Directed by Bradley Cooper (American Sniper, A Star is Born), Netflix’s Maestro follows Leonard Bernstein and chronicles his relationship with Felicia Montealegre. Cooper also stars in the film as Leonard Bernstein himself, opposite Carey Mulligan. Maestro first premiered at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2023 and was released on Netflix on December 20. The film has received 139 nominations and won 18 awards across several categories.
Mark Bridges serves as the movie’s costume designer and was nominated for a CDG Award for his work. Bridges’ previous projects include titles such as Joker, Phantom Thread, and Silver Linings Playbook. In addition to Cooper and Mulligan, Maestro stars Matt Bomer, Maya Hawke, Sarah Silverman, Josh Hamilton, Scott Ellis, Gideon Glick, Sam Nivola, Alexa Swinton, and Miriam Shor.
15 Most Famous Musical Compositions By Maestro’s Leonard Bernstein
Larger-than-life American composer Leonard Bernstein has created many musicals, ballets, and operas, and some of them became more famous than others.
Screen Rant interviewed Mark Bridges about reuniting with Bradley Cooper for Maestro and using the wardrobe to capture the film’s time period.
Mark Bridges Talks Maestro
Screen Rant: You’ve worked in a wide variety of genres, so what drew you to Maestro and made you want to get involved in the project?
Mark Bridges: It’s not often that you get to illustrate the better part of well-known people’s lives and chart their course through 40 years. I was able to design for the 40s, for the 50s, late 60s, much of the 70s, and even into the 80s. That opportunity doesn’t come by easily. That was really fun. Bradley’s a great guy to work with. He’s always enthusiastic and passionate and a real gentleman. And I was available. We had started working together on camera tests and things in the summer of 2020, and I just stayed on for the entire project. It was great fun.
Speaking of Bradley Cooper, how was working with him as both the director and star of the film?
Mark Bridges: Bradley and I knew each other and had formed a bond of trust over a film called Silver Linings Playbook. Then we were working together on Licorice Pizza and that’s when the camera test started. We’d already created a level of trust working together and a familiarity during Silver Linings Playbook.
Working as actor and designer again, you carry that trust and level of collaboration over to him as a director, which I always feel like my job is to create and fulfill the vision of my director. It wasn’t a huge leap from making sure that my actor is able to do what he needs to do, then take it one step further and make sure my director has his vision fulfilled.
How much did you know about Leonard and Felicia before the project? Were you a fan of their work?
Mark Bridges: I had the barest knowledge of Leonard. I knew of his compositions, mostly because they were sort of well known films. On the Town I knew was his work. I knew West Side Story. As far as the ins and outs, where you came from, his humble beginnings, his smashing debut at age 25 in Carnegie Hall, and then, of course, their love story I knew nothing about.
Now, I dare say, I’m a bit of an expert after illustrating their lives and doing visual research, reading biographies, putting my hands on anything I could regarding that couple and their lives, and they’re quite fascinating. All the ups and downs and ins and outs and the enduring love that was there to the very end.
How much did you look back at photos of Leonard and Felicia versus the time period in general?
Mark Bridges: Whether I’m doing The Fabelmans for Steven Spielberg, or whether I’m doing this film, there’s always a level of research. You try to look visually to understand who these people are and how they presented themselves to the world. There are a lot of clues in what people choose to wear, so I love that. We had a lot of scenes that had background players. We had a full audience for Carnegie Hall, we had an audience for a Broadway show in 1946, and we had an audience for the MASS premiere at Kennedy Center in 1971. I use films from that period. The mid 40s was the treasure trove of research for what audiences look like.
The mores of the time and dress codes of the time and what you wore. Everything was perfectly matched, and black tie was required for the evening. By the time we get to the 80s, it’s a very different world, and a very more relaxed sense of dress code. I love showing that. I would go through their lives, and see where they are, and then refer back to the script and think about how we could possibly honor them and their personal style in each of the scenes. How to use the clothes to tell the story.
Was there a specific outfit of theirs that you wanted to recreate?
Mark Bridges: Many actually. We were able to use one of Felicia’s dresses for the country house scene. That was great energy having one of her actual garments that she wore at her country house on Carey. There’s a striped French sailor shirt with a kerchief that Lenny wears in the mid 70s. He has a beard at the same time and that was a very short period of his life when there was a bit of domestic upheaval for them. There’s a photograph of him wearing this conducting and rehearsing with an orchestra.
And then I see in the script that we have a scene where he’s rehearsing with the orchestra during this period when he has a beard. The events aren’t the same, but that moment in his life, and what he is saying, what’s in the script, it felt like that choice taken from research in his real life put together with the written word that Bradley and Josh did, made for a very powerful scene. So that’s how I go through it—culling the real research and applying it to the drama.
There are definitely scenes with some intense choreography. Is it a challenge to create costumes that are authentic but also allow the actors the freedom to move around in that capacity?
Mark Bridges: It was just one of the many things that I looked forward to getting right in the process of designing. Luckily, today, we have fabrics that they didn’t have in the 40s. They have a little stretch in them, but we also researched how those original dance costumes and Broadway show costumes were created but just threw in that little modern bit of stretch for them so that they fit a certain way, but they still moved and acted the way that the originals did. That was a challenge and fun. We went back a couple of times to get the fit right on Bradley and to make sure he could do everything he needed to do.
How much does the film being in black and white affect the costume choices? Would you have chosen the same wardrobe if it was all in color?
Mark Bridges: With that particular dance sequence, I felt like the shapes were strong enough to go tell the story for that, but there is definite planning and testing along the way to make sure we’re making the right decisions as far as values or textures. It’s very methodical. It doesn’t really happen by accident. I brought a lot of experience from the film that I designed called The Artist, which was all in black and white. I learned some things there that I was able to bring. Maddie and Bradley committed completely to actual black-and-white film, so we were able to do some tests and make sure we were on the right track before shooting.
Is there a costume that stands out to you, either because it was difficult to create or was an immediate fit?
Mark Bridges: I remember working very hard on getting the dress that we first see Felicia in. It’s a 40s dress. We recreated a vintage dress that we found, had a new dress created, did beading on it, and made a matching stole with the same beading on it. Gloves, we made the clutch purse that she carries, made sure the shoes were the same value as the dress. I spent a lot of time on that, and I was very happy how it turned out. It’s an interesting garment.
We actually had a vintage version we used on Carey’s camera test two years before shooting. It just always worked. It always worked, and it was worthwhile—us creating a new one for the film. That’s probably my favorite, because we did so much to make it perfect and to make their first scenes together magical. There’s always a little bit of sparkle there. Whether it’s Lenny’s point of view or the viewer’s point of view, there’s a sparkle there, and I’m very happy with how it played.
Do you have any upcoming projects that you’re looking forward to working on?
Mark Bridges: Yes. I am going to do my fourth collaboration with director Paul Greengrass. I love his work. I love working with him. We are going to do a more contemporary piece. The last piece that we worked on together was News of the World, which was set in 1870, and now we’re doing a little more contemporary piece. Oddly enough, it involves the same amount of research, the same amount of culling real images and using them for dramatic purpose. He’s another wonderful filmmaker. I’m very excited about that and to be up and running again after a rather inactive year last year in our business.
About Maestro
Maestro is a towering and fearless love story chronicling the lifelong relationship between Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein. A love letter to life and art, Maestro at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love.
Maestro
Maestro is a biographical drama about the famous composer Leonard Bernstein. Bradley Cooper stars as Leonard Bernstein and also wrote and directed the film. The movie chronicles Bernstein’s life from 1946, when he met Felicia Montealegre, through his two engagements and three children. Maya Hawke, Carey Mulligan, Sarah Silverman, and Matt Bomer star alongside Cooper.
- Release Date
- December 20, 2023
- Director
- Bradley Cooper
- Cast
- Bradley Cooper , Carey Mulligan , Maya Hawke , Sarah Silverman , Matt Bomer
- Runtime
- 156 Minutes
- Writers
- Bradley Cooper , Josh Singer
- Studio(s)
- Amblin Entertainment
- Distributor(s)
- Netflix
