Challenging genius: The Yellow Tie tells the dramatic story of Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache's rise to fame in a film written & directed by his son

The Yellow Tie - Ben Schnetzer (Sergiu Celibidache) - director: Serge Ioan Celibidache, Oblique Media

The Yellow Tie; Ben Schnetzer, John Malkovich, Kate Phillips, Miranda Richardson, Sean Bean, Olivia Popica, Tamzin Merchant, director: Serge Ioan Celibidachi, written by Serge Ioan Celibidachi & James Oliver, producer: James Oliver; Produced by Oblique Media; Icon Film Distribution

With Ben Schnetzer oozing sexual magnetism and self-belief, and John Malkovich in compelling form, The Yellow Tie manages to tell a remarkable classical music-based story in a cinematic fashion. 

There has been a fascination recently for films based on the lives of some of the great post-war conductors, from István Szabó's film based on Ronald Harwood's play about Wilhelm Furtwängler's de-Nazification problems to Bradley Cooper's Maestro based on the life of Leonard Bernstein. The latest of these is The Yellow Tie about the life of the Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache which debuted last year in Bucharest (and became the most watched Romanian film of 2026). The Yellow Tie, however, has an intriguing advantage in that the film is directed and co-written by Celibidache's son, Serge Ioan Celibidachi (whose character even appears in the film played by Charlie Rowe).

The Yellow Tie (Romanian: Cravata Galbenă) is released in the UK from 9 October and the film received its UK premiere on Wednesday night (29 September) at the Odeon Luxe at Leicester Square. The film covers almost the whole of Celibidache's life with four actors playing him at different ages - Andrei Isarescu (child), Ewan Horrocks (teenager), Ben Schnetzer (adult), John Malkovich (older). Other cast included Kate Phillips as Celibidache's wife Ioana with Miranda Richardson as the older Ioana, Sean Bean as Celibidache's father, Olivia Popica as Sonia (Celibidache's sister), Tamzin Merchant as Ortancia (with whom he has a youthful liaison in Berlin), Anton Lesser as Martin Steinke (who introduces Celibidache to Zen Buddhism) and Robert Dölle as Heinz Tiessen with whom Celibidache trained in Berlin.

The Yellow Tie - Ben Schnetzer (Sergiu Celibidache), Kate Phillips (Ioana Celibidache) - director: Serge Ioan Celibidache, Oblique Media

Filming was largely in Romania but the film is in English (with a tiny amount of Romanian), though the scenes in Germany use a creditable amount of spoken German.

Music plays a considerable role in the film. The soundtrack includes around a dozen of Celibidache's own recordings, and the closing credits feature archive footage of the man himself conducting. As befitting a film about the making of a conductor, there are five orchestras involved, all played by modern day orchestras:

• The Romanian Youth Orchestra of the National Art Center "Tinerimea Română" as Münchner Philharmoniker
• The Symphonic Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir "Paul Constantinescu" Ploiești as the RAI Orchestra
• The Bucharest National Opera Orchestra as the Berliner Philharmoniker
• The Monica Calofir Symphonic Orchestra as the orchestra Celibidache conducts in South America
• The George Enescu Philharmonic Symphonic Orchestra as the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra

Archive photographs of Sergiu Celibidache

Rather impressively, two of the music tracks feature the actor Ben Schnetzer conducting (music from Stravinsky's The Firebird and one of Bartok's Romanian Dances). Clearly much work has been done in terms of learning conducting technique. The film's conducting coach was Konrad von Abel who was artistic assistant to Sergiu Celibidache with the Munich Philharmonic between 1986-1996 

Viewing the film of Schnetzer's performances on the podium, they seemed a little wild (one performance of Ravel's Bolero in particular), yet viewing the archive footage of Celibidache himself you realise how wild the man could be on the platform.

Structurally, the film is a fairly conventional bio-pic, with scenes with the older Celibidache (John Malkovich) intercutting a narrative taking Celibidache from childhood to maturity and his return to conduct in his native Romania. Inevitably there are compressions and omissions, and sometimes you feel things have been omitted to make for a better story. There is a touch of the melodramatic to the storytelling, particularly in the Berlin scenes during and after the war, and there are quite a few moments when it does not pay to dig too deeply.

As director, Serge Ioan Celibidachi's focus is not so much on realism as on his father's interior development. Celibidachi was a difficult man, for particular reasons, and the film explores this. The problem for the filmmaker is that all of his themes are tricky ones to bring off in film - Celibidachi's singular genius as a conductor, his focus on music being in the moment and refusal to countenance recordings, his arrogance, and his belief in Zen Buddhism.

It works because the film benefits from two outstanding performances from John Malkovich and Ben Schnetzer. Malokovich is malicious, arrogant and mesmerising as the older Celibidachi, combining charismisa with a certainty of his own rightness. Ben Schnetzer is completely charismatic as the mature Celibidachi, making the rightness of his belief in his talent believable whilst bringing out Celibidachi's sexual magnetism. This is a very sexy performance even though the character does little more than kiss the two female protagonists (Tamzin Merchant and Kate Phillips). Schnetzer also manages to bring out Celibidachi's self belief, his arrogance for want of a better word. It is hard to explain genius, but Schnetzer nearly convinces. Throughout the film Schnetzer is always very sharply dressed (costume design Alessandro Lai) no matter the character's situation. Many of his suits are enviable and help to magnify Schnetzer's projection of Celibidache's image.

That said, the early part of the film is a little slow, it takes time for the various threads of the narrative to get going. One of the main plot arcs feels a little contrived but makes for a satisfying piece of cinematic story-telling even if the facts have been manipulated (the opening titles say the film is based on a true story). In one of the early scenes Celibidachi's father (Sean Bean) presents him with a yellow tie. The significance of this is never quite revealed, but when the young adult Celibidachi leaves home to pursue music (instead of the career chosen by his father) the tie is taken away. Throughout his mature life the two never reconcile, even though the rest of Celibidachi's family follow the conductor's career (via radio broadcasts). But when Celibidachi chooses to return to Romania to conduct (having had a dream about skating as a child, falling and his father comforting him), he learns that his father has just died and left him a package. Cut to the older Celibidachi who opens the package to find a scrap-book of Celibidachi's career, and the yellow tie - Daddy cared all along but couldn't or didn't say.

The Yellow Tie - John Malokovich (Sergiu Celibidache) - director: Serge Ioan Celibidache - Oblique Media

The performances around Malkovich and Schnetzer are very fine too. Miranda Richardson does her damndest with rather too little material as the older Celibidachi's wife Ioana, whilst Kate Phillips manages to make the adult Ioana interesting and suggest a person in her own right (she was an artist). Charlie Rowe (with a curiously English accent) is the director's portrait of his younger, restless self.

Tamzin Merchant is slightly wasted as the tart Ortancia with whom the young adult Celibidachi hooks up with when he first moves to Berlin. Here the story's reliance on simple tropes is less effective and you wanted more subtle detail in the relationship. With his intense, singular stare, Robert Dölle somewhat overdoes the 'mad scientist' image as Heinz Tiessen, the composer with whom Celibidache studied in Berlin, whilst Anton Lesser is very much underused as Martin Steinke, the man who introduced Celibidache to Zen Buddhism.

Sean Bean as Celibidachi's father has little to do but glower, which he does excellently. Olivia Popica is touching as Celibidachi's sister; her reasons for staying at home remain relatively unexamined but Popica manages to make her belief in her brother moving rather than melodramatic. Orlando James and Bianca Rogoff play two of Celibidachi's childhood friends whose constant presence throughout the film stands in for much more. Another theme that is touched on, but which the film does not labour, is the difficulties faced by Celibidache's family in post-War Romania along with the dangers he faced when returning to conduct in the 1970s, along with his courage in facing this.

The Yellow Tie - Ben Schnetzer (Sergiu Celibidache) - director: Serge Ioan Celibidache, Oblique Media
Celibidache's return to his native Romania

The film tells a remarkable story and benefits from some remarkable performances. It's heart is certainly in the right place and in terms of shedding light on the 'Romanian experience' it is a rarity in Western cinema. But with all that said, I am still not sure how a film lasting 145 minutes, telling the life-story of a conductor of classical music will resonate with the average audience. Only time will tell.

The Yellow Tie is in UK cinemas from 9 October 2026, further information from the film's website.

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