Release: April 29
Duration: 118 minutes
Rating: M (coarse language)

The new film from Radu Mihaileanu (Live and Become, Train of Life) explores a time in France when anti-communist sentiment was rife, anti-Semitism was rampant and classical music was a popular art.

The César Award-winning hit, The Concert follows the story Andrei Filipov (Alexi Guskov), a former conductor of the world-famous Bolshoi Orchestra in Moscow, who was ousted 30 years ago for refusing to stand down some Jewish colleagues. Now working as a cleaner at the Bolshoi Theatre, Andrei has maintained his fierce love of music, particularly Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. When the opportunity arises for the Bolshoi to perform at the world-famous Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Andrei sees this as an opportunity for his socialist friends to rise again. In what is one of many comic parodies in the film, Andrei and his buddies are seen running all over Moscow recruiting the artists and intellectuals that were shunned during the communist era, who are now working as removalists, ambulance drivers, porn film makers, gypsies and taxi drivers. He offers the self-proclaimed “bums” a trip - and a paycheque- of a lifetime to Paris. The only question then left to sort out is who will be the violin soloist? Andrei insists on young French sensation, Anne-Marie Jacquet, played by Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds). A fallen hero and the newest sensation in the classical music world – how could the Théâtre du Châtelet resist?

Once arriving in Paris, the makeshift Bolshoï begins to fall apart, lured by the money, fame and good looks of the city of love. We see a series of typical film clichés and predictable moral fables played out on screen, wherein the characters learn that the past cannot be re-created or relived (and that Russians’ cannot go anywhere without a drink). However, the director’s decision to film the movie in its original languages, Russian and French, creates an interesting comic energy, as the Russians try their best to convince the Gaelic counterparts with their pigeon-French. However, a comic drama would not work without a twist, and- without giving anything away- this one turns out to be an affecting surprise.

Ultimately, instruments are recovered and suits are found, loyalty shines through and bitterness is put aside, so that everyone can work together to achieve the harmony they have dreamed about for the past 30 years since their exile. Although I am not a huge fan of classical music, I found the final performance of the Concerto to be incredibly moving. Yes it was clichéd, but it seemed real. And whilst Mihaileanu incorporates a later montage that may seem a little disconnected from the chief story, it tells a story so moving, that it could make a whole other movie within itself.

The Concert undeniably makes you leave the cinema feeling positive and upbeat, but there is something truly haunting in this final montage that leaves you wondering if more needed to be explained at the start of the film. However, Mihaileanu does a fantastic job at representing on a universal level the struggle of European artists and intellectuals exiled during the communist era, through comedy and through music. Highly enjoyable.

Laura Macintosh