The Concert is the newest French summer hit. It was directed by Radu Mihaileanu and stars Aleksei Guskov, Dmitri Nazarov and Mélanie Laurent.

Plot:
Andrei Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) used to be a great conductor. 30 years ago he fell from grace when he didn’t fire all the Jewish members of his orchestra. Now he works as a cleaner at the Bolshoi, and only conducts the Bolshoi orchestra in his dreams. But one day, he finds a fax from the Theatre Chatelet in Paris, inviting the Bolshoi for a concert in two weeks time. Andrei snags the fax, gets his old troup together and tells the Chatelet they’re coming to play Tchaikovsky with Anne-Marie Jaquet (Mélanie Laurent). But what connects Andrei to Anne-Marie?

The Concert is a nice movie. It features every stereotype about Russians you can think of (and then some) and yet, it’s oddly charmig, with a nice sense of humour and fine acting. But above all, it has been made with such a passion for music that, if I didn’t love him already, Tchaikovsky would probably be my new god.

The story is not unpredictable; it’s your basic sport movie plotline: Underdog team wins against the odds. Only it’s combined with some family redemption. But it’s a story that works pretty well (which is probably why it’s used that much) and it also works here.

What makes this movie special though, is the passion about music, or art in general, that it shows. It’s basically a film about the healing powers of expressing yourself through art. (And if that sounds esoteric, I’m really sorry, I don’t mean it that way.)

It was nicely acted. Mélanie Laurent is great, as are Aleksei Guskov and Dmitri Nazarov. Especially Dmitri Nazarov managed to wrench every bit of humanity he could out of his pretty stereotypical character.

I really enjoyed the whole communist party plotline, too. The thing with the restaurant or the assembly was perfect and extremely funny.

Summarising: great music, nice acting, a few too many stereotypes but a nice watch in general.