Maestro is the second feature film directed by actor-turned-auteur Bradley Cooper. In the film, Cooper plays iconic conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, with the script by Cooper and Academy Award winner Josh Singer following the whirlwind romance between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre Cohn.
In a press conference for the members of the Critics Choice Association, the craftspeople behind Maestro shared some behind-the-scenes insight on the film, explaining the level of precision that Cooper brought to the production as an actor, as well as what it was like to work so closely with the children of the Bernsteins.
Maestro press conference with below-the-line artisans
One thing with which so many people have become smitten about Maestro is its authenticity and precision when it comes to the small details. The film is set across three different time periods — including the first being shot in black and white. As a result, an incredible amount of precision was required from the craftspeople.
This sentiment is echoed by Maestro production designer Kevin Thompson who says, “I think a couple of the mantras we got from Bradley early on were ‘authenticity and intimacy.’ And I think having access to the children and the country house gave us a sense of the intimate details of their life and how they lived in the summertime and on the weekends, and that informed the other parts of the movie.”
Costume designer Mark Bridges concurs that the participation of the Bernstein family was integral to the film’s success: “The Bernstein kids were so generous. I took a lot of pictures in that house, as, you know, we all did, right? You know, things that are stuck on the fridge in magnets, pictures of Lenny that you’ve never seen anywhere else. It was an incredible gift to have them make sure we were being authentic.”
Also Read: Maestro Venice Film Festival Review – Bradley Cooper is a Certified Talented Filmmaker
Thompson adds, “That really helped us understand who they were, and then we could just kind of take all that knowledge that we learned from diving deep into research and kind of throw it away and just begin to feel what should happen in each scene so we could get to the story points.”
The film’s level of precision is not merely in its visuals, though — it also extends to the gorgeous soundscape, with a particular highlight on the beautiful compositions of Leonard Bernstein (some of which were conducted by Cooper in new performances).
Re-recording mixer Tom Ozanich had this to say about the film’s sound: “Steve was the production mixer, and he was the guy running around actually recording everything. You know, this film has tons of location shooting and, you know, there’s, like, the parties. Everybody in the party was talking, you know, that’s not normal [laugh], so there were mics everywhere for all that, then we get all that stuff and have to make sense out of it. It was so critical to try to have the same level of detail and precision to all of that and allow the audience to feel those extremities. You know, the epic size of the thing as well as the super close intimacy.”
Re-recording mixer Dean Zupanic had this to add: “I like to describe the mix as kinda a reflection of Leonard Bernstein, being that he was a dynamic personality but an elegant man. And so, the mix reflects the elegance of the mix of those subtle scenes, where everything’s very quiet and intimate to the dynamic of a burst of wind when they’re on the balcony, when he’s a bit melancholy, to Ely Cathedral. Then out of Ely, we go right to the waiting room at the doctor’s office. So, we’re on these huge rides, and then the big dips of emotion. So, the sound mix had to sound real, not to take us out of any scene or take us out of the acting and the emotion, and that was a very hard, delicate balance to do.”
The sound team also credits the contributions of Cooper as director to the film’s success on a sonic level. “I have to butt in with Bradley. He gets sound, you know, and it’s so awesome to work with him,” Ozanich asserts. “I mean, he’s as deep into it as we are, and he sits in between us as we’re mixing. And, I mean, you can change a lot about the feel and direction of a scene or a film just with the sound, and Bradley understands that power. And there’s not a single frame of this movie — sound or picture — that wasn’t just pored over to figure out the exact right thing for that moment. It was just so great to work with him at that level.”
Production designer Thompson concurs, adding: “Yeah, I think watching the movie, you can see all of the pieces coming together in a really beautiful way, and that is at the core — the director understanding how to conduct this production. We lyrically went from decade to decade, we didn’t punch it.”
Maestro is now in theaters and hits Netflix on December 20.
Also Read: Bradley Cooper’s Ultimatum Became Carey Mulligan’s “Therapy” Before Working Together on ‘Maestro’
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
