Il Maestro

Shot in English, writer/director Marion Hänsel's moody drama from the higher echelons of the European music scene has lots of ambition, but not quite the artistic clout to make the best of potentially interesting material. McDowell's a famous Jewish conductor who suffers a nervous breakdown when he returns to Italy for the first time in many years to work on a production of Madame Butterfly. It's left to impresario Lemaire to ferret out the his dark secret, tracing the maestro's life back to a wartime flight from the Nazis and a series of events that tied his destiny to charlatan Aznavour. Engrossing for classical music buffs, but finally somewhat superficial.