Synopsis
A former world-famous conductor of the Bolshoï orchestra, known as "The Maëstro", Andreï Filipov had seen his career publicly broken by Leonid Brezhnev for hiring Jewish musicians 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, now composed of old alcoholic musicians, 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.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Aleksey GuskovAndrey Simonovich Filipov
- Mélanie LaurentAnne-Marie Jacquet
- Dmitri NazarovAleksandr 'Sasha' Abramovich Grosman
- François BerléandOlivier Morne Duplessis
- Miou-MiouGuylène de La Rivière
- Lionel AbelanskiJean-Paul Carrère
- Valeriy BarinovIvan Gavrilov
- Sara MartinsSecretaire Duplessis
- Laurent BateauBertrand
- Vlad IvanovPyotr Tretyakin
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
The crowd-pleasing comic Euro-drama The Concert is, at its musical center, as full of ripe emotion as Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in D Major. It's also as darkly funny as a Slavic farce, a composition of sweet cacophony. - 80
Los Angeles Times
Moves from rowdy, broad comedy to shameless heart-tugging, but Romanian writer-director Radu Mihaileanu keeps this French production flowing buoyantly, skittering past all manner of improbabilities. - 70
Boxoffice Magazine
Fans of "Train of Life" will undoubtedly embrace the picture's similarly ragtag collection of clever, lovable misfits. - 65
Movieline
A pleasant dramatic caper that wears out its welcome, The Concert is the houseguest who sings a little too loudly and too long for his supper, tone deaf to the line between charm and imposition. - 60
Empire
More sentimental, less spiky than Mihaileanu's stock-in-trade, Le Concert is an enjoyable take on the underdogs genre. And Laurent and the music are sublime. - 60
New York Daily News
How much control are you willing to cede when you see a movie? Because director Radu Mihaileanu is fiercely determined to manipulate your every emotion. - 50
Variety
The story regurgitates the usual trappings of underdog tales, milking stereotypes as well as tear ducts. - 40
Village Voice
Beyond fans of Mélanie Laurent--who furiously fingers a fiddle and wears flashback wigs--The Concert may appeal to those who delight in stereotypes.
