The Conductor

Antonia is in her twenties, playing piano in New York and making a living accompanying silent films at a cinema. What she wants is to conduct an orchestra. When she says so, everyone says the same thing: women do not conduct. She is not admitted to the conservatory. She goes to Europe, studies in Berlin and is allowed to conduct there. Back in America the doors are shut again. She forms her own orchestra, made up entirely of women. Maria Peters directs. Christanne de Bruijn plays Antonia. It is a Dutch production. The film is about a real person: Antonia Brico was born in the Netherlands, grew up in America, and in the thirties became the first woman to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic. The narrative does not build success as a triumph; in the later years of her career Brico could not find a regular orchestra in America, and the film does not hide it. The concert scenes were shot with real orchestras. Its invented strand is arguable: the romance and some supporting characters were added for the screenplay. Its best sections are the rehearsals; there the matter is not talent but the acceptance of who holds authority. Who it is for: viewers who like true life stories and films about music. Who it is not for: the telling is classical, the dramatic shape familiar, and the invented additions unbalance it.