The Concert
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Cross the cold war nostalgia of Good Bye, Lenin! with the larcenous high jinks of The Producers and you've got the gist of this zany Russian screwball comedy. Aleksei Guskov plays a once-great symphony conductor who fell afoul of Brezhnev 30 years ago and is now a janitor at Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. After he intercepts a fax from Paris inviting the Bolshoi's musicians to perform, he quickly enlists former colleagues to impersonate the famed orchestra, tapping his old nemesis, a slightly unhinged Communist Party apparatchik with a hidden talent for capitalist shenanigans, as tour manager. Director Radu Mihaileanu (Live and Become) adds Slavic soul via a subplot about a violinist with a tragic past (Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) and steers the film to a truly grand finale. With Miou-Miou and François Berléand. In Russian and French with subtitles.
Credits
Director:
- Radu Mihaileanu
Cast:
- Alexei Guskov
- Mélanie Laurent
- Dmitry Nazarov
- François Berléand
- Miou Miou
- Valeri Barinov
- Lionel Abelanski
- Anna Pavlova
