Critics Reviews
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| Aug 01, 2008Boxoffice Magazine
the film itself, which short-shrifts Modigliani's bold painting in favor of melodramatic plotting and pretty pictures of Paris café society.....the movie is mostly ineffective in its depiction of their world..... ... Full Review
| Jul 01, 2005The New York Times
The best and maybe the only use to be made of the catastrophic screen biography "Modigliani" is to serve as a textbook outline of how not to film the life of a legendary artist.
In an early scene, Modigliani publicly humiliates his archrival, Picasso, by waltzing drunkenly around a bistro with a rose in his teeth, plunking himself on Picasso's lap and sneering: "The future of art is in a woman's face.
... Full Review
| May 13, 2005Hartford Courant
A great Modernist gets conventionally romanticized in Mick Davis' 'Modigliani.
Modigliani, "Modi" to friends, enjoyed smoking hash, drinking naked and brawling.
... Full Review
| Oct 10, 2004The Cinema Source
Still, when the movie focuses on Modigliani and the crazy world of the artists, agents, patrons, and other eccentrics that surround him, its often extremely enjoyable.
Take, for example, a scene where Modigliani, Utrillo, and Soutine break into a butchers warehouse to steal a beef carcass Soutines been aching to paint.
... Full Review
Cinema Signals
I appreciate "Modigliani" as a heartfelt tribute.....But this scene exemplifies all that is artificial, unbelievable and dishonest about the movie.....This scene is interesting for its emphasis on Modigliani's exaggerations of faces....In this somewhat extravagant version of the artist, Garcia's great looks and natural magnetism wars with a character who suffered from immaturity and arrogance --....What is quite outstanding, and a major reason to endure the belabored movie.... ... Full Review
Hartford Courant
The film, both light-hearted and serious, suggests that freedom comes more easily within restrictions--and that's true of Albou's approach as well.
But it's very well-acted and directed, shot with great vigor, mostly in roaming closeups that plunge us right into the thick of things: a Jewish celebration, a philosophical lecture or the sight of a stranger's fingers closing around Laura's on the subway.
... Full Review
reel.com
Thankfully, in addition to Garcia (who really is among one of our strongest, most appealing, and committed actors), the film also stars the lovely and soulful Elsa Zylberstein as Modigliani's lover and muse, Jeanne.
Ultimately, though, Modigliani 's fever-pitched emotion, grand, empty gestures, and pretentious, drug-induced dreams and fantasies sink what could've been a stirring portrait of one of the world's more respected artists.
... Full Review
Los Angeles Times
A great Modernist gets conventionally romanticized in Mick Davis' 'Modigliani.
Modigliani, "Modi" to friends, enjoyed smoking hash, drinking naked and brawling.
... Full Review