Caravaggio: The Soul and the Blood

What a huge disappointment this film is. The score is a collision of digital thunderclaps, the cinematography absurd close-ups which give very little sense of the paintings, the narration often relying on an over- use of 'probably' or 'may have' about the painter's life, and the very silly blue-eyed modern day actor representing the anguished artist by wrapping his own head in cellophane or blowing underwater bubbles or smearing himself with tar. It was pretentious a lot of the time, with no movement of the passing minutes away from loud digital horror noises and the hapless experts being overwhelmed and trivialised.

Caravaggio is really a great artist. There would be no needs to create fancy storyline, invented voiceovers, forced dramatic images. The documentary is there. The artist is there. Why do we need all this mess? Worst direction ever. Caravaggio, version Jersey Shore.

"Caravaggio: The Soul & The Blood is the latest film about one of the greatest painters who ever lived. In his short and often violent life, Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio, or Caravaggio as he was commonly known, produced some of the most powerful religious images ever put on canvas. To be brutally honest, this film was a major disappointment. For a start, the photography in no way did Caravaggio's paintings justice; the film, after all, is about his art and life, not about the outside of churches, as beautiful as many of the churches no doubt are. The musical score is overwhelmingly loud, and pompous. Why the views and opinions of 'Caravaggio experts' were not sub-titled, is beyond me; having the dialogue in Italian, then to be overdubbed in English, makes for confusion. To cap it all, we are treated to an actor trying to portray (I assume), what a tormented soul Caravaggio was, by wrapping his face in cellophane, submerging himself in water, or smearing himself with tar. If that was the director's intention, then it didn't work: in fact, it was totally unnecessary. Having said that, the film is worth a look, if only to see Caravaggio's paintings up there on the big screen.

An amazing concept in documentary film making, presenting the life the words the art of this tormented and ingenious artist. I do not want to write too much nor give anything away as the film pays tribute to a Renaissance artist in a most unusual and stunning manner. The film is as creative a story narrative and use of imagery as was the artist. This is not a slide show of paintings but a living moving dynamic homage to a great painter. Well worth it for film makers to see how creative a documentary film can be constructed.

The analysis of Carravagios work is presented in comments of a price over and interviews with Italian art specialists. However we get so little to see of the paintings itself and then in short details or with a moving camera. The total showing of the work is always very short like 4 seconds. Then there are quotes of Carravagio himself, very interesting but as a voice over with actors who play scenes which are of a misplaced symbolic character.