The Maestro (2018) - Biopic on Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (JW's composition teacher)

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

Is it any good?

[Jay 37,249]

I don't think any member of JWfan has seen it yet to be able to answer that question.

[Thor 7,451]

Stayed up untill 3 am last night to see this.

 

Well, THAT was much ado about nothing!

 

First of all, the film isn't very good. It's rather stale and languid and empty. Quite boring, in fact, with no real, involving intrigue or interesting angle, IMO. Kudos for the warm, orange cinematography, sort of encapsulating the LA setting in a romantic, Italian summer vibe (just as the students are encapsulated by the Italian teacher). But WHIPLASH, this ain't!

 

Now, for the Williams bit. As suspected, it was just a super-brief 'flash'. In the beginning of the film, the narrator mentions six composers that Mario Tedelnuovo-Tedesco tutored -- Andre Previn, Nelson Riddle, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, John Williams and "Jerry Hirst". They're shown in brief, b/w flashes as if they were archival footage. "Williams" turns from from the piano to the camera, and it's all over in 2 seconds. Blink and you'll miss it! While the actor Fuller has a faint resemblance to JW at the time, the 'glasses' thing is completely off. AFAIK, Williams didn't wear glasses at that time. See screenshot below.

 

And the actor they got to be Mancini, was totally weird. He looks nothing at all like Mancini (neither then nor in later life), and just seems like some random Italian dude they'd pulled in from the streets. See screenshot below.

 

All of this begs the question: If that was all there was to it, why not just use real archival footage or photos? Could there be some issues related to permissions, rights or money that forced them to use actors for these brief flashes?

 

At least the brief cameos of "Igor Stravinsky" and "Stanley Kubrick" have a presence in the film itself (Stravinsky as Hirst bumps into him in the streets, Kubrick as a guy filming MTT and Hirst at a party). No such luck with the composers, although at one point we see another student of MTT play brilliantly; a guy who according to MTT will 'have great success', but he's unnamed and he's not one of the five composers from the opening).

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

14 minutes ago, Thor said:

All of this begs the question: If that was all there was to it, why not just use real archival footage or photos? Could there be some issues related to permissions, rights or money that forced them to use actors for these brief flashes?

 

Good question. I wonder how much the actors were paid for their two seconds...

[Thor 7,451]

Must be less than it cost to use actual footage.

 

Oh, and here's "Goldsmith" too:

 

 

[Jurassic Shark 12,008]

He seems slightly out of focus. Good choice.

[TownerFan 4,983]

Doug Adams posted this on his Twitter:

 

 

It also looks like they used this pic as a reference for that shot of JW:

 

[Thor 7,451]

Yeah, there you have it. Would have saved me the trouble of 'screengrabbing'.

[Thor 7,451]

And yes, Maurizio, I think you're right about the reference picture. Even if I could 'dismiss' them for not knowing that Williams was glasses-free at the time, they should have known that that particular style of glasses was not very common in the 50s.

[Jay 37,249]

Thanks for watching this film, Thor, so we don't have to!