Photo, Rory Isserow
Richard Landau writes… This film is a very personal and heartfelt tribute to conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-96) by his son Serge Ioan Celibidachi [sic], the movie’s producer, in which he depicts the family’s background in its Romanian homeland – especially challenging during the period of Soviet hegemony – sympathetically exploring Celibidache’s personal life, including a glimpse of what seems to have been a very happy marriage – and deftly offers an account of the main features of the musical-cum-spiritual beliefs that lay at the core of his music making.
There’s an especially well-developed performance from Ben Schnetzer as the young ‘Celi’, pursuing his career in the face of many obstacles, not least of which was his very domineering father Domostene, convincingly played by Sean Bean.
Among others in the large and impressive cast (including John Malkovich and Miranda Richardson as respectively the older Sergiu and Iona), I also found Anton Lesser memorable in the brief role of Martin Steinke who offers an older man’s words of wisdom to the aspiring conductor-composer.
The music includes excerpts from works by Ravel, Beethoven and Bruckner; and it was interesting to hear part of a composition by Celibidache himself, Der Taschengarten, which – in the film at least – occupied the second part of the now-famous Bucharest concert that included the first Romanian Rhapsody by Enescu. Ben Schnetzer directs that exhilarating piece almost as characterfully as Celi himself did (included below, a thirteen-minute joyful experience that demands repeated viewing!).
All in all, this is a high quality biopic, beautifully shot and extremely well-acted.
This film raised one up with music and brought you crashing down with the realities of life, family, and love.
Being whisked though a life filled with passion, intensity and drama, kept me spellbound. I am so sorry that I never got to share a concert with the man in real life.
I highly recommend it on all levels.