For all those who appreciate classical music films, here's one I can thoroughly recommend.
THE CONCERT by Radu Mihaileanu. French title:-
‘Le Concert’.
We've just been to see this today in France.
My personal rule-of-thumb for an excellent film is, would I want to go straight back in and watch it a second time? For this picture, a definite yes!
Here I’ve tried to give a brief resumé.
Set at the time of Brejnev, the film tells the story of Andrei Filipov - the greatest orchestral conductor in the Soviet Union, once director of the famous Bolchoï Orchestra.
Thirty years later he still works at the Bolchoï but as a cleaner, having been dismissed as musical director for refusing to break away from his Jewish musicians.
One evening, whilst staying late to clean his bosses office, he sees a fax sent to the managing director with an invitation from the Châtelet theatre, urging the Bolchoï orchestra to come to play in Paris. Suddenly Andrei has a crazy idea: why not re-unite his former friends and musicians, and take them to Paris, posing as the current Bolchoï orchestra.
What happens next I won’t divulge, except to say that this film rapidly gets up to full speed, with some great bitter-sweet humour, and an outrageous over-the-top Russian
nouveau-riche wedding reception - which personally I didn't particularly enjoy.
There are some extremely high emotional moments, especially near the end of the film, which culminates with their performance in Paris and truth being revealed about the young ‘French’ soloist during a wonderful rendering of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto.
If you enjoy classical music this is one picture not to be missed, although I would expect a fairly limited release in the U.S. probably only in selected art-type cinemas. A very moving film.
Link to film trailer Additional Film review 
