The artistic encounter between the “beautiful and the damned” by definition of American cinema, Johnny Deppand what in many ways we could define as its Italian counterpart, Riccardo Scamarciohas ultimately resulted in a whirlwind, overflowing, toning and very expensive (the money invested by the bountiful production – there is also “our” Andrea Iervolino – you can all see) soap bubble.
Antonia Desplat
The big film that after being at Festivals in San Sebastiancloses with great fanfare 19th edition from the Rome Film Festivaldirected by the Hollywood star and starring our local star, is – we can say without hesitation and without too many turns of phrase – a noisy rollercoaster semi-serious which rather belongs to the typical more spectacular narrative of cinema made in Usa than to the desire to illustrate the biography of the painter and sculptor from Livorno Amedeo Modigliani. This partly depends on the genesis of a project very far from the genre “biopic”based on the comedy Modigliani written by the American playwright Dennis McIntyre; and in part – you imagine, immersed in the darkness of the room while you are stunned by the whirlwind of this earthquake entertainment very American – from the coarse-grained tastes of the actor and director born in Kentucky, who would seem to want to transfer the overblown thrills of some of his iconic film adventures to the biography of the Italian artist: the series of the character of Jack Sparrow in the various chapters of Pirates of the Caribbean and the lysergic drifts of Paura and delirium in Las Vegas diretto by Terry Gilliam from the novel of the same name by Hunter Stockton Thompson.
Modì – Three days on the wings of madness tells 72 hours in the life of Amedeo Modiglianirenamed Modì by the French, in the year of grace 1916. We mention this detail to talk about the playful philological approximation of the screenwriters who put their ModiglianiScamarcio the epithet “fascists” when that movement, and then started, was still far from being invented yet. A detail perhaps apparently irrelevant, but which in our opinion gives precisely the measure of the type of “cultural” operation that lies behind the film we are dealing with.
On the run from the police, after having committed some bizarre excesses, the artist from Livorno would like to escape from Paris, but his friends and colleagues, Utrillo (Bruno-Gouery) e Soutine (Ryan-McParland)in addition to his muse, Beatrice Hastings (Antonia Desplat)they try to dissuade him. This is the plot of the film in brief, but what interests us Johnny Depp – here at yours second try as director after his debut behind the camera, The bravefrom way back in 1999 – is rather to immerse his Modigliani in a whirlwind of Gascon skirmishes, between the drunken and the hallucinated; in a barrage of verbal and gestural excesses, somewhere between acrobatic and circus; without any plausible reason being found.
From left to right: Ryan McParland, Riccardo Scarmacio, Louisa Ranieri e Bruno Gouery.
In fact, upon closer inspection, the film created by the couple Depp-Scamarcio it would not seem to be able to please the palates of the wider cinema audience mainstream and that of platforms, although it seeks its own radicality “arty” (inexplicable are the incongruous inserts in which the film sporadically turns black and whitealmost to mimic the silent cinema of the year in which it was set); but not even the tastes of a more sophisticated public from which one would like to seek some complicity with intellectual winks (there are, among others, original musical inserts from the repertoire of Lou Reed and from that of Tom Waitsthrown in there a bit haphazardly though).
So what remains of this artistic spectacle? In our opinion the strong proof of Riccardo Scamarciowho excels in excellent English, passing the exam in Hollywood cinema with almost flying colors; and above all the cameo of Al Pacino (who should have directed the film many years ago), which gives life to the collector bigger than life Maurice Gangnat which alone is worth the price of the ticket. If anyone ever wants to buy it after reading this personal, our severe opinion.
Modì – three days on the wings of madness (Modi – Three Days on the Wing of Madness)– Regia: Johnny Depp; screenplay: Jerzy Kromolowski and Mary Olson-Kromolowski; photograph: Darius Wolski; assembly: Mark Davies; scenography: Dave Warren; costumes: Penny Rose; interpreters: Riccardo Scamarcio, Antonia Desplat, Bruno Gouery, Ryan McParland, Stephen Graham, Luisa Ranieri and with Al Pacino; production: Barry Navidi Productions, In.2 Film, Ilbe S.p.a.; origin: Hungary/ Italy/ United Kingdom, 2024; duration: 114 minutes; distribution: Be Water Film in collaboration with Maestro Distribution, Medusa Film.
