Jubilee Films for Pilgrims of Hope: ‘The Concert’

By Fr. Greg Apparel, CSP

“Le Concert,” a French comedy by Romanian filmmaker Radu Mihaileanu, is an interesting addition to the Jubilee series “Faces and Counterfaces of Hope.” It has satirical potential, despite its silliness and absurd elements, but hope emerges in its moving third act with the concert of Tchaikovsky himself.

It all starts with a rehearsal of the Bolshoi Orchestra in Moscow. We meet the theater cleaner, Andrew Filipov (Alexei Guskov) who is disrupting the rehearsal with his cell phone ringing loudly. Hidden in an empty office, he intercepts a fax inviting the Bolshoi to give a concert at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, replacing the Los Angeles Philharmonic which canceled at the last minute. Andrei decided to keep the fax and accept the invitation for himself and a fun group of unlucky musicians who have been his friends for thirty years. The concert is in two weeks, and they have no visa, no instruments, no time to rehearse.

Andrei is known as the maestro who defied Prime Minister Brezhnev thirty years earlier when he hired Jewish musicians during an anti-Semitic purge and was consequently fired in the middle of a concert. He now wishes to overcome this humiliation by recreating and completing the same musical piece, Tchaikovsky’s Concert for Orchestra and Violin. For the violin solo, he insisted on hiring Anne-Marie Jacquet played by the wonderful Mélanie Laurent. She has never performed this piece before, but is intrigued by the idea of ​​working with the famous Maestro. But who is she and why does Andrei specifically want her as a solo violinist? Is he her real father or is there another reason?

Things get worse once the contract is signed. They need counterfeit passports and visas. The sixty musicians ended up having to walk seven kilometers to the airport. They arrive drunk and stay that way for three days in Paris. And the one rehearsal they have is a disaster, even with only three musicians present.

Andrei wants Anne-Marie to play the concert initially intended for the great violinist Léa Strum, now deceased. “You want me to replace Léa,” she said to Andrei. “I’m not Léa. It was a dream, this concert. . .You can’t bring back the past. This concert is doomed to failure. Cancel it.

But Andrei’s good friend, cellist Sasha, intercedes. He visits Anne-Marie and her long-time guardian, Guylène, who herself holds many secrets. He asks Anne-Marie: “What if at the end of the concert, you found your parents?

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but that’s exactly what happens. The theater sells out 2,000 seats. A message on their cell phones is sent to all the drunk musicians, telling them to “Come back and get Léa”. The real director of the Bolshoi, on vacation in Paris, saw the advertisement for the concert and was indignant. Ivan, the communist director of the motley orchestra, locks the director in a closet and prays: “Make a miracle, my God. Prove that you exist!

The concert begins and the orchestra plays poorly, until Anne-Marie begins the solo. His virtuosity transports the members of the orchestra who rise to his level and begin to play magnificently. Ivan cries out: “Oh my God, I don’t believe it. You exist! It’s a beautiful scene where Anne-Marie plays with tears in her eyes, connecting with Andrei who directs with such skill and emotion. Scenes from what happened thirty years earlier are interspersed throughout and Anne-Marie actually finds her parents.

With all its unrealistic elements and silliness, “The Concert” ultimately reveals itself with Tchaikovsky’s inspiring music and performances by Melaine Laurent as Anne-Marie and Alexei Guskov as Andrei. It’s not a great movie by any means, but it is a story full of hope, love, and perseverance.