The look of this film is wonderful. The sets, costume, lighting are all richly done and excellent. The acting is good but the actors don't have much to work with. All the standard clichés about struggling artists in Paris in the 20's are shown here. The tortured genius, the noble poverty, the absinthe-sodden café culture et al. However, it all looks so good it doesn't ring true. It's portrayed as we would all like Paris in the 20's to have been, not necessarily as it really was. Modigliani in real life was so poor he was forced to move from one dive to another but here his apartment seems a dream. As for the plot it centres around his animosity with Picasso but we are never told why there is such rivalry between them. Also, his refusal at one point to work for some-one who has money but no artistic appreciation strains another cliché to breaking point. Although it looks lovely in the end the film was disappointing. It's a film of misty-eyed nostalgia for arty 20's Paris but has no real substance beneath that. I guess everyone even slightly artistic would have loved to have been there at that time and this is a film that shows them what they'd like to see.
Review of Modigliani
