Final Portrait: Sitting for Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti is immortalized on the 100 Swiss Franc note. He also currently holds the record for the highest auction price received for a work of sculpture—$126 million for L’Homme au doight (Pointing Man). In today’s art world, these are the highest measures of success, but like many true artists, Giacometti was plagued by self-doubt. In fact, his particularly neurotic artistic sensibility made it quite a protracted business to sit for Giacometti as a model, as an American art critic learns for himself in Stanley Tucci’s Final Portrait (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

In 1964, James Lord was already one of the foremost experts on Giacometti’s work and something of a personal friend. Naturally, he is quite flattered when the revered Swiss artist asks Lord to sit for him. It will just be two days Giacometti assures him. It certainly will not conflict with his flight back to New York at the end of the week. However, as Giacometti obsessively obliterates and re-paints the portrait, Lord reluctantly agrees to repeatedly reschedule his flight, at no small expense. While growing increasingly impatient for Giacometti to finish, Lord nonetheless finds himself drawn into Giacometti’s exclusive world, observing the weird dynamics of Giacometti’s relationship with his wife Annette and on-call call-girl Caroline, while forging a fast friendship with Giacometti’s sculptor brother Diego.

Final Portrait is not exactly the meatiest film ever produced, but it is intoxicatingly nostalgic and sophisticated, like a glass of Pernod at a vintage Parisian café. Frankly, it certainly looks like there were worse fates than getting delayed in Paris circa 1964. (Indeed, Lord only protests intermittently, since among other things, it allows him to attend the press unveiling of Marc Chagall’s Paris Opera ceiling).

Geoffrey Rush might be experiencing a bit of PR turbulence right now, but there is not denying he is an eerie physical match for Giacometti. The artist’s eccentricities and insecurities are also perfect for the actor who made his reputation playing David Helfgott, Inspector Javert, Peter Sellers, the Marquis de Sade, and the King’s speech therapist, Lionel Logue. You can see pieces of them all in Giacometti, but Rush gives him a charm of his own that allows the audience to fully get why Lord keeps sitting for him (frankly, we don’t understand why he wanted to leave in the first place, but so be it).

Armie Hammer bears a similarly strong likeness to Lord. He is quite tall in the role, but he also nicely balances Lord’s youthful enthusiasm and Eastern reserve. Plus, it is nice to see a member of the hardscrabble Armand Hammer clan finally make good. This is the first film Tucci directed that he does not also appear in, but his alter-ego Tony Shalhoub is present and accounted for. In fact, Shalhoub is quite invaluable grounding the film and injecting some gentle humor as Diego Giacometti. In contrast, Clémence Poésy does little to elevate the stock character of Caroline.

Light like a blonde roast coffee, Final Portrait is low on stress, but unusually inviting, with credit also due to Evan Lurie’s lithe, French café society-appropriate music. This should be a film MoMA eventually revives from time to time, because their regular membership would enjoy it as much as the film program patrons. Recommended for those who appreciate fine art and fine living, Final Portrait opens this Friday (3/23) in New York, at the Angelika Film Center.

The Eye of the Storm: Schepisi Adapts the Great Australian Novel

Patrick White is Australia’s first and only Nobel Laureate for literature and this is the novel that cemented the prize for him in 1973.  It might seem like a logical but daunting work for an Australian filmmaker to tackle.  It turns out Fred Schepisi was the man to do it, along with screenwriter Judy Morris.  Death and family are equally inconvenient in the unusually tart and literate The Eye of the Storm (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

The Hunter family’s grand matriarch is dying, but Elizabeth is determined to go out on her own terms.  This requires the requisite homecoming of her somewhat estranged son and daughter, for a final opportunity to pass withering judgment on their life choices.  It is not a prospect either Basil or Dorothy relishes, but they could certainly use their share of Mother Dearest’s fortune.

Basil Hunter is not destitute.  An actor of more fame than talent, he is a local celebrity made good, but remains ragingly insecure.  The divorced Dorothy is actually an aristocrat by marriage, but she is definitely title-rich, cash-poor.  While Mrs. Hunter always professed greater disappointment in her son, it is the daughter who harbors the deeper grudge, for reasons that are revealed in a series of flashbacks.

As a concept, emotionally stunted siblings watching their overbearing mother precipitously decline mentally and physically might sound appallingly depressing, but Eye is surprisingly witty.  It is sort of like witnessing Noel Coward characters at a time of existential crisis.  While White’s stream-of-consciousy work is notoriously resistant to dramatic adaptation, Morris opens it up quite nicely.  Paul Grabowsky’s gently swinging score, featuring Branford Marsalis’s rich, silky soprano saxophone, also helps keep the mood from getting too maudlin.

Frankly, the core family drama works remarkably well.  It is universally relatable, yet distinctly and idiosyncratically dysfunctional.  The perfectly cast, once-in-a-lifetime trio of Charlotte Rampling, Geoffrey Rush, and Judy Davis makes Morris’s cutting dialogue sing and verbally dance.  Observing them play with and against each other is a true movie-going pleasure.  Unfortunately, the subplots involving Mrs. Hunter’s private nurses do not have the same verve.  In fact, the treatment of Nurse Lotte, a caricatured Holocaust survivor, borders on the exploitative.  However, there is something redemptively humane about John Gaden’s portrayal of family friend and solicitor, Arnold Wyburg.

Despite the occasional misstep, Eye is a classy literary package, considerably more cinematic than the average BBC television production it could find itself compared to.  Offering three great lead performances, an excellent supporting turn, and an appealing soundtrack, the film has much to offer, all of which are elegantly marshaled by Schepisi, a strangely under-appreciated director.  Recommended for discriminating adult audiences, The Eye of the Storm opens this Friday (9/7) in New York at the Cinema Village.

From Spare to Heir: The King’s Speech

Primogeniture can be a risky roll of the dice. Though 1936 was not a convenient year for a constitutional crisis, it afforded the United Kingdom an opportunity to correct a mistake of fate. Rumored to be a fascist sympathizer, Edward VIII’s abdication allowed for the ascension of his younger brother, subsequently known as King George VI, a former Royal Naval officer tailor-made to be a war-time monarch. However, well before he succeeded his brother, a persistent stammer complicated his official duties. A genuine prestige picture based on the true story of how Prince Albert, Duke of York found his royal voice, Tom Hooper’s The King Speech (trailer here) opens this Friday in New York after recently launching MoMA’s 2010 Contenders series.

Though overshadowed by his more dashing older brother, the future ex-king, Prince Albert always does his duty. Their father King George V might not be the warmest of parents, but he recognizes Albert’s greater substance, which is why he pushes him to take a more active role on behalf of the royal family. Unfortunately, this involves a fair amount of public speaking. After a number of excruciatingly painful addresses, the Prince reluctantly consults with Lionel Logue, a frustrated actor and unorthodox speech therapist.

At first, they seem to be a bad match, yet Logue is the only specialist who seems to get results. An unlikely friendship even starts to develop, but great challenges loom over the British Empire. His brother might have confidence “Herr Hitler” can satisfactorily “sort out Europe,” but Conservative backbenchers like Winston Churchill are much less sanguine. Further complicating matters, even after his brother assumed the throne, he continues carrying on with the scandalous Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American of dubious repute.

Hooper, who previously helmed the vastly different historical drama The Damned United, shows a nimble touch with what could be dismissed as over-inflated Masterpiece Theater material. He starts Speech essentially as a three-hander, as Prince Albert, Lady Elizabeth (the future Queen Mother), and the somewhat eccentric Logue secretly meet in his working class quarters to tackle that stammer. Yet, it slowly unfolds to show the bigger picture of an England fighting for its very survival.

Although Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush are essentially co-leads of equal weight, the Weinstein Company is reportedly positioning Colin Firth for best actor and Geoffrey Rush for best supporting actor, as King VI and Logue, respectively. Even in Hollywood, it is evidently good to be the king. Still, for most cinema patrons, this really just means Speech has the good fortune of two very strong central performances. Indeed, Firth perfectly personifies the stiff upper lip fortitude associated with the best of British royalty. Likewise, Rush gives his best performance since Shine, projecting “common” dignity as Logue. It is a performance of genuine humanity and of course, excellent elocution. Though not required to stretch as much dramatically, Helena Bonham Carter delivers some of the films sharpest quips with appropriate aplomb as Lady/Queen Elizabeth.

Not simply another British drawing room drama, Speech offers a portrait of nobility that lives up to its title. Gentle yet stirring, it is probably the best PR the House of Windsor has had in years. It is also one of the best films considered to be in contention for the upcoming award season. Highly recommended, Speech opens this Friday (11/26) in New York at the Lincoln Square and Union Square Theaters.