L'ennui et sa diversion l'érotisme

With a German lead actor, a French lead actress, and an American second lead, you'll be surprised at the audio track when you watch The Empty Canvas. No one is speaking their own lines; they're all dubbed by Italian actors! It's quite ridiculous, but I can only think of one reason why this happened: the nudity and sexual content could only be passed by the Italian film board. Even with the demise of the Hays Code, there were some barriers Americans hadn't crossed yet.

This is one nasty movie! Horst Buchholz plays a drifting artist, a poor little rich boy without purpose. He can't stand his mother, Bette Davis, and treats her with contempt while taking her allowance. When he sees Catherine Spaak, who modeled nude for an elderly artist (recently deceased after a bedroom excursion with her), he can't control his hormones. While it may appear they can't keep their paws off each other, they actually do for long enough for Catherine to cheat on him. Why would she do that? He's such a cutie! Even with the pain of sharing her with another man, Horst can't let her go.

It's an interesting take on the romance genre, if you think about the story itself. On paper, if you reversed the genders of the characters, it would be a classic romantic storyline. A woman repeatedly hurt by her boyfriend, suffering one humiliation after another but hanging in there because her hormones make her think it's love. If you imagine Catherine's character as a man, being so callous and hurtful, it's much more familiar. Why won't Horst ever kick her to the curb? Watch this very steamy movie to find out if he ever does. After a while, you won't even notice they're speaking Italian; there are other things to pay attention to.

While most will wonder how the HELL Betty Davis ended up in this movie, I mean, c'mon an Italian Film! … Count your blessings she did. Davis is tremendous, Catherine Spaak performs her role with aplomb - and looks sexy as hell in the process and Horst Buchholz is a curious choice, certainly adequate, but definitely no one's first pick as the protagonist.

Oh - the movie? Yeah, yeah, sorry. One of two films based on the same novel by Alberto Moravia, (this one a box office failure) Empty Canvas is about a failed young artist in Rome, who has always relied on his very wealthy mother's money when times get tough, which is frequently! Buchholz may be a lot of things in this movie, but is not quite convincing as a painter.

The film commences with Buchholz slashing – to a 60's `wild drums' soundtrack, all of his canvases; that's it, no more painting. Enter Spaak who looks gorgeous from the slasher's window as she flirts with Buchholz, `Dino' in the flick. The cinematography it must be said is great, if the VHS transfer, less so … Spaak is called away by her lover a `legitimate great artist,' an old man who lives next door. The film henceforth struggles against its self-imposed convention – ads of the time and on the VHS box tell us the story, in advance and alas, we know that story throughout and are never surprised.

And that story is … you ask? Nothing more or less than the fact that gorgeous Spaak, `Cecilia' in the film, is a teenager who wants nothing but an empty affair with Dino. Mind you, she's just killed the old master painter who lives next door to Dino's studio. How? Heartbreak initiated by her infidelities. She next lands Dino who is snooping in the deceased old man's studio when Cecilia appears to `pick up her stuff', now that the old man her lover, is dead. Waste not, want not, I guess.

Dino meanwhile initially tells Spaak he desires not, sesso, despite her saying she's admired him all summer. It's not impotence, he assures her, no, it's just that he would feel nothing, should they engage. Fortunately, Dino comes to his senses and beds Spaak back at HIS studio, next door. (And thank God, because any man who declines a free tryst with Catherine Spaak, IS dead.)

Following this, we cut to Dino visiting his Mom, Ms. Betty Davis, at her lavish Roman estate. Davis is in sensational form as a U.S. expat. - from New Orleans no less; her Bayou accent is perfect, as is her acting. We derive that, as his Father was never around, and finally left altogether, (restlessness, Davis explains) Dino became a professional sponge in reaction. Davis, in every seen with Dino, begs him return home, but no, all he comes round for is her dough, the swine. So Dino's Daddy-less past is plausibly passed on as the reason he became the bum, er man, he is today.

Dino and Spaak commence curling up and doing it all over Rome and he becomes obsessed, despite Cecilia's obvious dalliance with another man. Dino proposes marriage, she eventually refuses; it ain't money she's after, not the real big kind, (though Dino does pay her something `after we make love,' which is frequently.) Eventually Cecilia goes on holiday with her other lover and Dino tries unsuccessfully to kill himself by car. On recovering, Mother tells him to move home or never contact her again. Dino ignores the threat and states that he will visit again – from now on as a true son, not a sponger.

Davis wonders aloud how Dino will ever rid himself of Cecilia and in the film's only fully realized scene between Buchholz and Spaak, Spaak returns from her holiday with lover number two, to resume with Dino, but Dino declines. Spaak says she will await his call at her Mother's house and then predicts that as she walks away from his studio – and it's raining hard outside – he will call her back. We see her walk, look, walk, look … and look again at his studio. Well it's three looks – you're out. Dino does not motion for her to return and Cecilia walks around a corner and out of scene … presumably out of his life. Shot through Dino's Window in Piazza Del Poppolo in the pouring rain, the scene is predictable as hell – yet extremely effective.

The whole movie unfortunately, is also predictable as hell. And what about that `Empty Canvas' as a metaphor? Yes, Buchholz alludes to it in passing, saying that the Empty Canvas in the angst-filled, atom bomb's scared 1960's, is the only true image. This film then, like that image, has all the right ingredients but the ‘tone,' is all over the place. The ingredients are, an excellent cast (Davis, superb), air-tight plot, and a brilliant metaphor – and empty canvas equals an un-returned love. Oh, throw in great, brilliantly lit, cinematography –but of course, this is an early 60's Italian film so that's a given.

As so often happens in film, a great premise is squandered. This film, while still very much worth watching for the various ensemble scenes and Spaak's incredible sexuality, is itself an empty canvas! It is a hodge-podge of techniques and tones that never make a satisfying ‘stew,' with a totally transparent and obvious ending.

** Bonus foot note. One should not underestimate Catherine Spaak's impact in the 60's. Her haircut in the fantastic Il Sorpasso started an international rage, her singing is excellent, her looks incredible and her acting – frequently brilliant. … And to think, her greatest accomplishments all occurred before age 20 ! Can someone tell me why this woman never became the greatest thing since sliced toast?

"The Empty Canvas" is based on an Italian novel titled "Boredom," which is a stroke of marketing genius - why waste time with false advertising? Our protagonist, Dino (Horst Buchholz), epitomizes first-world problems: a wealthy, healthy young man plagued by existential ennui. Instead of doing something productive, like appreciating life's many gifts, Dino spends his time pretending to paint in a studio generously funded by his ever-indulgent mother. Who wouldn't want to root for a spoiled rich kid with nothing better to do than wallow in self-inflicted misery?

Feeling understandably fed up with his "demanding" life of leisure, Dino ogles a girl visiting his neighbor (because that's what rich existentialists do) and decides it's time to visit his mother, played by Bette Davis in a role that can only be described as "unconvincing." He asks to move back to the family's grand villa, where the saucy chambermaid Rita immediately starts a not-at-all-subtle campaign to seduce him. Because nothing screams high art like a bit of casual groping in front of Mom.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that we've veered into the cinematic equivalent of a bad joke told in a bordello. Dino learns that his neighbor died while having sex with Cecilia, the girl he had previously ogled - a development that's both tasteless and, unsurprisingly, irresistible to our hero. He promptly tracks down Cecilia, portrayed by Catherine Spaak, who once again graces us with her signature role: the precocious, highly sexualized kitten, an archetype that made her a darling of 1960s Italian cinema.

Naturally, because this story is penned by a man, Dino's mother is the predictable castrating figure, while Cecilia serves as the convenient sex object who can hop from one man to another without so much as a blink. The depth of character development here is truly staggering.

Unfortunately, watching a rich, bored man engage in increasingly tedious bouts of sex while trying to pay off his obsession isn't exactly the thrill ride one might hope for. And the so-called "dramatic" denouement? Let's just say it doesn't make up for the time you'll never get back from watching this cinematic gem.

It's unfortunate that movies and television have become so slanted in their attempt to convey. Maybe drugs have dimmed imagination, both for the creator, and for the viewer. As a 15 year-old in 1963, it was easy for me to recognize the gist of The Empty Canvas. It was about sex, especially sexual obsession. Few films have handled this subject so effectively. Eyes wide Shut, a film snubbed by general audiences, shines light on the lower aspects of human sexuality, stunningly. The Empty Canvas is equally striking, without the budget. I strongly recommend this film as a very interesting, well-acted, sober exploration into a very important subject.

...produced by Carlo Ponti, directed by Damiano Damiani, and starring Horst Buchholz as an untalented painter who gives up his "art" to pursue an elusive free spirit of a girl (Catherine Spaak) while sponging money from his mother, a wealthy countess.

The rather aimless plot simply shows the lovers at various locations and follows their constant bickerings and separations. He never paints again, and she refuses to get tied down by marriage or any formal relationships. Stars aside, the other interesting thing about this film is that the countess is played by Bette Davis in her follow-up film to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?. Davis wears a blonde or gray wig and seemingly borrowed her eyebrows from Joan Crawford.