Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: BERNSTEIN’S WALL [Tribeca Film Festival 2021 -Virtual]
The aspect of Leonard Bernstein as a luminary arts figure has long dominated the New York landscape but the ideals and innerworkings of such a man (or woman) are more intricate. almost always. Now while it is difficult to get a read from any man who is no longer with us but also lived in previous, perhaps more socially conservative generations, the documentary "Bernstein's Wall" [Spotlight Documentary] is an integral visual from the mouth of the man through previous interviews while parallel letters underneath (beautifully animated in a certain way) tell a story beneath of loneliness, confusion, critical thinking but of focus. This was made with the input its seems from the Bernstein children but it gives a more flushed out view without bringing any talking heads in at all besides the man himself. It is his words, his music, his style...and that is what director Douglas Tirola brings through. The political, his marriage, everything paints the portrait of a complicated man who actually died right after the fall of the Berlin Wall (although he chain smoked cigarettes for years). His wife died from lung cancer and that aspect of how she weaves into his life when other things swirled within them is dynamic within the conflict of the man. One photo with him watching the orchestra and her sitting across the aisle almost sideways and tired is unbelievably telling but also intimate. This actually seems what is going to be the focus of director/star Bradley Cooper's upcoming film "Bernstein" with him playing the title role and currently Carey Mulligan as his wife (in an interesting companion piece to her NY-centric Daisy in "Gatsby"). Watching the teaching aspect of Bernstein is something that the man seemed to show immense pride and gratification in. From the Young Adult concerts (but also undeniably during one piece of footage that shows him teaching a student conductor) gives a true sense of his gifts since it reflects perhaps earlier mentors he had though his relation with Aaron Copland, a big influence in his life, was more complex. But also him coming into the city as a young man, dealing with an autocratic father (in a way) and the sheer coincidence of him being selected out of the blue as the assistant conductor at the NY Philharmonic at 25. Then after that a guest conductor falling out at exactly the right moment (which vaulted him into the front age of the New York Times) shows the charmed life Bernstein had which he was aware of. It also illustrated the underlying psychology of both his love of the arts, his perceptions of causes and power and ultimately his own persona between that of his exuberant public life (in a way) and the aspects in his personal life that fueled him forward. The last beat of the movie is also so poignant in its setting but also what the final note represents as a true intention of Bernstein. A-
By Tim Wassberg
