The Concert

I kind of have a bias against certain genres of films. Romantic comedies need to rise above its generic template to offer me some interesting characters or some true soul searching, so that I don't come away from the theatre sneering at the dumb characters or cookie cutter plot. "Feel good" stories too also need to break away from its melodramatic and expected ending.

Despite its dramatic elements, I think The Concert is a feel good film. It begins almost like it was made in the 1930s, in a "let's get the old gang together and put on a show" plot.


Andrei (Aleksey Guskov), a former noted violinist, has had his career quashed by Communism 30 years ago, and now sadly works as the janitor at the Bolshoi. He intercepts a last minute invitation from a Paris concert inviting the Bolshoi orchestra to play there; instead of giving it to the head of the orchestra, Andrei rounds up his former orchestra musicians to realize his interrupted dream.

Through a lot of hijinks and antics and setbacks, the group eventually get to Paris and under the more broad comedy lies a dramatic story. Andrei has asked that the famous young French violinist Anne Marie (Melanie Laurent) play the solo in his concert, and unknown to her, she has a connection to Andrei and the orchestra.

The film is billed as a comedy but I think the footprint of the film lies in drama, especially when there Communist is oppression of Jews involved and Russian life is depicted still as a dog-eat-dog, black market world. The film is heavily carried by the lead actor and the quiet and earnest manner in how he speaks to the Anne Marie character, to convince her to go along with him on this venture when there are so many big picture as well as personal obstacles in their path.

The filmmakers also chose to have a big chunk of the end play out the Tchaikovsky concerto with little direct intrusion of the plot, just some narration and flashbacks as well as flash forwards; the looks between Andrei and Anne Marie tell us, without words, the emotional and magical moment they are sharing.