The shots themselves are also varied and intelligently crafted, often foreshadowing in their meaning. A large shadow of Bernstein conducting cast over Felicia as a way to show us the grandeur of his conducting being next to the gentle man he is towards her and their children, for example. Often we get put in a room with a few people while they just do their thing, in a way that we’re just a child watching their parents fight from the doorframe or a sentient object on your cabinet. The way the camera is set up often makes us feel like we’re seeing something we’re not supposed to, adding to the feeling of secrecy in the Bernsteins’ relationship. Sadly, I’ve often seen weird cuts in between these beautiful shots or we linger too long on moments that don’t really serve the story, causing some beautiful scenes to end abruptly for no reason and some to go on for too long.
After everything, the highest praise must go to the make-up and hairdressing crew, they made Cooper look like Bernstein just the right way in every single scene. I’ve never seen older make-up done so well and it was amazingly convincing. Next to Bernstein also Montealegre was amazingly formed in the make-up used on Mulligan, they meticulously sculpted these characters out of their artists and brought them to life, every shift in time came with small changes and improvements. It brought even more realism to the performances which together made up for the best parts of the film.
You're going to die a lonely old queen.
To summarize what I felt in the story of “Maestro” is difficult. Thankfully, because of this, I don’t have to worry too much about spoiling since the experience and visual & auditory sensation are much more important than the story. As mentioned earlier in the review, there is not that much story to uncover at all; it felt like a quite ordinary life of a conductor who’s struggling with his sexuality, not the life and musical legend Bernstein. I’m not saying that Cooper should’ve used techniques like Nolan did in “Oppenheimer” to show the genius of Bernstein, but with what we’ve got now, we know little to none about the way Bernstein worked, what his influences were, how he thought about his own life and work. Even though the story is not all there, there are a few themes that come back that make the movie still quite interesting.
There are certain moments where it is clear that Bernstein seems to have “multiple personalities", not only talking about his life that is ripped between being loyal to his wife and children and being the world-famous composer and conductor that wants to act like a rock star but also his “extraverted” personality he assumes while conducting or his “introverted” personality he takes while composing. The framing is opposed in each of these situations, every moment Leonard lets himself go and is opposed to his family, it’s shown as a negative thing, while the extroverted conducting personality gets a big spotlight. Possibly this could mean that to have a healthy life is to balance these personalities within us, possibly it couldn’t mean anything at all, and Cooper just wanted to show off his 6 years of training (which he should!). This is why it’s difficult to find any consistent meaning in what the story is trying to be; on the surface, it could just be seen as a semi-romantic story about a couple where the husband has issues with handling both his sexuality and his status, but it tries to be so much more.
