Maestro (1988)

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Movie
German title maestro
Original title Le maître de musique
Country of production Belgium
original language French
English
German
Italian
Publishing year 1988
length 95 minutes
Age rating FSK 0
Rod
Director Gérard Corbiau
script Andrée Corbiau
Christian Watton
production Alexandre Pletser
camera Walther van den Ende
cut Denise Vindevogel
occupation

Maestro is a 1988 Belgian drama directed by Gérard Corbiau .

action

Around 1900: Opera singer Joachim Dallayrac surprisingly announces his retirement from the stage after an evening concert in London . That evening, his great adversary Prince Scotti triumphed in the audience; he was once a singer himself, but failed in the singing duel with Joachim 20 years ago and ruined his singing voice. Since then, both men have been enemies for life. A little later, Joachim retired to his country house, where he lives with the 40-year-old Estelle, who accompanies him on the piano. A short time later, 18-year-old Sophie Maurier arrives at the property. It is the niece of Joachim's good friend François who Joachim was allowed to audition in London. Her voice, which is close to perfection, made him want to dedicate himself to teaching from now on. While the world is wondering what might have caused him to retire from the stage, Joachim begins to teach Sophie. Estelle knows that sooner or later both of them will fall in love with each other, and it pains her because she has long adored Joachim deeply, but the intimacy between the two never became love.

During a meeting with his agent Laumont, Joachim sees the marauder Jean in a market, who is passing the time singing and petty theft. Joachim spontaneously takes him to his estate because he is convinced of his talent and knows that with a lot of practice Jean will become a first-class tenor. Time goes by and Sophie and Jean become very good singers, with Jean's progress being exemplified by Gustav Mahler's Von der Jugend (“In the middle of the small pond / There is a pavilion made of green / And made of white porcelain” ...). Sophie, however, is unhappy because she has fallen in love with Joachim, but he only lives for his music. Although the two get closer during a rain shower, Joachim withdraws immediately, knowing that either he or she will shortly be gone.

For Joachim's birthday, François appears at the property and brings an invitation from Prince Scotti for Sophie and Jean. Both are said to take part with their teacher in a two-day singing contest at Scotti's castle. Because Scotti is influential and there is a real chance for his protégés, Joachim admits, but only brings Sophie and Jean to the competition, only to leave immediately alone. Sophie and Jean find solace together and spend the night together. Scotti, meanwhile, has realized that Jean has an identical voice to his longtime protégé Arcas. He lets Arcas sing in front of Sophie and Jean before the competition, throwing Jean into self-doubt. In the face of the competition, Sophie also begins to doubt her ability, even if she knows that Scotti is only trying to set a trap for them. Meanwhile, Joachim dies unexpectedly on his estate.

Sophie and Jean prepare for their performance, as Sophie is supposed to open the competition alone, Scotti believes that Jean has given up. She masters her performance with flying colors, including Jean standing next to the stage in her singing. Scotti realizes that the competition has already been decided in favor of Sophie, and now asks Jean and Arcas to enter into a direct duel, since both have identical votes. In order to guarantee fair competition, both singers hide themselves under costumes that completely cover them up. It is Arcas who fails to achieve a high note several times, so that Jean wins the duel. Scotti offers him and Sophie a collaboration. At that moment, François appears and tells them both of Joachim's death. They drive to his property and watch as Joachim's body is driven away across the lake. Estelle admits that she hopes the time to come will pass quickly.

production

Château de La Hulpe, in the movie Joachim's estate
Château de Chimay, in the film Prince Scotti's Estate

Maestro was the feature film directing debut of Gérard Corbiau, who had previously only worked as a director on one documentary film. The shooting took place mainly in and around the Château de La Hulpe in La Hulpe , which is the property of Joachim in the film. Prince Scotti's estate was found in the Château de Chimay in Chimay . The costumes were created by Catherine Frognier , the film construction was done by Zouc Lanc .

Maestro premiered in May 1988 at the Cannes International Film Festival . The film was released in Germany on November 22, 1990 and was released in 1994 on VHS under the title Maestro - Das Duell .

music

Numerous classical pieces can be heard in the film, with Anne Roussel (Sophie) singing by Dinah Bryant and Philippe Volters (Jean) and Marc Schreiber (Arcas) singing by Jerome Pruett . Opera singer José van Dam sang his own songs. The Nouvel Orchester Symphonique de la RTBF will play under Ronald Zollman .

You can hear:

David Miller's piece Waltz can also be heard.

criticism

For film-dienst , Maestro was a “predominantly fictional music and artist drama with appealing allusions and comparative references to the life and work of Mozart and famous compositions by other songwriters.” “Visually and musically a splendor,” said Cinema . "The film tells the story in indulgent minor tones and has [...] itself become a piece of music: a musical canvas opus for voice lovers," wrote the Nürnberger Nachrichten . The Frankfurter Rundschau praised Maestro as a "lavishly equipped, fantastically presented music film".

Awards

Maestro was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film in 1989 as a Belgian contribution . In 1990 the film received a nomination for a Cóndor de Plata of the Asociación de Cronistas Cinematográficos de la Argentina for Best Foreign Film.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information according to the film credits.
  2. ↑ Maestro. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ Maestro on cinema.de
  4. ↑ Roland Spiegel: Beauty in a minor key. Music for eternity: the Belgian singer-film “Maestro” . In: Nürnberger Nachrichten , November 16, 1992.
  5. ↑ Love and (music) passion. Gerard Corbiau's furious debut . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , June 17, 1996, p. 8.