Modigliani

This film must be considered an "Art" film - not a commercial film and you must watch it with different eyes.

Taking that tone - It was throughly enjoying and the sets, costumes and art direction were done extremely well. The casting and acting was excellent and believable but some scenes

were too drawn out. If the editing was a little better we would have a real winner. However I can recommend this film to anyone who loves art and painting. It really portrays the feelings of the artists and how they lived.

Go See It - You'll enjoy it!

The story of Modigliani is well-known. However, this film gives it life with a wonderful script, amazing cinematography, and mind-blowing performances by Andy Garcia and Elsa Zylberstein, a little-known French actress. I was glued to the screen from start to finish and have recommended it to everyone. If this film, Garcia, and Zylberstein don't receive Academy Award nominations, there's something wrong with Hollywood... at least more than is already wrong with it.

Run don't walk to the nearest theatre showing "Modigiliani". Forget the mega-publicized studio films being released now (Winter 2004-2005). See it while you can. It's a true find, and one that will stay with you long after you left the theatre.

It took a while for me to get into it, but by the end I really liked it a lot. It could have been more consistent and seamless--the casting was so-so. In the first part of the movie the intensity of the characters didn't come across, but as the movie progressed, especially near the end, their emotions were more convincing and believable. The music was possibly the most passionate and moving part of the whole thing -- I hope a sound track is released. I liked the sets, the costumes and filming was pretty good. The subject matter was of particular interest to me as I am an artist. It's probably not for everyone and definitely not for those who like formula, action films.

Colorful and engaging, albeit, self-important lengthy Bio-Pic. Acting values range from screaming to sublime. Artist portrayals are always difficult to convey on the screen, and in this case, a painter, comes across as self-serving, ultimately unsympathetic but full of great art. His oeuvre speaks volumes but his lifestyle, littered with latch key kid lacking, results in some sad and destructive behavioral patterns that he never could outgrow. Backstory handled effectively and the anti-semitic storyline brutally honest but ham-fisted by the script. The debauched artists are overwhelmed by pistols, pity and the tortured artist syndrome. The scenes between the Big M and Pablo Picasso are the most interesting because of the tension created by the actors in each of the scenes; but Diego Rivera is reduced to bows and grunts. Excessive use of blood overstates some of the violence and one of the characters spends all his time yelling, about anything and everything. The "age" of the baby bothered my gal-pal ("M's" lover is seven months pregnant and carrying a three month old in her arms...say what?!) and the bad guys are straw-men with blackjacks to wield. Although there are scenes of "M" studying the bone structure of his subjects and checking out the rain on his window pane his artistic inspiration may be too subtle for the cinema to effectively embrace, without including his bouts with booze and hash. Keep this guy away from mommy's purse, he's a man on binge mission. Of course how do you portray inspiration? That's a puzzle. Too bad, too, because ultimately "M" left me mostly unmoved and wanting to take a trip to The Prado; rather than watch a vain and valiant Andy Garcia doing his Leaving Las Vegas cocktail chug-a-lug tumble down the auteur hole of dipsomania and consumption. Not a pretty slide. Not since Steven Boyd sucked his last gasp in Ben Hur has a character expelled air with such profound pathos. The women are pretty pawns in the directors hand's and the Salon Artist Paint-off "Contender" sequence rivals March Madness in frustration, respect and triumph. The euro trash tune-age is redolent of Cirque Du...and the salon scenes are gaudy but filled to the brim with odd balls and period patches.

Has the film a USA distributor? And for who is the pic targeted? The Hitch and Robots crowds will have a hard time pronouncing the title let along paying ten bucks to walk through the doors of the local multiplex to catch this one. Wait till DVD, rent it; and then go to an art gallery.

I find Modigliani a movie worth to be seen! Some of you might consider it doesn't capture the real "spirit" of that era or that it's being put too much accent on the painter's madness and on his interior drama; but this is Modigliani in Mick Davis's conception, it's a movie not a documentary! The soundtrack is perfectly chosen to amplify the feelings transmitted by the excellent performance of the actors. It is more than a cinematographic production. It is a symbiosis between passion and love, human nature and vices. The memories of Amedeo about his childhood, the reproofs of "Modigliani-the little boy ", the incapacity of resisting to temptations and the permanent psychological pressure given by having such a rivalry have driven him to auto-destruction. It is the destiny of a man who passed away just a moment before tasting success... I consider Modigliani-the movie- art about art.