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| The audience seeing musicians up close in the orchestra |
Nous, L'orchestre De Paris (2026)
When the audience sits down to listen to an orchestra, they see lots of musicians in black on the stage, but as a collective they produce amazing music under the guidance of the conductor; people may not know or appreciate the individual players and their motivations for performing in an orchestra.
The documentary, Nous, L'orchestre De Paris by director Philippe Beziat gives viewers an idea of what it's like, sitting from their point of view on the stage, and a bit of their backstory of how they became one of the 120 members of the Orchestre de Paris.
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| Makela leads the orchestra in a rehearsal |
They listen intently, and as musicians they can hear details many of us don't hear, or they praise their fellow colleagues. One remarks, "Eighteen violinists make the same gesture in a fraction of a second. That really impresses me."
However, early in the documentary, the audience doesn't hear their voices, and instead their answers or comments are transcribed on screen, which was kind of frustrating; only later on we can hear their own voices.
But then there are other comments that are just written in English on the screen, like "being in an orchestra is like being in a forced marriage" -- it wouldn't be fair to attribute that to any particular person because they were truthful observations that he or she said.
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| Some consider the 30-year-old a prodigy |
One scene early on shows guest conductor Elim Chan rehearsing and then performing with the orchestra. She describes that it can be tough parachuting in to work with the orchestra, but in the end we see it's a job and everyone gets on with it. It was cool to see Hong Kong-born Chan in the film, and she is now the music director at the San Francisco Symphony.
In a way the musicians are part of a family, spending a lot of time together. Some break off into small groups to do chamber music, or even jazz. But the most interesting part is the musicians explaining where they sit, who sits next to them, and how not only do we see their point of view, but also hear it too, instead of from the audience's side.
We also get to see the modern concert hall up close, the Philharmonie de Paris, in the outskirts of Paris. Director Beziat is no stranger to making films about classical music and opera. Perhaps Nous, L'orchestre De Paris satisfies his own curiosity of what it's like to be part of a powerful musical collective and gives the audience a greater appreciation for these musicians.
Directed by Philippe Beziat
90 minutes
