Pale Colored Final Portrait
Biopic and artistic circles are still attractive for filmmakers, and there is nothing wrong in here. Talented people are interested in other talented people`s stories and their odd bohemian lives. Acclaimed actor Stanley Tucci took another chance to direct a movie and decided to paint an emotional portrait of the artist who began his last portrait.
Alberto Giacometti definitely was an outstanding person – he abandoned realism for cubism, traded cubism for surrealism, get rid of surrealism to dive into expressionism. He befriended Picasso and Aragon but walked off fashionable artistic circles later to create his own style and art space shaped by mysterious sculptures and none the less mysterious portraits. Sartre called him an existentialist of arts but he was just an unsettled person mad about his own insecurities and a demanding perfectionist. Such a bursting talent could be portrayed only by a brilliant acting talent, so Geoffrey Rush is that brilliant one, and not only due to his striking resemblance to Giacometti but mainly by his colorful palette of acting skills. I surely should write a special file on accent imitation in movies, trust me it`s quite a matter of research: there`s nothing easy in seasoning your mother language with foreign sound components. Aussie actor Geoffrey Rush caught the tiniest details of Swiss Italian accent in English that made Giacometti`s communication with other people, himself and his canvass so special.
The film itself is quite international and multi-linguistic: the story takes place in Paris, Giacometti is a Swiss Italian, his guest is American (played by Armie Hammer who is of Russian descent), all other characters are French who communicate with Giacometti, his brother and his guest in a mix of French, English and Italian. This is the big positive about Final Portrait, the atmosphere that coincides with free and artistic spirit of 1960ies` Paris. But still the film lacks something, maybe simply plot intrigue, or inspiration. Expectations were much higher than just a retro biopic among others. Armie Hammer looks handsome and in style, but his performance is unfortunately nothing but milk-and-water. Others are good but in the shadow of the main part. Final Portrait is truly a one-man show.
But this one-man show pays to highlight all the stranger things about the Sotheby`s most expensive artist. Elderly artist inevitably doubts himself, he desperately rambles from pillar to post in his endless search of inspiration, he counts his works as worthless bullshit or perfection of incompleteness. Giacometti plays these tricks not for money, he prefers his worn-out coat and blames his wife in pursuit of wealthy mainstream while all his finance is in his brother`s hands. He is interested in painting process only, no matter how many millions he would earn for next few random drawings. The painter himself is shown in his sparkling eccentric manner while other characters and quite a simple plotline fade in the light of the sole star. Well, good luck to Stanley Tucci in his next projects and to Armie Hammer in his acting career, and applause to Geoffrey Rush!
kot_pofigist
