Your Monday Moment of Cahiers du Cinema: Special "Give the Conductor Some!!!" Edition

So last Sunday a certain Shady Dame and I went to see Bradley Cooper's Maestro.

Which is brilliant on a number of levels, but not at all what I expected and more than a little disturbing.

Short version: It's not a conventional bio-pic. Actually, it's not even really about Leonard Bernstein per se. What it's actually about is Gay Men and the Women Who Loved Them, in a specific post-war American social and cultural milieu (the upper-crust art world) before Stonewall.

I'm gonna leave it at that, largely because I don't want to give away anything if you're planning on seeing it (and you should). However, I would like to add, and for the record, that as much as I loved Sarah Silverman before going in, after seeing her in the film (she's glimpsed in the trailer above as Lenny's sister) I now love her twice as much. I should also add that Kazu Hiro -- the make-up guy who designed Cooper's inexplicably controversial prosthetic schnozz -- gets a big seperate credit at the end, and it's well deserved.

POSTSCRIPT I: I should mention at this juncture that the aforementioned Shady Dame and I are the owners of a framed and autographed (by Lenny) program booklet from the final performance (May 17, 1969) Bernstein made as the music director of the New York Philharmonic. I wasn't at the event myself, but my maternal unit, who was a huge fan -- and earlier in the '60s brought me to see several of the legendary Young Peoples Concerts Bernstein did for television -- was at the farewell show, and went backstage to get Lenny's John Hancock. Thanks Mom!!!

POSTSCRIPT II: A few years ago, the aforementioned (twice) Shady Dame and I printed up a bunch of t-shirts sporting this logo she'd photo-shopped...

...strictly for shits and giggles. This came to the attention of Friend of PowerPop© (and Pulitzer Prize winning critic) Tim Page, who is also a friend of the Bernstein family.

And as a result, one of those shirts is now in the proud possession of Lenny's daughter Jamie Bernstein (played, quite affectingly, in the film by Ethan and Uma's daughter Maya Hawke), who apparently wears it with pride. A fact that I find hilarious.