THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY
***
Director: Giuseppe Capotondi
Screenwriter: Scott B. Smith, based on the eponymous novel by Charles Willeford.
Principal cast:
Claes Bang
Elizabeth Debicki
Donald Sutherland
Mick Jagger
Alessandro Fabrizi
Rosalind Halstead
Country: UK/Italy
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 99 mins.
Australian release date: 23 July 2020.
In determining the best aspects of a property, estate agents often use the cliché, ‘location, location, location’ and, in The Burnt Orange Heresy (based on the 1971 novel by US crime-writer Charles Willeford) the director, Giuseppe Capotondi, has embraced this cliché by setting his film in one of the most beautiful locations in Europe - Lake Como in northern Italy. He has also gathered a fine cast to tell a tale of greed and deception that plays with the concept that art is either a window to the truth or the opposite, that it hides the truth?
In the opening scene in Milan, we are introduced to James Figueras (Claes Bang), a handsome art historian and critic delivering a lecture to a group of elderly tourists, mainly women, who have paid to hear his ideas. Central to his talk is a fairly ordinary painting which he claims has a tragic history concerning a prisoner in a Nazi death camp in World War II. By the end of his session, he has built up, then shattered, his audience’s illusions about the work, thus leading them to a discussion about ‘the truth’ in art. A statuesque beauty, Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki), sitting at the back of the room, is the only person to put up her hand when Figueras asks who would still like to buy a print of the work. The two quickly form a… ahem… ‘relationship’ and James invites her to accompany him on a visit to the palazzo of a wealthy, somewhat eccentric art dealer, Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger), on Lake Como. There, he learns that Cassidy is also the host of a famously reclusive artist, Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland), who resides on the property and who hasn’t spoken to the press in years. Cassidy says that he may be able to convince the aging artist to give Figueras an interview, which would cause a sensation in the art world and guarantee the critic a glittering future but, of course, he’s not making this offer out of the goodness of his heart. As always in a noir-ish plot like The Burnt Orange Heresy, there’s a price to be paid to play this game and the question is, are the players prepared to pay it?
Debicki and Bang exude an edgy chemistry, one with a mysterious undertone. Hollis and Figueras are both intelligent but appear to be quite devious, neither open about their pasts. (It’s interesting to observe that Bang’s character could almost be a continuation of the one he played so well in The Square). Are these people really who they say they are? The two attractive leads give as good as they get as they verbally joust with each other and are thoroughly convincing as they sow seeds of doubt in our minds. As the plot twists and turns, Willeford’s tale becomes more absorbing and the characters more desperate. Sutherland’s artist persona is also enigmatic and the actor adds a little hint of mischief to Debney. Then you have the biggest sleaze-bag of all, Cassidy, played by Jagger. To be honest, the singer’s acting is not the best but he carries this role off with aplomb because it seems that it has been written to take advantage of his natural ability. When the art dealer talks about the art world being one of “embezzlement and forgery”, you get the sense that Jagger knows what he’s talking about.
The Burnt Orange Heresy is fun if you enjoy a slow-burn mystery that is beautiful to watch and, occasionally, compelling. It will have you googling about the use of the insect symbols that regularly appear in the Western Art canon. In Giuseppe Capotondi’s movie, as so often in life and in films noir, there is a fly in the ointment.
Screenwriter: Scott B. Smith, based on the eponymous novel by Charles Willeford.
Principal cast:
Claes Bang
Elizabeth Debicki
Donald Sutherland
Mick Jagger
Alessandro Fabrizi
Rosalind Halstead
Country: UK/Italy
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 99 mins.
Australian release date: 23 July 2020.
In determining the best aspects of a property, estate agents often use the cliché, ‘location, location, location’ and, in The Burnt Orange Heresy (based on the 1971 novel by US crime-writer Charles Willeford) the director, Giuseppe Capotondi, has embraced this cliché by setting his film in one of the most beautiful locations in Europe - Lake Como in northern Italy. He has also gathered a fine cast to tell a tale of greed and deception that plays with the concept that art is either a window to the truth or the opposite, that it hides the truth?
In the opening scene in Milan, we are introduced to James Figueras (Claes Bang), a handsome art historian and critic delivering a lecture to a group of elderly tourists, mainly women, who have paid to hear his ideas. Central to his talk is a fairly ordinary painting which he claims has a tragic history concerning a prisoner in a Nazi death camp in World War II. By the end of his session, he has built up, then shattered, his audience’s illusions about the work, thus leading them to a discussion about ‘the truth’ in art. A statuesque beauty, Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki), sitting at the back of the room, is the only person to put up her hand when Figueras asks who would still like to buy a print of the work. The two quickly form a… ahem… ‘relationship’ and James invites her to accompany him on a visit to the palazzo of a wealthy, somewhat eccentric art dealer, Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger), on Lake Como. There, he learns that Cassidy is also the host of a famously reclusive artist, Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland), who resides on the property and who hasn’t spoken to the press in years. Cassidy says that he may be able to convince the aging artist to give Figueras an interview, which would cause a sensation in the art world and guarantee the critic a glittering future but, of course, he’s not making this offer out of the goodness of his heart. As always in a noir-ish plot like The Burnt Orange Heresy, there’s a price to be paid to play this game and the question is, are the players prepared to pay it?
Debicki and Bang exude an edgy chemistry, one with a mysterious undertone. Hollis and Figueras are both intelligent but appear to be quite devious, neither open about their pasts. (It’s interesting to observe that Bang’s character could almost be a continuation of the one he played so well in The Square). Are these people really who they say they are? The two attractive leads give as good as they get as they verbally joust with each other and are thoroughly convincing as they sow seeds of doubt in our minds. As the plot twists and turns, Willeford’s tale becomes more absorbing and the characters more desperate. Sutherland’s artist persona is also enigmatic and the actor adds a little hint of mischief to Debney. Then you have the biggest sleaze-bag of all, Cassidy, played by Jagger. To be honest, the singer’s acting is not the best but he carries this role off with aplomb because it seems that it has been written to take advantage of his natural ability. When the art dealer talks about the art world being one of “embezzlement and forgery”, you get the sense that Jagger knows what he’s talking about.
The Burnt Orange Heresy is fun if you enjoy a slow-burn mystery that is beautiful to watch and, occasionally, compelling. It will have you googling about the use of the insect symbols that regularly appear in the Western Art canon. In Giuseppe Capotondi’s movie, as so often in life and in films noir, there is a fly in the ointment.