New Cut of Bradley Cooper’s ‘Maestro’ Screened

Back in March, post-production work on Bradley Cooper’s “Maestro” had supposedly been completed.

This meant that the test-screening, which occurred on 02.09.22, must have, more or less, been the finished product. Reactions from that screening were mixed, but one person I spoke to, a former film critic, loved it. He seemed to be in the minority.

Usually, a film that tests this early, months before its intended release date, is an indication that either the studio, or the filmmaker himself, aren’t happy with the finished product.

It then made sense that a few weeks later Maestro scheduled reshoots and touch-ups in New York City. Now a very new cut was screened this week.

Just to give you background on this person, to setup their cinematic tastes, they really liked “Bardo,” “TAR,” and “Pearl” last year.

Here’s the reaction:

I was pretty disappointed. It’s been cut down from its last screening and you can really feel it. When ‘Directed by Bradley Cooper’ came up on the screen I could’ve sworn there were 30-45 minutes left, and there definitely should have been. The movie feels like it’s been trimmed to bits with Bernstein’s story getting completely sidelined in favor of what feel like connected flashbacks focused on the state of his marriage during his life. The unfortunate part is, after a slightly rocky opening, I was really digging the movie. Cooper and Mulligan are fantastic (both will almost certainly be nominated for Oscars, and both could frankly win). It felt like we were just starting to get going to the meat of the movie when the credits rolled. Aside from Cooper and Mulligan, the acting was pretty serviceable (Matt Bomer and Maya Hawke were barely in the movie). But it’s really the Bradley Cooper show and is well acted and directed… and it’s not even poorly written, the whole thing just seems meaningless as it stands at 2 hours.

Based off of someone who also saw last night's cut, this edit is only slightly shorter, around 1:50-1:55. And from what I heard, this version tested much better. The version this person saw back in April was very good, but needed to be trimmed and more focused. Sounds like Bradley Cooper did just that.

The makeup work is said to be incredible, Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein ages in very realistic fashion.

Cooper has been working closely with the Bernstein estate over the past couple of years to nail the details of this biopic. Suffice to say, this has been Cooper’s passion project for almost a decade now and I can’t wait to see it. There’s one scene that keeps getting mentioned in this film — Bernstein conducting at a cathedral.

The film will focus more on Bernstein's relationship with his wife (Carey Mulligan) than it does on his music, but has some great musical moments nonetheless. One of the other highlights is an On the Town dance/dream sequence.

The upcoming film is a biopic based on the life of Bernstein. It is said to span over 30 years, telling the story of the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre.

“Maestro” started shooting last May and had wrapped in early Fall. It’s most likely doing the fall festival circuit (Toronto, Venice), probably smack dab in the middle of the Telluride/Venice/Toronto storm.