Kirpianuscus For many motifs I see this film as special. For atmosphere, for Romanian actors performances, for an inspired portrait of Modigliani. And for the nuances of battle against Picasso . Short, a real interesting biopic.

secondtake Modigliani (2004)Wow, somebody besides Modigliani was smoking hashish when making this thing. It's incoherent, it takes fictional liberties that border on infantile (never mind trying to create an interesting story), and the acting and writing (basics, yes?) are strained and patched together. Stephen Holden is right, this is a movie about how not to make a movie about a famous artist.Andy Garcia? I can see how people find him handsome, and Modigliani was a lady's man, for sure, so that much works. But he isn't an actor with either subtlety or fire, mostly just self-consciousness. His girlfriend, Jeanne, who was supposed to be 19 when the artist met her, is played with surprising unevenness by the usually talented Elsa Zylberstein, who was almost twice that age, 36. (She does have a naturally long face, which fits the elongated look of the artist's many portraits.) And then there is an even worse fit, the man playing the short fiery Spaniard named Picasso, an Iranian-British comedian name Omid Djalili. He neither looks nor acts like Picasso, who was filmed and photographed so much we know quite exactly what he was like.So what is it about this film that makes sense? Nothing. There is snow in one direction and not in the the other. There is the foolish brandishing of guns, glasses smashed to the floor, hallucinations that play cheap cinematic games, an invented rivalry between Picasso and Modigliani as if they were the only two artists of note in town (this is Paris, 1917, remember). Oh, and speaking of that, where's the war? You know, World War I. Ha.So, Modigliani impregnates this young Catholic student, Jeanne, and shows raging compassion and neglect in almost the same scene. He loves poverty and seems to never really paint--except when he gives up halfway through and destroys the thing in a fit. (This is only partly true--he drew and painted like mad, but not destructively.) The light is often nice, his T.B. is neatly invisible until the dramatic final bow, and Paris never looked so tawdry and small. It's a shame, because it could at least have been brimming with atmosphere. Or, taking it another direction, the movie could have leapt into complete fantasy like Derek Jarman's "Caravaggio" or the inventive (and more accurate) "Goya in Bordeaux."I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. Anyone, not with all the better artist films out there. As a final note, even if you like everything I didn't, you'll have to keep track of the many side characters (artists who come and go like Max Jacobs, Diego Rivera, and Utrillo), and the put up with a pastiched together simultaneous scene of several of these painters all making their works for the competition, feverishly painting as club music plays in the soundtrack as if it were a high school football tournament. Good luck. The death mask at the end? That's for real. And the final tragic suicide, as well. The truth of Modigliani is far more intense than this frivolous thing.

ferdinand1932 While this film looks good it has the values of a pop clip which is indicated by the use of music: either it's from the wrong era (Edith Piaf)and just a French cliché, or just new age nonsense.But the biggest problem is the film deceives the audience with a tragic story and portrayal of the artist which is not true. Furthermore Andy Garcia's performance emphasizes the unfair tragedy, as it is serene: as if the world has pitched everything against him.The real Modigliani was a very disturbed, self-destructive and unpleasant man. He was an addict, alcoholic, prone to violence - against women and Jeanne too - who despite all that, could paint pictures. His brain chemistry and personality would have been changed from years of abuse. In the last year of his life, as this film is set, he was emaciated, eating only rarely, and toothless. Not an attractive thing to look at on a movie screen. Real poverty and addiction is not.In the last weeks of his life he had been drinking very heavily and went home where the tubercolar meningitis and alcoholism caught up with him but he still insisted that Jeanne give him more to drink. The perils of an addict. He ate just sardines, and the account is his clothes and mattress were smeared in sardine oil.At his end he was not beaten but found by a neighbor in his apartment with Jeanne cuddled beside the comatose painter. They had been in that position for 2 days.He was taken to a hospital and died. Jeanne saw him later, with her father, and it is said by witnesses that she did not kiss Modigliani. She screamed. There was no farewell scene, nothing tender just the death of a junkie, albeit one who painted well. If that had been on screen it would have knifed an audience by its power. No one has deciphered Jeanne well: impressionable young woman, devoted, or perhaps a bit mad like the rest of Modigliani's circle of painters. When she committed suicide she underlined Modigliani's life (the value of his paintings rose 800% overnight) and our complicity in enjoying tragic stories about artists.This film has several defects, and its final one is the dedication to the daughter of Modigliani and Jeanne, who herself, died in 1984 and had an unhappy life. It's a smug gesture.This film is probably about an artist, but it is not about Modigliani.

archer-lee This movie was agreeable to the senses in almost every way. I am not hightly educated in the art history field. However, I found this drama to appeal to all my senses. From costume to scenery everything, from the average joes perspective, was fantastic. I found almost every scene I was absorbed into as if I were there. Only one scene/performance did I find slightly off & that was of the goat woman getting angry at Moodigliani in front of his peers. I was cheering, crying, & wanting to physically hurt some of those uncaring souls. Anyone, whether artistically educated or not, would respond to the deep human search of a gifted soul and his place in life. I am surprised that this movie is not on large award lists! It was obvious to me that Andy put his soul into this performance! I feel he reached a new realm in his acting career. Bravo!