The Concert

Do you love to laugh? We got it! Do you love history and politics? We got it! Do you love watching a Russian and French 'reality show' filled with real people? We got it! Do you love feeling your heart and throat swell with emotion? We definitely have got it in this film!I don't know where they got the story but I died laughing at the broad humor and caricature that was used in portraying the Russians in the beginning of the movie. Having MANY close Russian friends and having traveled to many Russian cities, I couldn't help but get choked with emotion and laughter at this look inside Russia today. If you understand about modern Russian weddings, you might chuckle the hardest through that scene and the Novy Russki.There are twists and turns that are unexpected and surprising. There is a sense at one point that the film is moving away from the broad humor to a more serious vein. It never gets heavy or ponderous but instead, like a flower opening from a bud to a full-blown flower, you begin to see and appreciate deeper human emotions and though the actors' experiences might not have been your own, their parts are acted in such a way that you feel emotion right along with them. The cinematography is very interesting and presents flashbacks in a way that I have never seen but was very effective!I watched this in a large theater of senior citizens in south Florida. Various parts of the room laughed at Jewish jokes, French jokes, and we all laughed at the antics of the Russians. Even though the film was spoken in Russian and French with English subtitles, I thought the subtitles were very well done. Sometimes foreign films either don't give you time to read the words by flashing them by too fast or they display them against inappropriate backgrounds making them virtually impossible to read. I thought these subtitles were some of the best I've ever seen; thanks!!!The ONLY reason I didn't give this film 5 stars is because it is not Gone With the Wind or Dr. Zhivago or Lawrence of Arabia or even Elvira Madigan. How about 4.5 stars? It certainly deserves that!!!Buy this film and enjoy its sweet humanity. It has yearnings and dreams that we can all understand. You will truly find after watching it that ALL the corners of your heart have been wonderfully touched.

I love this film so much I recently ordered an all region dvd player for no other reason than to enable me to watch the European region 2 version since the Weinstein Co. in its dubious wisdom seemed determined not to release this delicious film on dvd in the USA. Happily that is now an unnecessary purchase. This movie is not without its imperfections, but it is also uniquely satisfying as it swings with gusto from broad farce and roughneck socio/political silliness to its deeply moving finale. I defy anyone with the least shred of appreciation for music to watch the last 20 minutes without tears rolling down your cheeks. It is difficult to believe the director is the same man who made the remarkable Go, Live and Become (Va Vis et Deviens), which is one of the most serious and powerful films of the last decade.It is now Oct. 10, 2011 and I am adding the following paragraph to my original May 30 review. Elsewhere Simina Farcasiu complains about the cuts to this release. Having watched this region 1 dvd three or four times by now I became curious and since I already owned the all region dvd player mentioned at the beginning I purchased the region 2 disc and just began watching it. Simina is absolutely correct. After only 10 minutes I have counted about a dozen meaningless cuts, some only seconds in length, which serve no purpose but to mindlessly streamline a narrative which does not need streamlining. In fact they weaken the impact significantly. The film remains a delight but so much more so in the uncut European release. My suggestion for those who care about such things is to purchase a PIONEER 420 -K all region dvd player. It's only about $80 (! There will certainly be other occasions when owning it will be useful. Often there are films available in Europe that are totally unavailable here and with this machine they are all playable. For a serious cinephile it would seem a no brainer.

I bought this from Amazon and thought that the US Version only came Dubbed in English. I now have discovered that the US Version does indeed have the Original Version, Here's where you can find it:Go to Settings: then choose AUDIO Options; Choose French/Russian. Then resume movie. The key to this is the default is set to the Dubbed version.In the Original version you hear the Actors voices. The Film is subtle and quiet in creating these characters. It says so much that as you watch this film, you realize you are watching something very special, even magical. It is that powerful in its emotional impact. This is not only rare, but something we only see as an exception that is exceptional.The Dubbed version is poor at best and all the magic is drained out. Whoever did this took nothing from the original version. If you want to do a comparison, look at the way the main character and his wife interact together. In the Original it is real love in the quiet way they talk to each other. The Dubbed version never comes close.So in Closing this review, I owe an apology to the ARC Entertainment that put out this US Version, but to be honest, they did not say that the Original version is on the disc. Even Amazon had no idea and that's where I tried the European version. That DVD is set up correctly, but as Region 2, you need a DVD Player that plays all regions. So yes, this is a wonderful film and , no, you are not stuck with the Dubbed version, As I said before.....The Russian/French version is absolutely 5 stars.

This is a great little French-produced comedy-drama, though most of the spoken dialogue throughout is in Russian.It does require a suspension of disbelief for most of the proceedings, but it tells the tale of a talented conductor fired and disgraced under the communist regime who years later, gets the opportunity to assemble other former Bolshoi musicians in the same situation to impersonate the real orchestra on a concert trip to Paris; the premise is absurd, but the nature of the film is such that it sweeps the viewer in despite the improbabilities. There are other, more serious aspects to the tale which have some emotional impact, but it is - on the whole - a feel-good, uplifting film with some beautiful music at it`s heart, courtesy of Tchaikovsky.A hugely enjoyable and recommendable film; the UK DVD release has English subtitles, but you may – as I did - have to adjust your TV screen to view them properly. The only extras on the disc are a trailer and a 13 minute interview with director Radu Mihaileanu.

Just let the improbability of the narrative pass you by, & this film will reward you amply. It's about a conductor who's denounced as an enemy of the people, because he refuses to kick Jews out of his orchestra. Disgraced, he nevertheless finds a way to reassemble his orchestra & transport it to Paris, to give a Tschaikovsky concert.The real story is the glorious & heartbreakingly beautiful music. Gypsy musicians & singular characters add texture to the orchestra & plot.

This was one of the best DVDs I have seen for some time. The sheer vitality of the acting was breathtaking. The music was invigorating and the settings were beautifully presented. I loved the comedic elements, especially the communist dinosaur and the penny pinching French producers. The realisation of the Moscow underworld was brilliant as was the capacity of the outcast musicians to rise above their misfortune through the power and passion of the music. I could attempt some sort of socio-historical commentary but this was a story of triumph out of adversity and I enjoyed it purely on that level and, of course, the Tchaikovsky violin concerto was sublime. The fact that it wasn't in Blu-ray didn't matter as the sound was so good and my PS3 player upscaled it beautifully. Dim the lights, ramp up the volume and enjoy!

It's probably a good thing for Hollywood that so many European films present a language problem. If not, films like "Le Concert" would be walking off with all the awards.In terms of pure enjoyment, I got more out of this movie than most of the top-running Oscar contenders over the past few years. That's the spirit this film embraces - Joy. A quality Frank Capra could have told us something about. Not that "Le Concert" could be called Capra-esque, although watching it I did at times get a flavour of the Ealing comedies, brought up to date and translated into Russian and French. It's true that watching a foreign-language film via subtitles takes away a little of the intimacy of the original dialogue, but it's usually better than having some god-awful American voices overdub the actors with atrociously inept translations and substituted American names or phrases that have spoiled so many good European films on DVD (see, e.g. Shirley Valentine). So despite the subtitles, I probably got as much out of the film as I could have. Fleshed out with characters that are deftly ripped from life and lovingly enlarged, and with a crackling screenplay backed by a scintillating music score, "Le Concert" absorbed me from the beginning, made me chuckle in parts and, despite the fairy-tale nature of the denouement, made me want to clap exuberantly by the end, which brings a surprise I didn't expect. It's a class piece of work by a distinguished ensemble. Enjoyment - I keep repeating it, it's what most of us used to go to the cinema for, and if you cannot believe in so many of today's poorly-crafted specimens dominated by hollow special effects, believe in dreams like this one. Enchanting. Tchaikovsky - I hear his faint applause from afar.

This is an absolute gem of a film that can be viewed at several levels. There is a serious political point to the film and it can make you laugh and cry by turns. The music is exquisite from the brief regference to Mozart Piano Concerto 21 to the wonderful rendition of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. There are absolute acting gems in principal and minor roles and you are willing everything to work out for them all. It is a sort of 'Amelie' film but with a much stronger story line based in Russian historical reality . Like me you will probably watch this film many times and always find something fresh. A treat buy it for yourselves and all your friends !