Final Portrait

"Final Portrait" is a British film from this year (2017) that is mostly in the English language, but there are parts in French and Italian too, so a solid set of subtitles may help. Or two. It runs for pretty much exactly and is the most recent effort as writer and director by Oscar nominated actor Stanley Tucci. And unless you count a television documentary episode, this is his first work in both field in a decade (since 2007). And it may very well be his best actually. The film works as both a character study and period piece and this is for a large part thanks to lead actor Geoffrey Rush (looking like a mix of De Niro and Werner Herzog) who plays the central part of painter Alberto Giacometti in here and he is in pretty much all scenes from start to finish. But he is not first-billed because Armie Hammer is also in it from start to finish. But it's not really a thankful role, he has very little to work with here and his character is to Rush what Maguire is to Di Caprio in The Great Gatsby for example or McAvoy to Whitaker in the latter's Oscar winning performance. Even some of the supporting players here, maybe the other Giacometti for example, have better material here. Boy Tony Shalhoub has aged, but then again he is in his sixties, but I just cannot get him out of my head with his black curly hair as Monk. Anyway, there is not a great deal of drama in here I guess. The biggest source for conflict (besides his permanent inner struggles) is probably the artist's relationship with a prostitute and the pimps' involvement with said relationship. It is a relatively slow movie I would say, but it does justice to both subject and the protagonist I would say. Life is slow for him. I don't really think that this is the kind of film that will give Rush lots of awards attention, but maybe I am also a bit biased as I am a huge fan of the Oscar-winning actor from Australia. I don't think anybody else would have played the part better, maybe a few others as good. Anyway, even for somebody with zero interest in painters this was an interesting film. You don't even need to know the name Giacometti before seeing this one. It's all about learning from movies and if you like the director or cast members, then that is more than enough. Go check out this little fairly underseen work. I certainly recommend it and it shows as well that Tucci learned a lot from all the great filmmakers he worked with.

THE FINAL PORTRAIT, in Competition at Brrlin, 2017. This is a long drawn out (Pun intended ) artificial story of the final portrait drawn and painted by World famous Swiss Pinter/sculptor Alfredo Giacometti (1901 - 1966). The film is divided into 18 tedious days with Australian actor Geoffrey Rush portraying the last days of the eccentric artist in his studio painting, erasing, and repainting the portrait of a young American who, with extraordinary patience, keeps canceling his reservation to return home, merely for the dubious privilege of being painted by the famous eccentric artist -- even if the sitting drags on for two weeks longer than originally scheduled. The film is divided into numbered days; Day One, Day two, etc. until after two weeks and many canceled reservations, the last three days are lumped together as Days 16, 17' 18 - - to finally get this dull story out of its misery. Along The way we are introduced to some of the artists eccentricities such as keeping all the stacks of banknotes he gets for his work hidden in various places in his messy apartment because he doesn't trust banks -- what? -- not even Swiss banks! If the story had only lasted five or six days it might have been halfway interesting. When the one note joke of his multiple quirks runs out of steam around day number four or five the whole picture collapses into tedious repetition ending up as a crashing bore. Oh yes, along the way references are made to the work of other famous contemporaries such as Cezanne but thus is hardly a lesson in art history -- much more a lesson in how to make a really boring movie with a top character actor such as Mr. Rush. Two stars because there was a teeny bit of fun watching Rush freaking out under a bush of white curls, but this is one picture that shoulda stayed at home.

Brilliant artist deserving far better a movie than this one... Rush's "over-acting" : very annoying. Accents totally off...especially when he speaks french which sounds just like an Englishman and not an Italian speaking French absolutely HORRENDOUS! They could have found him two native speakers(FR/IT) and very easily coached him for those few lines... Also the fact that the director had him constantly cursing in English - why the hell not in Italian?! Porca miseria! Truly a poor and irritating film.

An interesting portrait about the painter Giacometti at the end of his life, when he painted his last painting before he died. It is curious to see their crises, their insecurities and dissatisfactions in the act of creating. And Geoffrey Rush is very well in the role of the painter while creating an interesting relationship with the character of Armie Hammer.