The film's production is a microcosm of the New Europe of the 1990s , one that is a long way from becoming the United States of Europe but is trying. Szabo had directed this work on the stage, so that he speaks from experience, both bitter and exhilarating. And the film too is a reflection of and a metaphor for the new democracy and its multicultural chaos. He meets with suspiciousness at customs and with confusion at the Paris Opera . Adults act like children, rivalries and ribaldries reign and idiosyncrasies contest the pecking order.
Offense is taken when insults fly but also when none was meant.
While many women makes eyes at the Maestro, he has to face touchiness and temperament, ludicrous union rules and work stoppages, claims and counterclaims, demands, requests for favors, gripes . The elephantine officialdom and bureaucracy can be as vague, lying or sullen as in Arestrup's old communist regime. The movie's wit, humor, irony and occasional surrealist touches sometimes remind you of Fellini, though Szabo is definitely his own man. The Maestro brings to his job in Paris his complexes, insecurities and his fiery love of music. It's break time.