Daniel Barenboim: In his Own Words (2021)
Legendary conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim speaks more candidly than he has ever done before about his life and music. Told entirely through interviews with the maestro, the film starts with his earliest musical experiences as a child piano prodigy in Buenos Aires, before following his meteoric rise to fame, including his encounters with other musical giants such as Nadia Boulanger and Arthur Rubinstein, who gave the 14-year-old Daniel his first vodka and cigar! We also learn of Barenboim's move to Israel when he was a teenager, where he lived a double life as a musical genius and an ordinary schoolboy. He then talks with unusual intimacy about his relationship with cellist Jacqueline du Pre and her long battle with multiple sclerosis. The film also charts Barenboim's stellar career as an orchestral conductor, his move into opera and the founding of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with Edward Said.
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If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
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One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.