considering that they are a testament to the creation of a child prodigy, his original ingenuity and his extraordinary ear and eye for interpreting the classics of the past to bring something new to the world.
However, there is not only passion here, but also confusion – as, in fact, often happens in passionate dynamics. Wandering among personal dramas, the film perhaps becomes a little confused about its intentions. That is, unless Cooper’s goal is to paint a huge mural of the drama and emotion that overcomes a great composer (which he does very well), then there are some gaps here. Some characters are picked up and abandoned on the street when they should have had more depth: her first lover, clarinetist David Jerome Oppenheim, or her daughter Jamie, in constant conflict and fear with the gossip that is told about her father, and may have been it would be useful to focus even more on the wife’s illness, which has just been outlined.
However, if there is anyone who really liked the film, it was the Bernstein family, the heirs: “It was incredibly moving how Bradley told this story in such an authentic way,” the eldest daughter said at a press conference at the Lido. Following the release of the film’s first official trailer, the director also faced controversy for his decision to use a prosthetic nose to look more like the character. Accused of anti-Semitism because in someone’s head he is guilty of using “Jewish face”, literally “Jewish face”, is considered offensive. The controversy, however, ended in a very short time, since even the heirs themselves came to his defense, saying that Cooper did everything to be as close as possible to Leonard’s figure.
Even if the film’s relentless pace is sometimes difficult to maintain, the performances from Cooper and Carey Mulligan give the film a breakneck artistic edge. To see them in the early stages of their love story, which will manifest itself in a fickle future, consisting primarily of endurance and resilience, but which in these first moments is incredible, truly devastating to those who watch, it is so compelling to see. two people who love each other so much, absurdly and overwhelmingly. Felicia Montealegre Cohn, with whom young Bernstein falls in love at a party, is an actress of Costa Rican origin but raised in Chile and American on her father’s side, a cosmopolitan cocktail and therefore the result of immigration, which, together with eclecticism and l Impossibility of being pigeonholed into one role means the two know they share a world from the first moment they shake hands, and Leonard is intrigued by the exotic nature of her last name.
It must be said that if, on the one hand, we are talking about the bisexuality of the main character, Owner however, he is almost absurdly silent about the political activities of Bernstein and his wife. And one wonders why, given that this is a house-sized piece of their life and their odyssey. Remember the famous trick in favor Black Panthers which Montealegre kept right in his New York apartment in 1970 and which prompted Tom Wolfe to create that disdainful and then eternally reviled expression throughout the world: “radical chic.” There is not the slightest mention in the film of these minor aspects of their social life. Not to any other noble cause of the couple. One gets the uncomfortable impression that Cooper wants to keep the film free of political implications—and complications—to avoid overly defining and contextualizing these two lovers, whom we are meant to see as just that, in love while they compete so fiercely for our love. sympathy, as if politicizing them would deprive someone of consensus and pleasure, and this wink is somehow unpleasant.
However, Cooper, in his second test behind the camera, demonstrates a maturity and ease in moving from the depths of black and white to the enveloping embrace of those creamy, soft, rich colors, from the lightness of a romantic comedy to the seriousness of a playwright, from the sultry rhythms of a musical to the still camera when the impending illness inexorably invades their imperfect but generally happy existence and everything else. And then making such a film is the same as trying to direct Mahler, the execution will never be perfect, but if the conditions and the subjects involved are at the right level, it’s worth a try.