or from the past. simple. and powerful. for the script, the acting and the different problems who defines a concert of Bolshoi Theater. the humor, the memories, the desire to create the present as revenge of the past failure, the strange characters and the flavor of different cultures, mixed, defined one by the other are marks of Mihaileanu. the Concert preserves each of them and use the nuances in a splendid fresco about art and success. it is something magic in this film. the scenes about past, the meetings, the old secrets, the crumbs of the every day reality , the respiration of a dream who becomes reality. a film about a trip to yourself.

Mustering a motley crew of Russian musicians with rusty skills to perform at a top venue in Paris is a premise with plenty of comic potential – even if the idea that they can make beautiful music together at the drop of a hat is a bit far-fetched. Still, if you can manage to suspend disbelief and go with the flow, it's easy enough to be swept away by the enthusiasm and energy of this unlikely ensemble. Cultural differences between the unruly mob of Slavs and their more sophisticated French hosts play a large part in the humour, and director Radu Mihaileanu highlights the contrast by using fixed camera shots to illustrate Parisian elegance, while hand-held cameras follow the frenetic antics of the Russians.The cast of characters include an elderly trombonist who insists that his asthma actually improves his playing, and a gypsy violinist who is particularly well-accomplished on the fiddle, with a sideline in arranging fake passports for orchestra members who need them in a hurry. The character-generated humour works up to a point, occasionally treading a fine line between comic exaggeration and racial stereotyping. Scenes where the Russians speak in faltering French present a particular challenge in the sub-titling, as the comic touch runs the risk of becoming lost in translation. The whole plan is orchestrated by Andrei Filipov, played by Alexei Guskov, a seasoned veteran of the East European movie scene, who gives an earnest and likable performance in the role, though he comes across as more of a straight man than a natural comedian. Demoted from conductor to cleaner at the Bolshoi Theatre, he discovers that the Bolshoi Orchestra has been invited to play a concert in Paris, but keeps the news to himself and plans to take his own orchestra instead. There is further motivation for him to go to Paris in the form of virtuoso violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet, a woman whose talents he so admires that he keeps a secret stash of all her CD's and press clippings. A trail of clues seems to suggest a father-daughter relationship, but this is something of a red herring, as the past connection between the pair is not quite so obvious. Melanie Laurent, best known to an international audience for her role as Shosanna Dreyfuss in Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, has a luminous screen presence as the virtuoso violinist who is haunted by the music of Tchaikovsky for reasons she cannot quite fathom. Laurent, who is left-handed, learnt to play the violin for the part, a daunting task as the instrument cannot be converted and must be played right-handed. Bravo: her playing looks authentic enough and no-one can say she isn't prepared to suffer for her art. While the challenge of playing a cool and self-controlled character appears to place constraints on her emotional range at times, she is finally able to give her feelings full expression in the climactic scene, when Jacquet faces her fears to perform Tchaikovsky's violin concerto for the first time. The score combines original music by Armand Amar with the sublime harmonies of Tchaikovsky, a fine blend in keeping with the musical theme. Mihaileanu neatly ties up loose ends in the highly-charged final scene, interspersing highlights of the concert with flashbacks telling the fate of the Jewish musicians from three decades earlier, while flash forwards show the orchestra on a world tour following their success in Paris. The message that reverberates through to the final chord is that people's lives can be transformed, at least temporarily, through the shared experience of music, which crosses barriers of language and culture to achieve harmony and perfection. The fine performances from the players in this concert may merit a round of applause, but the transcendental music of Tchaikovsky is the star.

I really don't remember any movie that made my avoid blinking for such a long period of time.The summary describes all my feelings for this movie. Excellence at its best !--------Just to complete the minimum of 10 lines of text I will try to give some more information about the movie.Acting was surprisingly good even though at the beginning that's not very clear. The quality of the shots is OK, not over the usual movie shots but under no circumstances bad. Music is surreal, you really fell like you are in the theater.

After a surfeit of mediocre American movies lately, I was mesmerised by the magical film of The Concert. Rarely seeing Russian movies, I was intrigued by the setting, characters, snapshots of Russian life today, and swept away by the way in which the actors and director lifted the ordinary into the extraordinary by way of a great plot, exquisite comedy moments, and a romantic theme which had nothing sentimental about it. The central character, Filipov, has an impossible dream and the realisation of this dream through a series of improbable connections results in a screwball comedy the likes of which we haven't seen since Billy Wilder's 'Some Like It Hot'. The musical background provides a culturally sophisticated backdrop to an earthy and simple concept: the combination of the two creates a little masterpiece of a film.From the sub-plots of Russians in Paris trying to make a buck, to the sensitive history of the celebrity violinist persuaded to play the Tchaikowsky concerto with the makeshift, unrehearsed, pseudo-Bolshoi orchestra, the film manages to capture every last nuance of human sensibility. The depiction of the tragi-comedic figure of the arch Communist Gavrilov who ruined the original concert and the lives of orchestra musicians 30 years previously, and now is responsible for ensuring the orchestra reconvene and play in Paris a master stroke and lends the lie to the whole plot.My only criticism is the way in which the final sublime denouement is cut across with collages of resolving the mystery between Filipov, the conductor, and Anne-Marie, the violinist. I can see the point of combining the performance of the music with the resolution - it is clever and creates a crescendo of poignancy to the highest pitch of the music itself. But it was a little confusing and, though, of course, the whole film is a contrivance to entertain, too contrived in the sudden success of this abandoned and defunct orchestra of Jewish misfits in Russia.This film is a compelling story, beautifully played, and a lovely idea. To create a hilariously funny yet subtly and searingly poignant plot is remarkable and I cannot imagine any film lover not enjoying this lovely film.