Worth a watch
Added 5/11/2009
I thought that this was definitely worth a watch. The imagery was very reflective of the era and a real part of enjoying the movie. I must confess that I don't know that much about Klimt's life and no doubt missed some of the nuance of the story because of it. John Malkovich is always worth a watch in my book and I am happy to have the movie in my collection.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Klimt's Inferno
Added 3/19/2009
Obviously, Raoul Ruiz's fantasy flick about Viennese Fin-de-Siecle artist, Gustav Klimt was honed down quite a bit to fit into a 97 minute format for theatrical presentation. Unfortunately, this DVD does not include the longer director's cut that in all probability would shed some much needed light on this cinematic phantasmagoria.
A miscast John Malkovich plays Klimt with a disdainful aloofness that I imagine does not adequately represent the artist's humble background. Klimt's decorative paintings implementing design techniques and motifs found in Byzantine mosaics and Egyptian and Japanese art, revolve mainly around his obsession with the female form. Many of his overtly sexual allegorical drawings were considered pornographic--indeed he was criticized for this at the time and he thumbed his nose at his critics with his painting "Goldfish" where his model is deliberately posed with her derriere presented to the observer and subtitled: "To my Critics." Klimt's erotic nature is exemplified by his many relationships with his models--he never married but fathered at least fourteen children--and the erotic poses he captured--most notably Danae depicting a woman in the throes of orgasm.
My brief history suggests an earthier Klimt than that depicted by the effete Malkovich. Nonetheless Ruiz's vision of Klimt begins with him in a hospital on his deathbed, suffering from the ravages of advanced syphilis (Klimt died of pneumonia) and looking back on a life that he equates with an inferno of sorts. Frequently, Malkovich as Klimt quotes from Dante and indeed he like the esteemed poet was plagued with his fair share of Beatrices.
Fashion designer Midi or Emilie Floge, (Veronica Ferres ) makes a lovely companion for the reckless Klimt. Ruiz hints that their relationship was strained. Platonic? Klimt does not kiss her on the mouth and Midi shows anger and annoyance. Nonetheless she is privy to the birth of his daughter by another woman--she and a caftan-clad Klimt cavort about in her dress studio celebrating this news as a photographer captures their avant-garde style. However, she remains steadfast and most obviously a lovely muse as shown in the sequence where her face and neck meld into a variety of Klimt backgrounds: poppies, swirls and gold foil.
A rather sylphlike stick Saffron Bellows plays Lea di Castro, the sultry turn-of-the-century ballet dancer and postcard beauty that turned the head of the Austrian Emperor, Cleo De Merode. Fascinated by her, Klimt pursues her to her rooms and is observed through a double glass by her keeper, a voyeuristic duke, while the two carouse amongst opulent pillows and sheets fit for royalty. As Klimt is unsure as to whether he is bedding Lea or Lea's double, I ponder Ruiz's symbolism with regard to this. The intentional confusion muddies an already overloaded bombardment of images of the Viennese caught in the act of armchair philosophizing about everything and anything seemingly intellectual and pretentious in the city's numerously well-heeled coffee shops.
Klimt as Mr. Erotic himself holds center stage in this venue. The artist is depicted as being hounded by a variety of odd characters. Mizzi, the mother of his son, Gustav, wishes to bring her child up Jewish. His mother and sister, both prone to crazy outbursts, sarcastically enumerate all of Klimt's illegitimate children while Klimt notes with typical Malkovich affectation that "Children are gifts from God." Painters Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka blow in and out of different dreamlike segments where we see them envisioning their own art. And Klimt and a figment of his imagination in the form of a functionary, "The Secretary" allow Ruiz to ruminate on art and its function as an outlet to the reality of everyday life in true coffeehouse talking style.
What does it all mean? Good question. Probably better answered in the longer version that would add more sequences to the overall film and allow Ruiz's vision more time to dwell in the mind of the audience. In the "Making of Klimt" bonus footage, Ruiz and the actors speak of their experience creating the film. Within this context there are segments of the film shown that do not appear in the featured 97 minute format. Because of this and the convoluted dreamlike state the film conjures up, I suggest viewing the longer format and if possible viewing it a few times just for clarity sake. Do watch the bonus features as they give some illumination on the film's intention.
Bottom line? Malkovitch plays painter Gustav Klimt with his usual free-wheeling free-spirited snobbery which in light of what is known about this personage seems counterproductive. In true art house style, director Ruiz presents a muddled portrayal of the artist who is depicted as being at odds with himself with regard to the true meaning of what he has accomplished. If he lived according to his conscience, did he live well and with the gusto he seemed to preach? Malkovitch's Klimt seems too detached. Somehow I believe the real deal lived just the way in which he wanted--with little if no regret and with little regard to the rules of convention. I recommend viewing the longer director's cut of this film at least twice for a better understanding of the director's intent. Not for those expecting a standard bio-pic--this one is definitely a surrealist interpretation of the artist's life. Supplement your understanding with "
Gustav Klimt: From Drawing to Painting," the novel, "The Painted Kiss: A Novel" narrated by a fictive Emilie Floge and the current online Tate Gallery Klimt exhibit. IKlimt.com also provides a marvelous timeline.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Being Gustav Klimt
Added 2/23/2009
Malkovich doesn't do biopics, so if you were expecting to watch a standard biopic you will be sorely disappointed. I really enjoyed this film, but it raised more questions than it answered, sending me straight to Wikipedia. There I found the answers to my questions, and then the film made a little--not a lot--more sense.
Klimt was in Austria around the turn of the 20th Century. In one scene, the real world intrudes on his cloistered cafe lifestyle, but it is World War I, so a little before the Nazis. One of the characters, a petty government official, makes several appearances, but he is an imaginary character, a product of Klimt's delusions. Perhaps it was brought on by syphilis? Nevertheless, Klimt fathered 14 illegitimate children.
He also came from an artistic family with lots of siblings. His father was a gold engraver, but after his death, they relied on Gustav for support. He incorporated gold leaf into some of his paintings, and others used broken mirrors. The fragile gold leaf is sent flying when someone slams a door, and I couldn't help thinking it was a metaphor of his fragile relationship with his father, a gold engraver. In another thinly veiled symbol a mirror spontaneously shattered. Was this a bad omen for the 20th Century? He drinks in a tavern where the waitresses all have mustaches. Perhaps it is also a brothel, but when he goes into the back room, he is placed in a monkey suit and put in a cage. Throughout, there are lots of beautiful women and models.
Malkovich as Klimt gives another of his enigmatic performances, an artist who doesn't react at all as expected. If you saw him as the composer drawn to the bleak deserts of Northern Africa in The Sheltering Sky, then you get the picture. Klimt didn't say or write much, but was once quoted saying that he just liked to paint every day, and you could find out all you needed to know about him from looking at his paintings. Malkovich as Klimt is curiously not the least bit jealous when young protégée Egon Schiele (Nikolai Kinski) takes up with a former mistress. Plenty more where that came from.
Nikolai is the son of Klaus Kinski and the half brother of Natassja. Nikolai makes an excellent Schiele as he has those crazy banjo eyes. In the bonus material interview Kinski says he really studied Schiele's art and was blown away by it. Schiele would make an excellent subject for a biopic by the way. Even if it was a more traditional narrative, the unusual life of the painter would provide quite a compelling tale. I had heard that there was a project with David Bowie playing him, to be called The Wally, but don't know what ever became of that. If anyone knows, please drop me a line.
Klimt was an art film about an artist, so please keep an open mind. It is so beautiful--a work of art in its own right. One of the themes that really does come across is Klimt's relationship with the government. The support of the government, Vienna really did nurture the artists and composers, helped him to survive while he painted every day, but there was a price, as much of his work celebrated the beauty of women and was subject to the whims of the censors. The imaginary petty government official was the symbol of this discord. In real life the situation was paralleled by the struggle to get the film made, but finally a foundation stepped in with a generous grant, pleased that they were making an art film, even though it was unlikely to do well at the box office. Perhaps it was released straight to video?
Raoul Ruiz, the writer and director of Klimt, is from Brazil, but this film was a quite international affair, with cast and crew coming from all over the world. Ruiz and the actors besides Malkovich all have multiple credits in their resumes, but I am unfamiliar with most of them.
One final plea to keep an open mind and just watch this film. You will learn a lot about Klimt and his art--if only by the process of osmosis. Just don't expect it to make sense, unless you mean the peculiar logic of dreams where pocket watches melt, and of course, are then swarmed over with ants.
OTHER SELECTED FILM ROLES OF JOHN MALKOVICH
Art School Confidential (2006) .... Professor Sandiford
The Libertine (2004) .... Charles II
Being John Malkovich (1999) .... John Horatio Malkovich
Mulholland Falls (1996) .... General Thomas Timms
In the Line of Fire (1993) .... Mitch Leary
Of Mice & Men (1992) .... Lennie Small
Queens Logic (1991) .... Eliot (Cast includes Mr. Kevin Bacon)
The Sheltering Sky (1990) .... Port Moresby
Dangerous Liaisons (1988) .... Vicomte Sébastien de Valmont
Places in the Heart (1984) .... Mr. Will
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
|
Klimt is a BAD movie
Added 2/4/2009
Stay away. This is one of the worst movies ever made. It is all pretence and superficial doddering about on the set by John Malkovich. No insight. No story. No argument. Not even a painting... Some good looking naked women, though. That is all.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
parallel between Mozart and Klimt?
Added 1/3/2009
The movie is a surreal and I had to look up a biography in Google to make sure it was actually about Gustav Klimt!
It seem in art that if you aren't strange then no one wants your paintings? John Malkovich gives a good performance in a badly written movie.
There is some nudity in this movie that is probably added in hopes that the bad script could be made up for at the box office?
We see the past in the eyes of a dying man as a strange distorted
kleideoscope of past memories and loves. I saw a Jackson Pollock
biographical film that was very much like this.
The effort to make great artists attractive in this way
seems to me to be in somewhat bad taste.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
