As a (classical) music lover and agreeing with the filmmaker that Antonia Brico more than deserves to be put in the spotlight, I had high expectations of this movie. Maybe they were set too high: I have mixed feelings after seeing it.
As a movie, I feel that it kept meandering around, never finding a steady pace. I found myself wondering multiple times about sudden jumps in the story that I felt deserved more attention. It was as if the movie wants to cover as much ground as possible at the cost of the flow - even where it doesn't really contribute to the story. Some characters felt like caricatures, which made this movie feel a bit politically motivated. Despite my sympathy for the cause I think that it shouldn't dominate.
Something similar goes for the role of the music in the movie: that, too, felt rather arbitrarily chosen - apart from that brief moment where "Rhapsody in Blue" is mentioned as "new music" (though it was already a few years old by then). In this movie the music itself could have played a much more profound role, but it did so only on a few fleeting moments, as when an angry and upset Antonia hammered Stravinsky on her ramshackle piano with the neighbours yelling "Silence!!" through the walls. I don't know what Ms. Brico's favourite repertoire was, but I can't help thinking what a marvellous role a piece like the Sacre du Printemps, or maybe Alban Berg's "To the memory of an Angel" could have played.
As a movie, I feel that it kept meandering around, never finding a steady pace. I found myself wondering multiple times about sudden jumps in the story that I felt deserved more attention. It was as if the movie wants to cover as much ground as possible at the cost of the flow - even where it doesn't really contribute to the story. Some characters felt like caricatures, which made this movie feel a bit politically motivated. Despite my sympathy for the cause I think that it shouldn't dominate.
Something similar goes for the role of the music in the movie: that, too, felt rather arbitrarily chosen - apart from that brief moment where "Rhapsody in Blue" is mentioned as "new music" (though it was already a few years old by then). In this movie the music itself could have played a much more profound role, but it did so only on a few fleeting moments, as when an angry and upset Antonia hammered Stravinsky on her ramshackle piano with the neighbours yelling "Silence!!" through the walls. I don't know what Ms. Brico's favourite repertoire was, but I can't help thinking what a marvellous role a piece like the Sacre du Printemps, or maybe Alban Berg's "To the memory of an Angel" could have played.
