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“The film explores the remarkable life, uncompromising vision, and tempestuous journey of legendary conductor Sergiu Celibidache [with] John Malkovich [above] and Ben Schnetzer as Celibidache across different epochs of his life, alongside Sean Bean, Miranda Richardson, and Kate Phillips.
“With a magnificent cast including Academy Award-nominee Malkovich (Burn After Reading, Adaptation), Bafta-winner Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings), Academy Award-nominee Miranda Richardson (Sleepy Hollow, The Hours), and Kate Phillips (Peaky Blinders, Wolf Hall), this is a sweeping, sumptuous, generation-spanning biopic about famed Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache, filled with powerful set pieces and, of course, incredible classical music – including Bruckner, Berlioz and Brahms.
“Recalling Adrien Brody Oscar-winner The Pianist and Bradley Cooper’s celebrated Maestro, the film, brilliantly directed (and co-written) by Celibidache’s son Serge Ioan Celebidachi, and superbly shot by Peter Menzies Jr. (Clash of the Titans), is a uniquely personal tale of family, both a gripping portrait of a genius’s ascent to the pinnacle of art against a background of oppression, bigotry and war, and a passionate plea for preserving an artform that stirs the soul.
“Malkovich is outstanding as the elder Celibidache, a successful yet cynical and hot-tempered maestro railing against music being taken over by technology, while rising star Ben Schnetzer (The Madison, Pride) plays the conductor’s younger, more idealistic self, torn between family loyalty and following his calling.”
***
Celibidache conducts Prokofiev’s ‘Classical’ Symphony. Munich Philharmonic, 1988…
… and this remarkable Enescu…
Note the ultimate coda: taken in one tempo rather than the crass/crude broadening of so many conductors.