A first batch of images from the film tracing the life of the composer of West Side Story and conductor shows the actor transformed under a beautiful layer of makeup.
The orchestra is still missing, but the image is already there. The arched back, the sleeves of the shirt rolled up, a cigarette in the hand, the look inspector; the conductor watches. He has the wrinkles of experience, a little air of Leonard Bernstein. And Bradley Cooper’s eyes. It is not a coincidence. The American actor, producer and director plays the former musical director of the New York Philharmonic in Maestrohis new film currently being shot.
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Unveiled on Monday by the Netflix platform, which will broadcast the feature film in 2023, the first images of Maestro present Bradley Cooper in the skin of the conductor emeritus and in that of the insolent virtuoso of the desk that the young Leonard Bernstein was also. In a black and white of circumstance, the actor appears radiant alongside Carey Mulligan, who camps the actress Felicia Montealegre, great love and – incidentally – wife of the conductor. The story, approved by Leonard Bernstein’s family, should largely focus on their affair.
In the eyes of Leonard Bernstein
It seems fashionable in every Hollywood biopic for a few years to make up its stars – whether it’s Gary Oldman in The Dark Hours or Jessica Chastain, with In the eyes of Tammy Faye –, under increasingly generous make-up coulis. Bradley Cooper is no exception to this trend and thus appears prodigiously transformed in the only image showing him as an old Leonard Bernstein. A highway for the Oscars, certainly. “We worked a lot on the make-up, but we also worked a lot on the voice”ensured in December at variety , Scott Stuber, head of original Netflix features. The career of the conductor who died in 1990 should above all offer American cinema a film full of orchestras and music.
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Born in 1918, Leonard Bernstein is known to have remained at the head of the New York Philharmonic for a long time, starting in the 1950s. New York Times, he became one of the most illustrious conductors of his generation, and a renowned composer. His most famous work, the musical West Side Story , achieved a resounding success and was recently re-adapted by Steven Spielberg. It is no coincidence that the filmmaker wanted to take charge of Leonard Bernstein’s biography in person. He eventually handed over to Bradley Cooper.
The project of a biopic dedicated to the composer had been fiercely disputed between Netflix and Paramount Pictures. The production company had to bury its idea of a film on Leonard Bernstein, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the main role. Bradley Cooper thus finds himself headlining the project carried by Netflix and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese with the blessing of the Bernstein family. The actor is not in his first film on the musical world. This biographical project is the second feature film by the 47-year-old actor, whose first production, A Star Is Born had a great critical and commercial success in 2018. For the time being, a filmography without false notes.
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