The Concert

A janitor working at the Bolshoi theatre in Russia is standing at the back of the house silently conducting the Bolshoi orchestra. His eyes are closed in ecstasy enjoying every movement when an unbalance in the orchestra destroys his rapturous mood. As he tries to will them back into perfect harmony his cell phone goes off and the real conductor shoots him a deadly glance. Andrey is now banded from watching rehearsals.
 
Back in Paris, Andrey Simonovich Filipov (Aleksey Guskov) was a brilliant conductor with a promising career, but he was fired for hiring Jewish musicians. Exiled to Russia, he and his musicians now work various odd jobs, but have never given up their love for music. For Filipov, music is universal so he never cared where his musicians came from as long as they were good. But in post-war Europe he was penalized for taking a moral stand and now he is suffering with the others.
 
One day while cleaning the boss’ office, Andrey intercepts an invitation for the Bolshoi Orchestra to play a last-minute concert at the Chatelet Theatre in Paris. The Americans who were supposed to play cancelled suddenly and they were hoping that the Bolshoi could take their place in two weeks time. Knowing that the director was going on vacation, Andrey decides to impersonate the orchestra and call out all his old musician friends to help. Eliciting the help of the very manager that fired him 30 years ago, Andrey scours Moscow for other musicians to fill in the gaps. They also need instruments, visas and money to travel on.
 
Knowing that they have the Chatelet Theatre over a barrel the rag-tag orchestra makes some ridiculous demands. But being out of the music business for years, their demands are still less expensive than the Americans would have been so they agree. The only catch is that the Russians have to pay for their airfare upfront and the French will reimburse them latter. This creates a tremendous burden for Andrey, but he is driven. He’ll do anything to conduct an orchestra again.
 
One of Andrey’s demands is a French soloist by the name of Ann-Marie Jacquet (Melanie Laurent). Unbeknownst to her she is the daughter of Andrey’s previous star soloist who died in a Russian prison camp. Andrey has been following her career for years and wants more than anything to meet her. She is one of the reasons behind this hare-brained scheme. Andrey is driven by love, guilt and passion.
 
The Concert is a comedy and parts of it are completely ridiculous, but what makes this film so great is its finale. When the concert finally comes together and all the pieces have fallen into place, the result is purely miraculous. I have never played in an orchestra before so I’ve never had this experience, but there is something so heavenly, so spiritual when musicians get it right that I defy you to fight back the tears. The Concert will leave you weeping and like all good music it will touch your soul.
 
Rating: First Run Experience heaven through music