LIDO, Venice, Italy – “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper’s long-aborning Leonard Bernstein biographical drama, world-premiered Saturday night at the Venice Film Festival.
Cooper also produced and co-wrote the decades-spanning story of the bisexual musical genius, a celebrated classical conductor and Broadway veteran. The focus is clearly on the complexities of Bernstein’s marriage to the Chilean-born Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan).
With its ample sampling of Bernstein’s varied musical compositions and an unusually candid celebrity portrait amid a series of glam settings, “Maestro” looms instantly as the rival of “Oppenheimer” as the year’s most ambitious prestige picture.
“I wouldn’t call it a biopic,” Jamie Bernstein, the eldest of the couple’s three children and a character in the film, said during a pre-premiere press conference. “The whole project began many years ago, when the idea was a more straightforward biopic. But Bradley came up with a different idea and he changed the concept and had it be more about this love story. A portrait of a marriage about both of our parents.
“That is always a good story because it’s about love and both of our parents were about sharing their love.
“My brother Alexander and sister Nina were overwhelmed by the degree Bradley took in telling an authentic story about our parents. He chose to involve us all through the process. We were part of watching this work of art come to life. It was touching to us, Bradley’s wanting to tell this story as authentically as he could.”
That search for authenticity led to Cooper’s now-controversial decision to wear a prosthetic nose. When the first publicity stills were released, Cooper was criticized for not being Jewish and for continuing the blighted tradition of “Jewface.”
Kazu Hiro, the film’s makeup artist, explained yesterday that he started a collaboration with the director and star in 2020. “But the pandemic started. I got him to come to my shop in August 2020 to start the design. During that time I was doing test makeups and film tests to find the best answer for the look.
“Finally, we started to film last May and prosthetic makeup takes a while to apply. The younger look was two hours 15 minutes. The older look took five hours. That was an extensive makeup time.”
Because Cooper wanted to be first on the set to meet the crew each day at 8 a.m, they would start at 2 a.m. so he could be finished before the crew call.
Noted Hiro. “When he showed up, he was already Lenny.”
Maya Hawke, whose parents are Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, plays Jamie Bernstein in the movie.
“Maestro” opens theatrically Nov. 22 before streaming on Netflix in December.