With The Concert, Romanian born director Radu Mihaileanu has produced a lighted hearted, unchallenging and enjoyable piece of cinema. Despite the film’s resolute optimism however, The Concert may leave you feeling slightly hollow.

In the first sequence, you discover a man once lauded as Il Maestro is now cleaning the halls of his former orchestra’s head quarters. That man, Andrei Filipov, was once the celebrated conductor of the Bolshoi Orchestra, and now inexplicably he has become the resident cleaner. His destiny soon takes an about-face when, one evening he intercepts a fax from the Chatelet Theatre in Paris requesting the presence of the Bolshoi Orchestra for a performance. Andrei decides to re-form the orchestra he once conducted, pose as the Bolshoi, and travel to Paris.

On the whole, The Concert is popcorn cinema: enjoyable and cheerful but always predictable. Mihaileanu’s over reliance on stereotypes and the contrived nature of the narrative make it difficult at times to fully connect with the story. Caricatures abound, from dirty Russian gypsies to thrifty Jews and snobby Frenchmen. In short, there is little substance to Milhaileanu’s overwrought characters.

However, despite the largely superficial nature of the film, there are moments that reveal a deeper undercurrent of meaning. One of the most redeeming things about The Concert is the way it effortlessly describes the experience of music. A particularly poignant scene involving the film’s protagonist, Andrei, and the lead violinist, Anne-Marie, reveals the director’s clever use of language and dialogue.

In this sequence, Russian native, Andrei is forced to describe what music means to him in broken French. The forced simplicity of a foreign tongue lends a certain succinct elegance to his musings. He is at once poetic, and uncomplicated, and the result is moving. You grasp the passion beneath the restrained description, and understand in part his experience. As one of The Concert’s most tense and beautiful moments, this scene flirts with answering many of the pressing questions that underpin the entire film. But the plot does not find resolution at this point. Instead we are given an answer to one of the film’s less obvious (and more interesting) questions: why is music important?

In an unrelenting campaign to be feel-good, The Concert has skimped on substance. If you can get past the over-simplification and unrealistic quality of the film however, then you may walk away feeling good, if not entirely satisfied. Popcorn is hardly a proper meal, after all.

The Concert
Cinema Release Date: 29 Apr 2010
Director: Radu Mihaileanu
Featuring: Alexei Guskov, Mélanie Laurent, Dimitri Nazarov, Miou-Miou
Rated: M – Coarse language
Run Time: 119 minutes
Country of Origin: France / RussiaGenre: Drama