The Concert

Directed by Radu Mihaileanu. Starring Alexei Guskov, Dmitry Nazarov, Melanie Laurent, Francois Berleand, Miou Miou, Valeri Barinov 12A cert, IFI/Light House, Dublin, 122 min

THIS SAPPY but ultimately irresistible comic drama has the names of many European nations stamped on its underside. The French, the Belgians, the Italians and the Romanians all take credit for its production.

There is, however, no mention of any Russian money in the pot. This is not altogether surprising. Beginning in Moscow, some years after the fall of the USSR, The Concertdepicts the nation as a banana republic fuelled on vodka and tomfoolery.

Alexei Guskov stars as Andrei, a talented conductor who, after being blacklisted for assisting Jewish dissidents, now works as a cleaner in the Bolshoi. One fateful day, he intercepts a fax from a French promoter offering the Bolshoi’s orchestra a concert at a prestigious Paris venue.

A mad idea strikes Andrei. Enlisting the support of a former tormentor from the KGB, now fallen on hard times, he gathers together several equally destitute colleagues and informs them that they are to impersonate the Bolshoi. They will travel to France and – for a weekend at least – revel in the good life they have hitherto been denied.

The Concertis at its best when at its most comic. Buoyed up by brilliant performances from all the main players, the outbreaks of robust slapstick and spasms of careering farce never fail to jangle the funny bone.

Radu Mihaileanu’s film is, however, somewhat less successful when it attempts to dampen the audience’s eyes. When a subplot involving the orchestra’s star soloist (played by Inglourious Basterds’ Melanie Laurent) stomps its way into the spotlight, the picture succumbs to near-fatal mawkishness. Happily, so much goodwill has, by that stage, been stirred up, it proves hard to stay angry with the film. Top-class hokum.