BFI
Channel 4 Television
Not part of a collection.
Caravaggio
His passion came with a price.
A retelling of the life of the celebrated 17th-century Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio through his brilliant, nearly blasphemous paintings and his flirtations with the underworld.
- Original title
- Caravaggio
- Language
- EN
- Country
- GB
- Budget
- —
- Revenue
- —
CinemaSerf
Aug 21, 2024 · via TMDB
I knew there had to be a reason why anyone ever cared about Sean Bean. A more wooden actor I think I've never seen, but here his conniving "Ranuccio" is sexy and provocative and put together with Nigel Terry's convincing performance as the eponymous artist and Dexter Fletcher's efforts as the younger, manipulative, Caravaggio, this is a no-holes barred/bared look at debauchery and hedonism in a papal Italy that was way more interested in sex and depravity than it was upholding the values of Christian decency. Indeed, the closer to the throne of St. Peter one gets the more licentious you seem to need to be. That's ideally epitomised by Nigel Davenport's "Giustiniani" and the under-rated Michael Gough as "Cardinal Del Monte" - now, he really does like to say "yes"! Robbie Coltrane doesn't doesn't quite fit the bill as the scheming "Borghese" though, nor does Tilda Swinton's cheated upon "Lena", but they don't really matter so much as this painter decides to abandon the more traditional, idealistic, style of portraiture and actually draw things warts and all - and boy, there are plenty of warts. Sexual fluidity, nudity, very little left to the imagination - and it all amalgamates to create quite a potent and plausible representation of the do as I say not as I do (high) society that prevailed at the time. It's got a few roots in history, but for the most part it can't really be considered much more than a sexually-charged fantasy from Derek Jarman who takes plenty of artistic licence as he uses just about any excuse to get some fit young men naked and writhing about in a not very subtly photographed fashion. The writing isn't the best, the dialogue is a bit dry but this is very much a visual experience that speculates well about just what drove a man capable of creating masterpieces of world renown amidst poverty and lots of lust. I wonder if Caravaggio really was quite this notorious in real life? If not, I doubt he'd be displeased but this colourful example of excess in just about every form. Not for everyone, and probably not for any serious art historians - but as tangentially fact-based soft gay porn, it sort of works!
User reviews courtesy of TMDB.
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Fandango At Home
Nigel Terry
Caravaggio
Sean Bean
Ranuccio
Garry Cooper
Davide
Dexter Fletcher
Young Caravaggio
Spencer Leigh
Jerusaleme
Tilda Swinton
Lena
Nigel Davenport
Giustiniani
Robbie Coltrane
Scipione Borghese
Michael Gough
Cardinal Del Monte
Dawn Archibald
Pipo
Una Brandon-Jones
Weeping Woman
Imogen Claire
Lady with the Jewels
Lol Coxhill
Old Priest
Vernon Dobtcheff
Art Lover
Terry Downes
Bodyguard
Jonathan Hyde
Baglione
John Rogan
Vatican Official
Zohra Sehgal
Jerusaleme's Grandmother
Derek Jarman
Papal Aide (uncredited)
Cerith Wyn Evans
Altar Boy (uncredited)
Gabriel Beristain
Director of Photography
Sandy Powell
Costume Design
Morag Ross
Makeup Artist
Suso Cecchi d'Amico
Additional Writing
Derek Jarman
Director
Debbie McWilliams
Casting
James Mackay
Development Producer
Colin MacCabe
Executive Producer
Derek Jarman
Screenplay
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Aug 29, 1986
Jan 21, 1992
Sundance Film Festival
