Plot
The story of Amedeo Modigliani's bitter rivalry with Pablo Picasso, and his tragic romance with Jeanne Hebuterne.
Release Year: 2004
Rating: 6.8/10 (4,276 voted)
Critic's Score: 25/100
Director:
Mick Davis
Stars: Andy Garcia, Elsa Zylberstein, Omid Djalili
Storyline Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and Jeanne's bigoted parents send the baby to a faraway convent to be raised by nuns. Modigliani is distraught and needs money to rescue and raise his child. The answer arrives in the shape of Paris' annual art competition. Prize money and a guaranteed career await the winner. Neither Modigliani, nor his dearest friend and rival Picasso have ever entered the competition, believing that it is beneath true artists like themselves. But push comes to shove with the welfare of his child on the line, and Modigliani signs up for the competition in a drunken and drug-induced tirade. Picasso follows suit and all of Paris is aflutter with excitement at who will win...
Cast: Andy Garcia
-
Amedeo Modigliani
Elsa Zylberstein
-
Jeanne Hébuterne
Omid Djalili
-
Pablo Picasso
Hippolyte Girardot
-
Maurice Utrillo
Eva Herzigova
-
Olga Picasso
Udo Kier
-
Max Jacob
Susie Amy
-
Beatrice Hastings
Peter Capaldi
-
Jean Cocteau
(as Peter Capadli)
Louis Hilyer
-
Zborowski
Stevan Rimkus
-
Soutine
Dan Astileanu
-
Diego Rivera
(as Dan Astilean)
George Ivascu
-
Moise Kisling
Michelle Newell
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Eudoxie Hébuterne
Frederico Ambrosino
-
Little Dedo
Miriam Margolyes
-
Gertrude Stein
Taglines:
His passion was life. His obsession was art.
Goofs:
Anachronisms:
At the end of the flashback to 1892, there's an electric plug, which was invented by Harvey Hubbell in 1904.
Quotes: Amedeo Modigliani:
Tell me, Pablo, how do you make love to a cube?
User Review
mixed bag
Rating: 7/10
This movie is very much a mixed bag.. it's a good film. It's nice to
watch, the acting is good, the direction is good and the story is
engaging. But I feel it doesn't capture the real spirit of the era and
the Paris artist community. It focuses too much on the immoral behavior
and madness of the artists and leaves out the way these people viewed
the world and their concepts of beauty. It's good the film tries to
show the grittiness of it all, but there was so much more... i'd really
would've liked to see more about what drove modigliani to paint as he
did and what exactly drove him to destruction. This film only just
touches on that...
it tries too much to please the American audience in their quest for
standardized Hollywood stories, but on the other hand it tries to have
a certain "artsy" flair that remains just polish because it lacks
depth. Add to that some production-decisions that are a bit
unfortunate, like the for any European obviously fake accents. They
should've taken the original languages (french, Italian, Spanish,
German) or English. Not this lame compromise..
Still you gotta see this. Not for an actual representation of
modiglianis life or that era, just for it being a good film, dealing
with passion, loyalty, madness, love and hate. See it for the
atmosphere ,which although not accurate, is beautiful. See it for the
good acting and the wonderful chemistry between modi and picasso. It
could've been so much more but it is what it is.. good, intelligent
entertainment.
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