Final Portrait (2018)
Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and respected artists of his generation, asks his friend, the American writer James Lord, to sit for a portrait, assuring him that it will take no longer than two or three hours, an afternoon at the most.
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
The acting in this movie is really good.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Stanley Tucci adapted James Lord's memoir and directs this vantage into the life of one of the great artists of the last century - Alberto Giacometti. A strong cast brings life into this rather tedious and repetitive tale - but the material, though interesting, becomes indulgent. The film is based on a true experience as documented by actor/author James Lord in his book 'A Giacometti Portrait'. The time - 1964 - and while on a short trip to Paris, the American writer and art-lover James Lord (Armie Hammer) is asked by his friend, the world-renowned artist Alberto Giacometti (Geoffrey Rush), to sit for a portrait. The process, Giacometti assures Lord, will take only a few days. Flattered and intrigued, Lord agrees. So begins not only the story of an offbeat friendship, but, seen through the eyes of Lord, an insight into the beauty, frustration, profundity and, at times, downright chaos of the artistic process. FINAL PORTRAIT is a portrait of a genius, and of a friendship between two men who are utterly different, yet increasingly bonded through a single, ever-evolving act of creativity. It is a film which focuses on the artistic process itself, by turns exhilarating, exasperating and bewildering, questioning whether the gift of a great artist is a blessing or a curse. The others in the cast include Giacometti's wife (Annabel Mullion), his prostitute Caroline (Clémence Poésy), his brother Diego (Tony Shaloub) and Pierre Matisse (James Faulkner). Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer are excellent and the film, though very slow, is worth watching for the realistic reconstruction of the art of making art.
Gifted performer Stanly Tucci gets behind the camera for this watch-the-paint-dry movie about the final days of eccentric artist Alberto Giacometti. The selling pitch claimed it was a look at the life of the celebrated artist but, the audience comes away knowing absolutely nothing about his life - save that fact he was damaged goods. About all this rather stretched-out movie shows us is several weeks or so during the creation of one portrait. Here, Stanly Tucci writes the script & directs Australian character actor Geoffrey Rush - who gives us another studied performance as this selfish, self-doubting artist. Everyone in Giacometti's life suffers one way or another, including his wife and remarkably patient brother Diego who, as Alberto's studio assistant, manages to shrug off his frustrating waste of time, talent and money. It seems that Award winning Cinematographer Danny Cohen (the Kings Speech) uses cheap hand-Held cameras for this shoot - to give the actors free movement and keep production costs well down. With a running time of 90mins, unless, 'Less-is-More' for you, this may be a rather thin and boring experience & probably would have been far better as a short or featurette. Otherwise, mainly for the dedicated art set.
I watched this through, and I dont know why. Trying to understand an artist, 50 years gone, especially when the movie doesn't reflect known biographies, is a practical impossibility. His work was chaos. Im not knocking his work. But I can knock the movie. Regardless of great performances from Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer. Its barely a 5 out of 10, if it's that. I was surprised to see a review that it was too short. For the continuous exploration of the same theme, it was far too long. Trying to get the message of the filmmakers, if there was one, was too long and drawn out. I'd give it a pass.
The search for perfection is an endless workflow. It is a routine in which there is always time for a walk with a friend, an affair with a muse or a fight with a wife.The peculiarity of this picture is that Tucci does not dramatize the reality of life. He shows everything as it happens in it. A good well-done shot story about the true love of artists for their craft.