The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) was singular this year in that it was the debut of the all-new McHurley Film Center, a state-of-the-art five-screen multiplex grandeur given to the community by Nora McNeely McHurley – a beloved philanthropist who, with her husband Michael McHurley led the very recent ribbon-cutting to the theater on February 2.
SBIFF has been running from February 4-14 at this and other Santa Barbara iconic venues such as the Riviera and Arlington theatres. Now in its 41st season, SBIFF has a knack for presenting artistic and cutting-edge cinematic offerings as well as honoring notable actors and directors – including this year’s recipients Kate Hudson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Adam Sandler, Ryan Coogler (Sinners) and Chloé Zhao (Hamnet). Among the entries from 50 countries that are being presented is the United States premiere of The Yellow Tie, a biopic about the life and career of Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) - directed by his son Serge Ioan Celibidache, who wrote the script in collaboration with James Olivier, while his wife Adela Vrinceanu Celibidache served as chief producer. It features a cast of seasoned British, American and Romanian actors who deliver a savvy triptych characterization of the Celibidache persona in Ben Schnetzer (Celibidache), Ewan Horrocks (a younger Sergiu) and John Malkovich (who turned in a performance of an older Sergiu worthy of an Oscar nomination). Miroirs CA’s roving correspondent Hillary Hauser was there to offer impressions, in collaboration with The Editor.
And her first impression was that the McHurley Film Center went up at the perfect time. The Yellow Tie is super-rich in music of the finest sort with the soundtrack taken from actual performances of Celibidache, captured on radio broadcasts because he never allowed recordings of his concerts. These soundtracks were released after his passing, with permission from his family.
It is rare for a filmed music biography to accurately capture the interaction of conductor and the orchestra he/she leads but in this respect, the actor Ben Schnetzer delivered a riveting performance worthy of an Oscar nomination - and this from a non-musician who learned the mechanics of conducting in three short months. Celibidache’s lifework as conductor-music director has been rather overlooked for some time but the beautifully written script provides a factual and emotional portrait of Celibidache’s struggles and furious desire to make the music he wanted, and his resistance to recordings, as he states in the film that a recording cannot capture the full essence of a performance, which he felt was deeply tied to the ambience and spontaneity of the moment. He was a devout student of Zen Buddhism and remarked, “I couldn’t have known this strange principle that the beginning is in the end, and the end is in the beginning. Music is nothing but the realization of this principle.”
In one scene that draws viewers into the beginning of Celibadache’s extraordinary rise to the spotlight, he was snatched from the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin to conduct the Berlin Radio Symphony in a Stravinsky ballet suite, and since it was mere moments from showtime an orchestra director asked Celibidache if he needed a score of the work. He didn’t and proceeded to give his players directions both spoken and with baton the essence of music being played. From there, Celibidache was chosen as the youngest Principal Conductor of the mighty Berlin Philharmonic, a position he held for seven years ( 1945-1952). Schnetzer’s building of his role as an orchestra conductor began here and never stopped until the role was taken over by John Malkovich as the older Celibidache. Malkovich is also likely to get an Oscar nod for his powerful portrayal of the tormented conductor working so hard to preserve his principles.
The Yellow Tie is a homegrown in Romania product that contains some gorgeous cinematography of this country’s idyllic countryside or elegant Athenaeum concert hall in Bucharest. The script’s underlying message is rooted in Celibidache’s musical, philosophical musings and spiritual approach to music, which he emphasized to numerous students in his teaching of musical phenomenology and conducting, most notably at Mainz University (1978-1992). He also held masterclasses at the Curtis Institute of Music (1984), Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and Schola Cantorum in Paris.
At SBIFF, an after-concert Q&A talk was given by his son Serge along with his wife Adele and others in the filmmaking crew, to share their experience in putting together this extraordinary story of the genius within Sergiu Celibidache. No release date yet has been announced for Netflix or theater showings, but The Yellow Tie is a powerful film that will most likely be considered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a number of Oscars that include writing, production, cinematography and sound.