Movie Summary of The Concert By Michael The Moviegoer
THE CONCERT = ***
“The Gift Of Music”
Radu Mihaileanu’s “The Concert” is a film in search of a genre. It starts as a comedy and ends as a drama. Both parts are equally enjoyable thanks to a genuinely touching performance by french actress Melanie Laurent.
The comedy part involves a janitor for the Bolshoi Orchestra who many years ago was a celebrated conductor but lost his job as a result of his political beliefs. He intercepts a FAX’d invitation for the Bolshoi Orchestra to come and play in Paris with a french violin star played beautifully by Laurent. So he assembles his now very old orchestra friends to pose as the Bolshoi Orchestra and basically hijack the show.
The drama involves the violinist’s mysterious past, who her parents are and why she plays Tchaikovsky so well.
Alexei Guskov leads this band of misfits into Paris to finish the concert that Communism wouldn’t let them finish decades ago. Guskov perfectly balance comedy and drama with a skill that reminded me of Dustin Hoffman. Melanie Laurent is impossibly beautiful, but still comes off as genuine and real.
DVD Double Feature: Celebrate the recent work of this fine french actress by catching Melanie Laurent in Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”. Here she also plays a girl with a mysterious link to a past life, and in both films there is quite the similarity between those pasts.
Michael The Moviegoer
