Le Concert

Having had a bit of blockbuster overload of late, time to cleanse the palate with a whimsical little piece, half in French, half in Russian.

The story revolves around a man called Andrei Filipov, who was once an eminent conductor of the Russian Bolshoi orchestra, but who was branded an enemy of the people and sacked in disgrace for refusing Breshnev's instructions to remove all the Jewish members of his orchestra. Thirty years later sees he and his orchestra working menial jobs in Moscow, with him working as a cleaner. While there he intercepts a fax from a Parisian concert hall inviting the Bolshoi to perform. A scheme is hatched to supplant the official orchestra with one of his own, composed of the disavowed musicians of his old orchestra, a bunch of eccentrics if ever there was one.

What follows is a lunatic scramble to put the orchestra together, get them to Paris, and keep them together for their date with destiny.

The film scores highly on a number of levels. As a comedy, it's very amusing. As a drama, it reflects on such themes as redemption, second chances, and music as a means for oppressed people to free themselves. And as a piece of musical theatre, it's shot through with classical performances, with the final act played out over Tchaikovsky's concerto for violin and strings. 

Ultimately, it's a charming film which is implausible and silly at times because it refuses to take itself too seriously, and which at other times skirts the border between emotion and sentimentality. Had it not been a) in French and Russian throughout and b) been about classical music, which will put some audiences off, it'd have "feelgood film of the summer" written all over it. My advice is, don't let either of those facts put you off.