Leonard Bernstein’s career as the composer and conductor behind West Side Story, On the Waterfront, and the New York Philharmonic, among others, included winning seven Emmy awards, two Tonys, and 16 Grammys.
But Bradley Cooper’s Maestro centers on the love of his life outside of his music: his wife, Felicia Montealegre. The first teaser trailer for the Netflix film, which debuted Tuesday, opens with Bernstein (played by Cooper) sitting back-to-back with his Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) in a gorgeous park, playing a flirty telepathy game.
The teaser, which jumps from black and white to color, follows Bernstein through his whirlwind romance with Montealegre, along with his meteoric rise in his career. It teases a dreamy, sweeping look at an artist’s life that also explores the complicated partnership he had with his wife. Montealegre was an actress and activist who met Bernstein in 1946, and eventually married him in 1951 and had three children with him. Throughout his life, Bernstein had affairs with men, but would return to Montealegre repeatedly until her death in 1978. He died in 1990.
Cooper not only stars but directs Maestro, and co-wrote the script with Josh Singer. The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 2 (though Cooper won’t be in attendance due to the ongoing actors strike). The Venice Film Festival was a key launching pad for his previous directorial effort, A Star is Born, which went on to a memorable Oscar campaign. Maestro could deliver strong performances from both Cooper and Mulligan along with a promising supporting cast that includes Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke and Sarah Silverman.
The first images of Cooper as Bernstein got a lot of attention for the major transformation that the actor underwent to play the iconic composer, but this teaser trailer seems to indicate that Bernstein’s story will be deeper dive into the woman who was at the center of his story. In the final moments, it returns to the couple, sitting back to back at a much older age, with Bernstein saying, “It’s two darling, two. Like us, a pair. Two little ducks in a pond.”
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