Trama

The tumultuous and adventurous life of Michelangelo Merisi, controversial artist, called by Fate to become the immortal Caravaggio. A violent genius that will dare to defy the ideal vision of the world imposed by the Renaissance painters. A provoker that scandalized patrons and institutions, raising the altars the outcast figures he knew so well: drunkards, vagrants and prostitutes.—Anonymous

This film may well have been a "made for TV movie" on RAI TV in Italy. It is a dramatic telling of the life of the artist, Michelangelo Merisi, known principally as Caravaggio (which is the town, near Milan, that he came from). It follows a linear, chronological format in its attempt to tell a version of the life of this great artist. It starts when he was a young boy of about 7, showing a domestic scene in which he is with a childhood friend, but noble young lady six years his senior. He is very fond of her, and apparently would like someday to marry her. But her family is marrying her off at the age of 13 to an aristocrat with money and power. Later in the story, when he needs help to get him out of a dire situation, she is there to use her family power to rescue him. As a child of about 13 or 14 he is sent, by his mother (because the father has died of the plague), to apprentice in Milan with the painter, Peterzano, who is depicted as a mean, demanding overlord, with other boys under his tutelage. He is physically and verbally abused by Peterzano, who may have also abused him in more prurient ways. After several years as an apprentice, he eventually moves to Rome, the best place to make it as an artist, due to the need for many religious paintings that are commissioned by cardinals, the pope, and others in power. The film embellishes known facts and invents new ones for the sake of drama and to give an air of excitement in the plot. For example, it depicts the torture and beheading of Beatrice Cenci, for having taken part in the killing of her cruel and violent father. Caravaggio is in the crowd watching the event along with everyone else. Later, he witnesses the burning at the stake of Giordano Bruno (for heresy). There is no proof that Caravaggio did witness these events, but it is possible that he would have, as the idea of death is present in several of his well-known works. The film shows his relationships with friends, models and patrons, and shows him working in his studio. At one point, the film "ends" but a second part starts immediately after credits are rolled for the first part. That is why I think it may have been made as a two-part mini-series. It covers the fights he takes part in, but it shows him as fighting for a cause, such as rescuing a young woman from bullies. In one of those fights, he stabs Ranuncio, who dies; the artist is charged with murder, then flees Rome for Naples, then Malta. Eventually he ends up on a deserted beach, with his paintings sailing away on a ship. He is sick, and eventually dies there on the beach. But in reality, it is hard to know exactly what happened. This film paints a very attractive and forgiving picture of the artist, who seems a likable fellow (although overly passionate and sometimes violent)and it is much more of a "movie" that the Derek Jarman version of 1986, which is more expressionistic, not linear, and does not entertain quite like this colorful and fast-paced film.