Draw, fools: Ian McKellen has played the best movie role since Gandalf
Based on the biography of the artist David Hockney, the film "The Christophers" is a benefit for Ian McKellen, which critics have already called the best role of the artist since Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings. Beneath the story of fakes and lost inspiration lies a reflection on the elusive nature of creativity, the inability to abstract from the artist's personal life and the traumas that can destroy not only what has already been created, but also what could be invented in the future. Steven Soderbergh, a classic of the author's mainstream, holds the viewer's attention until the last seconds. Izvestia tells us how he did it.
What is the movie "The Christophers" about?
Orson Welles, in his best late film, mockumentary "F like a Fake," talked about an artist who signed his paintings Modigliani and Picasso for decades and sold them as masterpieces of these masters. And since people recognized them as the author's works of classics, then, therefore, the fact of art is obvious, and whether it is a fake or not is so important.
A shot from the movie "The Christophers"
Cinephile Steven Soderbergh builds on this image in the film "The Christophers," which was first presented at the Toronto Film Festival and was released worldwide this week. Perhaps in the near future it will appear in domestic cinemas as part of a "pre—screening service." Soderbergh is well known here, but Ian McKellen is known and loved even more, of course, for his role as the magician Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings.
He may be a great theater artist, and he may have played dozens of other film roles, including the very interesting elderly Sherlock Holmes a few years ago, but the hit with Gandalf was so accurate that McKellen is associated with him for the whole world. And, by the way, he doesn't seem to be too burdened by this, enjoying participating in franchise projects, including appearing in the fantasy "The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum" next year.
In "The Christophers," 85-year-old McKellen plays the eccentric London-based artist Julian Sklar at the time of filming. The titled and "dear" Sklar was once also a TV star: he was rude to young artists on a national TV show, exposing them to the whole country as a laughing stock. But he hasn't written anything for decades, making a living by selling his old creations and recording video postcards for paying fans.
A shot from the movie "The Christophers"
This worries his children very much, adventurers and losers who are waiting for them to inherit. They would really like to get not only two adjacent apartments littered with junk, but also some paintings for millions of pounds. And there is such a chance. Many years ago, Sklar released two series of men's portraits, "The Christophers," and began painting the third, but he never finished it. If you quietly sneak into his attic and "finish" them in his style, then you can hit a decent jackpot after his death. To do this, they hire Lori, a once—promising artist, critic and restorer, who now sells hot dogs on the embankment near Tower Bridge. She has a personal score to settle with Sklar.
What does David Hockney have to do with it
Based on the sad story of David Hockney and his model Peter Schlesinger, screenwriter Ed Solomon, of course, changed everything else quite freely. Although I wonder what Hockney would say if he watched this movie. Moreover, now he is almost the same age as the hero. In any case, the careers of the great artist and his fictional double developed in different ways. After the breakup with Schlesinger, Hockney did not just stay afloat, but only increased his fame, wealth and the number of masterpieces in various techniques. Sklar has turned into a gloomy and lonely misanthrope who doesn't want to hear about creativity anymore. But the ghost of Hockney still hovers over the film, there's nothing you can do about it.
A shot from the movie "The Christophers"
McKellen sometimes overplays here and gives more farce than the usual good taste allows, but how can you deny yourself the pleasure? Each monologue is several minutes long, full of witticisms and aphorisms. It's a perfect benefit, although his partner in most of the scenes, Mikayla Cole, tries to keep up. But the dramaturgy here is arranged in such a way that most of the time she can only silently play with her face and eyes, while McKellen, with a bare belly, rants that Harvey Weinstein deprived celebrities around the world of the right to walk in front of women in an open robe. Or when he sneers at the UK tax office, where his paintings hang in the lobby, although Sklar himself has not paid taxes for many years. Or when he asks you to be careful with someone who has been Googling his name for decades by reading reviews.
Another thing is that the closer the film gets to the finale, the more we sadly reflect on the fact that Soderbergh himself and the main character have much more in common than Hockney. In the sense that he also has a protracted crisis, and let's be honest: after "Behind the Candelabra" and "Knickerbocker Hospital," his work is not really moving forward. Before that, there were "Sex, Lies and Videos", "Kafka", "Schizopolis", "Friends of Ocean", "Erin Brockovich" and many other paintings that have become iconic. And how many of his films over the past 10 years will anyone remember, except critics? Although he continues to work actively. He shoots the best actors of our time, and the perfectionist Soderbergh also continues to be the cameraman in all the paintings, creating an instantly recognizable image with his handheld camera and cold colors. Perhaps he also needs real inspiration, just like old Sklar.
A shot from the movie "The Christophers"
Now, the general consensus on "The Christophers" is that it's a great acting success for McKellen, but Soderbergh hasn't had a career turnaround yet. And, by the way, chemistry, like Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in "Behind the Candelabra," is not here either. McKellen needed a more serious partner so that he didn't have to play for two in this somewhat theatrical film. And analogous paintings like "The Takeaway Game" and "The Best Deal" will remain unsurpassed for now.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
