Jack and I enjoyed this delightful comedy based on James Lord's memoir about sitting for a portrait by Alberto Giacometti in 1964 Paris. Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer are wonderful as the eccentric artist and his bemused model (after I wrote about Rush in The Book Thief he was genius playing Albert Einstein in the National Geographic mini-series Genius and Hammer was last blogged for Call Me by Your Name). Tony Shaloub (his impressive work includes Barton Fink (1991), 144 episodes of Wings (1991-97), I.Q. (1994) speaking of Einstein, Big Night (1996), The Imposters (1998) directed by his Big Night co-star Stanley Tucci, Men in Black (1997, the sequel in 2002, and uncredited in the 2012 three-quel), 125 episodes of Monk (I saw them all), eight of Nurse Jackie (ditto), thirteen of BrainDead (I saw a few), nine of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (all), and just completed a short run on Broadway in the new musical The Band's Visit) is a warm presence as Alberto's brother Diego Giacometti. Alberto's vibrant women are his wife Annette (Sylvie Testud, who is new to me despite over 100 credits) and his mistress Caroline (Clémence Poésy, most recently in these pages for 127 Hours).
Stanley Tucci directs and adapted the memoir by James Lord. Big Night was his directing and writing debut, followed by The Imposters. I didn't see his next two. It's the first time Tucci has directed and not acted. The look of this movie is exquisite. Shot in color, it has many shades of gray, just like the work of the artist himself. We can thank cinematographer Danny Cohen (last blogged for Victoria & Abdul). The CGI (computer generated imaging) team helped make London look like Paris, which was cheaper than shooting there. Jack noticed that Rule #2 is not followed. But Rule #21 is, albeit before the trees have leafed. Here's my list of cinematic rules.
As is sometimes the case with independent movies, I cannot find online any of the soundtrack, this time by Evan Lurie (among his scores I've seen Trees Lounge (1996) and Interview (2007), both directed by Steve Buscemi, for which he wrote "additional music"), online. The best I can do is offer you the trailer for a little taste.
You should probably save this link until after seeing the movie. It contains a video and a scan of the "final portrait," and maybe a spoiler or two.
Very sensitive viewers with MPMS, also known as Motion Picture Motion Sickness, should sit in the back to avoid the effects of occasional (un)steadicams. Here is the complete list.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics average is 73% and its audiences a less warm 63. We thought it was entertaining.
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