Sorry, this movie sucks

Sick Product of a Sick System

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

In Moscow, the former conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra Andrey Simonovich Filipov (Alexeï Guskov) is presently the janitor of the theater. Andrey felt in disgrace with the Communist Party thirty years ago for protecting the Jewish musicians and was no longer allowed to conduct an orchestra. One night, Andrey reads a just-received fax while cleaning the office of the Bolshoi's director Leonid Vinichenko (Valentin Teodosiu) and he hides the document. He learns that the Châtelet Theater in Paris has just invited the Bolshoi Orchestra to perform a concert in Paris within two weeks. Andrey shows the fax to his friend and musician Aleksandr 'Sasha' Abramovich Grosman (Dimitri Nazarov) that drives an ambulance and he decides to reunite fifty-five former musicians of Bolshoi to travel to Paris and perform The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He invites the Communist leader and former KGB Ivan Gavrilov (Valeri Barinov) to manage the orchestra and he requests the solo of the prominent musician Anne- Marie Jacquet (Mélanie Laurent) and to stay in Paris for three days. When they arrive in Paris, Andrey meets Anne-Marie while the musicians wander in the city, partying and raising money. The unprofessionalism of the Russian musicians forces Anne-Marie to call off the concert; but Sasha convinces her to come to the theater. Meanwhile Andrey grieves the incident with the violinist Lea thirty years ago and hides a secret from Anne-Marie. What is the connection between Andrey and Anne-Marie?"Le Concert" is a film not only for movie lovers, but mainly for music lovers. This dramatic comedy tells an adorable bitter-sweet story about losses and second chance in life through music, or better, the wonderful and awesome Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto. The director Radu Mihaileanu, from "Train de Vie", once again plays with tragic situations, using a witty screenplay with charismatic characters and making laugh and cry out of joy. I have seen the sequence of the concert at least eight consecutive times, full of emotion and with tears in my eyes. This is one of the most beautiful and touching climax I have ever seen in a film.The cast is fantastic and Mélanie Laurent is awesome, giving credibility to her violin solo during the presentation. Last but not the least, this film should have been at least nominated to the Oscar. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): "O Concerto" ("The Concert" – not available on DVD or Blu-Ray)Note: On 10 August 2011, I saw this outstanding film again on DVD.

The title is not of those "it's about Russians" things, but an expression of the success of the movie in conveying the emotions related to a concert, making even me understand the effort and be moved at the end, when they finally do it.The movie has a great idea, a funny script and all the actors in it play perfectly. The plot does have some holes in it, but that is besides the point. Like in The Ugly Duckling story, you know it's a fairy tale and that it is going to end well; the road there is what counts.Bottom line: French, Romanian and Russian actors and movie people get together to make a truly European movie. It has soul, it has magic, it sings; in the end, you hear the music.

After a surfeit of mediocre American movies lately, I was mesmerised by the magical film of The Concert. Rarely seeing Russian movies, I was intrigued by the setting, characters, snapshots of Russian life today, and swept away by the way in which the actors and director lifted the ordinary into the extraordinary by way of a great plot, exquisite comedy moments, and a romantic theme which had nothing sentimental about it. The central character, Filipov, has an impossible dream and the realisation of this dream through a series of improbable connections results in a screwball comedy the likes of which we haven't seen since Billy Wilder's 'Some Like It Hot'. The musical background provides a culturally sophisticated backdrop to an earthy and simple concept: the combination of the two creates a little masterpiece of a film.From the sub-plots of Russians in Paris trying to make a buck, to the sensitive history of the celebrity violinist persuaded to play the Tchaikowsky concerto with the makeshift, unrehearsed, pseudo-Bolshoi orchestra, the film manages to capture every last nuance of human sensibility. The depiction of the tragi-comedic figure of the arch Communist Gavrilov who ruined the original concert and the lives of orchestra musicians 30 years previously, and now is responsible for ensuring the orchestra reconvene and play in Paris a master stroke and lends the lie to the whole plot.My only criticism is the way in which the final sublime denouement is cut across with collages of resolving the mystery between Filipov, the conductor, and Anne-Marie, the violinist. I can see the point of combining the performance of the music with the resolution - it is clever and creates a crescendo of poignancy to the highest pitch of the music itself. But it was a little confusing and, though, of course, the whole film is a contrivance to entertain, too contrived in the sudden success of this abandoned and defunct orchestra of Jewish misfits in Russia.This film is a compelling story, beautifully played, and a lovely idea. To create a hilariously funny yet subtly and searingly poignant plot is remarkable and I cannot imagine any film lover not enjoying this lovely film.

This movie takes you through a journey where for more than half of the time you collect elements without knowing it, just enjoying a funny and very well directed story. Then, when the concert actually begins, everything collapses and, together with the violinist, you have a sublime as unexpected epiphany that deeply moves you, filling you with joy. Mélanie Laurent is perfect in the role and I believe she is actually a fundamental catalyst for the story and the emotion that it conveys. "The Concert" lifts the bar of what you should be expecting from a movie. It is also a perfect example of how Europeans can still use the cinema not just to entertain but to enrich the public.