Alexei Guskov and Mélanie Laurent in The Concert, a comedy about an orchestra that reassembles for a performance. Watch the preview: http://www.moviefone.com/movie/the-concert/51102/main
Last Sunday (11/14) we drove up to Portsmouth NH for our last trip of the year. I've been suffering for almost a month with what I thought was a lingering head cold. My wife wasn't sure if I was fit for the trip but as she said, I would go to Portsmouth if I was on my deathbed. I'm on my second medication (the first antibiotic did nothing) for what appears to be a stubborn sinus infection. My nose kept running and I wasn't sure if I had the flu or a bad reaction from the recent flu shot. Since my wife & son didn't catch my malady, that ruled out having a cold or a contagious condition. So far the new medication seems to being working to dry me up. It's been a slowwww process but I'm improving.....
>>We did our usuals in Portsmouth and stayed downtown at our favorite inn. The off season greatly reduced rates is a plus. At my favorite store Bull Moose Music, I traded in three bags of CDs & DVDs to get $155 in store credit. I used most of it on new purchases and still have some left for the next trip which will probably be in April. It's hard to plan winter trips because of the weather.
>>Seeing a foreign film was the excuse for our trip.... as if we needed one. The Concert is about a Russian orchestra conductor who was banned from his job during the Brezhnev years for defending Jewish musicians and now works as a janitor in the same place, the Bolshoi Orchestra. When he intercepts a fax requesting.... damn I'm too tired and congested to write a plot summary so here's the one from Wikipedia: "A former world-famous conductor of the Bolshoï orchestra, known as "The Maëstro", Andreï Filipov had seen his career publicly broken by Brezhnev and now works cleaning the concert hall where he once directed. One day, he intercepts an official invitation from the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet. Through a series of mad antics, he reunites his old orchestra, and flies to perform in Paris and complete the Tchaikovsky concerto interrupted 30 years earlier. For the concerto, he engages a young violin soloist with whom he has an unexpected connection."
>>Much of the humor evolves from the Russians speaking fractured French and enjoying themselves in Paris, perhaps too much as you would expect after living in their drab homeland and now tasting freedom. There's topical issues about the changing political scene and the new Russian millionaires who can buy everything, including one who thinks he's a good musician and buys a seat in the orchestra by financing their trip. The 'connection' between Andrei and the young violinist is revealed through his voiceover and flashbacks during their performance and it's not what you first think it is.
>>Besides you getting to hear the entire concerto played, the films ends on a happy note as it deserves. Even the Russian who banished Andrei has a change of heart and comes to everyone's aid to prevent a fiasco onstage. Besides the good performances from everyone who seem right due to proper casting, Melanie Laurent is appealing as the young violinist and I forgot she played the theater owner in Inglorious Basterds. Like that film, The Concert demonstrates the director's clever touch in mingling comedy, satire, and seriousness to the film's advantage and the audience's pleasure as everyone around us laughed in the right places and applauded at the end.
>>We did our usuals in Portsmouth and stayed downtown at our favorite inn. The off season greatly reduced rates is a plus. At my favorite store Bull Moose Music, I traded in three bags of CDs & DVDs to get $155 in store credit. I used most of it on new purchases and still have some left for the next trip which will probably be in April. It's hard to plan winter trips because of the weather.
>>Seeing a foreign film was the excuse for our trip.... as if we needed one. The Concert is about a Russian orchestra conductor who was banned from his job during the Brezhnev years for defending Jewish musicians and now works as a janitor in the same place, the Bolshoi Orchestra. When he intercepts a fax requesting.... damn I'm too tired and congested to write a plot summary so here's the one from Wikipedia: "A former world-famous conductor of the Bolshoï orchestra, known as "The Maëstro", Andreï Filipov had seen his career publicly broken by Brezhnev and now works cleaning the concert hall where he once directed. One day, he intercepts an official invitation from the prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet. Through a series of mad antics, he reunites his old orchestra, and flies to perform in Paris and complete the Tchaikovsky concerto interrupted 30 years earlier. For the concerto, he engages a young violin soloist with whom he has an unexpected connection."
>>Much of the humor evolves from the Russians speaking fractured French and enjoying themselves in Paris, perhaps too much as you would expect after living in their drab homeland and now tasting freedom. There's topical issues about the changing political scene and the new Russian millionaires who can buy everything, including one who thinks he's a good musician and buys a seat in the orchestra by financing their trip. The 'connection' between Andrei and the young violinist is revealed through his voiceover and flashbacks during their performance and it's not what you first think it is.
>>Besides you getting to hear the entire concerto played, the films ends on a happy note as it deserves. Even the Russian who banished Andrei has a change of heart and comes to everyone's aid to prevent a fiasco onstage. Besides the good performances from everyone who seem right due to proper casting, Melanie Laurent is appealing as the young violinist and I forgot she played the theater owner in Inglorious Basterds. Like that film, The Concert demonstrates the director's clever touch in mingling comedy, satire, and seriousness to the film's advantage and the audience's pleasure as everyone around us laughed in the right places and applauded at the end.
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