Caravaggio film review

The year is roughly 1600. The place is Rome. These were not the most peaceful times in human history, and the art world was not exempt from this experience.

Titania Produzioni/RAI Fiction and RAI Trade bring us the biopic Caravaggio about the Baroque-era Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, better known as Caravaggio-the painter of light.

This Italian language film boasts the award-winning cinematography of Vittorio Storato - best known for his work in The Last Emporer, Reds, and Apocalypse Now. Storato captures the essence of Caravaggio's work visually as well as conceptually, such as the moment when the artist discovers a new painting innovation concerning light (and shadow). Hats off to costume designer Lia Morandini for the attention to detail such specific period- costuming requires in order to be visually convincing on film. One complaint: director Angelo Longoni weaves the tragic story of Caravaggio's short life together with an, at times, over-the-top dramatic flair. True, this is a biographical account of another drunken, passionate, bisexual, foolish, hot-tempered, sickly, brilliantly talented and innovative, yet down on his luck painter. But, there is enough melodrama soaked into the character's body language to border on comic slapstick.

Caravaggio's life is portrayed as a series of ups and downs, with mostly downs. He moves from his town to Rome in order to pave his way as a promising painter of figures. Struggling on the streets, he battles poverty, illness, and rip-off artists. Through fate, connections,and a growing artistic reputation, Caravaggio ends up being commissioned by powerful clergy and nobility, such as the Medici and Pope. But, as soon as he has his life under control, with privileged opportunity at his fingertips, he finds himself in one bad situation after another. The combination of his scandalously perceived paintings and ill-fated temper finds him escaping Rome after fatally wounding a local foe in a duel of swordsmanship.

The roller coaster ride continues as Caravaggio's painting services are required by those that seek an image boosting within the realm of church or state. Though given chances to reclaim himself, the artist's reckless ways and unchecked temper find him in further troubles soon enough, as he never quite learns from his mistakes. This means that the bulk of the film is not cheerful, which mirrors the thematic intent of the director and cinematographer as a whole; that is, to focus on the trials and tribulations of the artist. Even so, the characters are heightened with the dramatic, but mostly in a superficial sense. The inner workings of the characters involved, especially Caravaggio himself, could have been more intimately explored.

That said, most biographical films about painters of the past are not flattering. This film follows that lead, unfortunately. Instead of the viewer being able to get a bigger picture (pun intended) of Caravaggio's earlier life, influences, and progress with his chosen trade, we are given only a peek. The majority of the focus is on the violent and sociopolitical upheaval and change centering around and on Caravaggio, not on the artist as a creative individual and the process involved. Instead, we travel with him in boats, watch him become knighted as a Knight of Malta, watch him fight, watch him screw, watch him get screwed; the list goes on.

Slightly disappointing, Caravaggio could have been something that it simply is not. Instead of being a well developed film following the life of a legendary painter, it is only a visually appealing, yet shallowly developed film about the tragic life of an enigma.