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MovieMail's Review
When a bunch of plucky Russians impersonate the Bolshoi orchestra and head to Paris hilarity ensures. Rob Mackie hums along to this heartfelt French farce.
The Concert starts like an Ealing comedy, but turns into an impassioned drama.
Aleksei Guskov stars as a once-celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra who was sacked from the post 30 years previously for hiring Jewish musicians, and who has worked in the menial role of theatre janitor ever since. However, a swiped fax to the Bolshoi enables him to put together a fake version of the Moscow outfit to take up an invite to play in Paris.
This requires the old cinematic staple of putting a team together, as well as requiring 60 blank visas and finding a rich sponsor – despite complaints from his disapproving mother.
Director Mihaileanu fled Ceausescu’s Romania for Paris and enjoys putting the boot into the city’s remaining communists.
The arrival of Mélanie Laurent – so impressive in Inglourious Basterds – as a star violinist signals a change of tone.
Hers is a nicely nuanced performance among exuberant stereotypes, enabling a farcical scenario to achieve some surprisingly moving moments around an impressively staged performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
Andrei Flipov was a prodigy - the celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, the greatest orchestra in Russia. Today aged 50, he still works at the Bolshoi, but as a cleaner.
During the communist era he was fired at the height of his fame for refusing to get rid of all his Jewish players, including his best friend Sacha Grossman. Then Andrei finds a fax. An invitation for the orchestra to play at Pleyel, in Paris, in two weeks time, as a last minute replacement for the indisposed San Francisco Philharmonic.
This Russian-French comedy drama stars Aleksei Guskov, Melanie Laurent and Valeriy Barinov.
