mixed bag

deluqz

This movie is very much a mixed bag.. it's a good film. It's nice to watch, the acting is good, the direction is good and the story is engaging. But I feel it doesn't capture the real spirit of the era and the Paris artist community. It focuses too much on the immoral behavior and madness of the artists and leaves out the way these people viewed the world and their concepts of beauty. It's good the film tries to show the grittiness of it all, but there was so much more... i'd really would've liked to see more about what drove modigliani to paint as he did and what exactly drove him to destruction. This film only just touches on that...

it tries too much to please the American audience in their quest for standardized Hollywood stories, but on the other hand it tries to have a certain "artsy" flair that remains just polish because it lacks depth. Add to that some production-decisions that are a bit unfortunate, like the for any European obviously fake accents. They should've taken the original languages (french, Italian, Spanish, German) or English. Not this lame compromise..

Still you gotta see this. Not for an actual representation of modiglianis life or that era, just for it being a good film, dealing with passion, loyalty, madness, love and hate. See it for the atmosphere ,which although not accurate, is beautiful. See it for the good acting and the wonderful chemistry between modi and picasso. It could've been so much more but it is what it is.. good, intelligent entertainment.

score 7/10

deluqz 11 February 2005

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1020657/