Maestro (2023): Thoughts! Questions!
No, really: any questions?
Chasers
Friends, I watch TV too. Right now, For All Mankind has me captivated. I love a good alternate-history scenario. And this is, indeed, a good one. I’m starting to forget we don’t actually have a base on the moon right now, it’s that plausible.
Anyway, hello, welcome, and thank you for stopping by. For new visitors, here’s what this situation is all about:
With Savor the View, we’ll watch, think, and talk about movies and the things that matter. A special welcome and thanks to our regular crew!
Each Monday, I share brief, spoiler-free remarks and questions to frame viewing a movie on our own.
Each Thursday, I share post-viewing questions to poke at the issues, ideas, quandaries, inspirations...whatever...that movie might have summoned (spoilers, ahoy!).
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General thoughts?
The universal/general
What can be said about love, passion, sacrifice, commitment, selfishness, betrayal, creativity, and genius? Are tradeoffs between them necessary? Under what conditions? According to what terms?
The specific/unique
Turns out, the relationship between Leonard and Felicia was for the long haul. What is given and what is taken between them? Who give and who takes what, and for what reasons?
Bernstein, of course, is talented. Is this talent a “gift,” as a few characters claim? A gift from where? For whom? Does it require anything? Entitle him to anything?
The viewer is always present
Cooper’s Bernstein faces the camera when asking, in the film’s last words, “Any questions?” Well…what do you think? What questions do you have?
And immediately after that last scene, a view of Felicia fills the screen, though she turns her back to the camera as the title Maestro appears. I have to ask you what you think, because here’s what I was thinking: Felicia, in her own way, was also a kind of maestro. What say you?
Worthwhile Reads
https://www.theringer.com/movies/2023/12/29/24018215/bradley-cooper-maestro-movie-leonard-bernstein
Next Week’s Movie?
For February – the month of “Love and Hate and Everything In-Between” – Love & Basketball (2000)
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