Bradley Cooper surprises with his transformation into Maestro and seeks new Oscar

After making his directorial debut in the 2018 film “A Star Is Born”, Bradley Cooper competed for nine awards and won for original song. Now, the actor will present “Maestro” in his bid for a new Oscar, and the film will be shown this Saturday (02) in competition at the 80th Venice Film Festival. Cooper has already competed nine times, four of them as an actor, one as a screenwriter and four as a producer, and will again compete as producer, director, lead actor and co-writer with Josh Singer.

_{Trailer for “Maestro” starring Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan (Video: Reproduction/Youtube/Netflix Brasil)}

Narrative

“Maestro” portrays the life of one of the great names in American music, being a biopic of conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. Furthermore, the film narrates the musician's marriage to actress Felicia Montealegre, played by Carey Mulligan.

The actor's physical transformation is one of the most controversial processes, as he performed the characterization with a prosthetic nose to make him more similar to Bernstein. Motivating the actor even more for an award, actresses Gary Oldman, Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman have already won Oscars for playing characters with prosthetic makeup. Another point to be highlighted about the film is that the marriage portrayed in the film avoids the common tendency to leave women in the background.

_{Bradley and Carey as Leonard and Felicia (Photo: Reproduction/Getty Images/BBC)}

The makeup

Still on the art presented in the film, Kazu Hiro's makeup is exceptional, as it does not distract as much as it could, especially in the maestro's youthful phase. However, the exaggerations and obsession with similarity leave the film's production futile, because Bradley still doesn't look like Leonard.

_{Bradley Cooper portrayed as Leonard (Photo: Reproduction/Vogue)}

Criticisms and gaps

Reviews from the Venice Festival highlight that the attempt to cover decades of a great musician's life in just two hours of film causes many gaps to be opened, making Cooper fall into a trap, even focusing on the couple's marriage. If the public wants to know the maestro's career, unfortunately it will come out the same way, as one of the maestro's most revolutionary songs, “West Side Story”, is only mentioned. This also happens with the romance and importance of Felicia, as the work skips some moments in which the wife made a difference in the maestro's life.

The director's choice to have black and white scenes in the couple's youth means there are difficulties in later scenes, such as the moment they meet until the end. Another point to be emphasized would be the sample of the first poster, where Felicia's back was the focus, implying that the film would have her as the main story, but there is no focus on the character, leaving gaps in her and the relationship.

The Festival's critics also highlighted that the distance between the scenes makes the narrative difficult, making the most exciting scenes good enough for the Oscar, even in Mulligan's final performance, which at no point managed to reach the high point in the history of the film. Felicia and Leonard's relationship.

Bradley was praised for the scenes about Bernstein's career, when he focuses on the conductor, at age 25, conducting the New York Philharmonic, in the United States, for the first time, and when he performs the work “Mass”.

Finally, critics point out that “Maestro” is not deep enough for awards because it does not portray enough of the life, work and persona of Bernstein and Felicia, much less their marriage. The film has good moments, which are technically competent, but what it lacks to achieve excellence is Soul.

Featured photo: Bradley Cooper receives disappointing reviews at the Venice Film Festival. Reproduction/Disclosure/Hollywood Forever TV