To Hell and back: "The Dante Codex" unites the great poet and September 11th
The experimental noir by artist and director Julian Schnabel has launched at the Russian box office. Starring Oscar Isaac, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Jason Momoa. Behind the scenes — music by The Rolling Stones and Nick Cave. It is based on a novel by underground writer Nick Toshes, where Toshes himself is brought out as the main character. This monumental work, which became a sensation at the last Venice Film Festival, causes conflicting feelings in everything except one thing: it must be watched on the big screen, and only then, after the session, you can start fierce arguments. Izvestia explains what it is about.
What is the movie "The Dante Codex" about
The paradox of the plot is that at times it seems completely impassable, complex and bizarre, but in fact it can fit into a few short phrases. Summer 2001. New York narcissist writer Nick Toshes (Oscar Isaac) has been obsessed with the translation of The Divine Comedy and the personality of Dante Alighieri for many years. And so he gets the "job" of his life: influential gangster Joe (John Malkovich) wants to steal and sell for a fabulous sum the only manuscript of the Divine Comedy, which was considered long lost. Nick is responsible for the manuscript itself and its verification, while collector Lou (Gerard Butler), Joe's "six", a perverted sadist and cynic, takes over all the dirty work. The plot is interspersed with flashbacks from the life of Dante himself, who can not finish his work and finish the part about paradise.
But from this description it is impossible to understand what the film really is. In a sense, it can even distort the very idea of the picture, because the viewer will have to decide for himself, at least, whether the cult writer Toshes really embarked on an adventurous gonzo journey or invented everything from beginning to end, the action is too literary.
The entire modern part of the plot is solved as a black-and-white noir, which, according to tradition, is also accompanied by the narrator's voice. Costume flashbacks are given in color in the style of either the early Werner Herzog, or, as some critics mocked, the late Terry Gilliam. The strikingly beautiful image is the fruit of the work of Russian cinematographer Roman Vasyanov, who until recently worked between Russia and Hollywood and made his directorial debut several years ago with the film adaptation of Alexei Ivanov's novel "Dorm on Blood." Valery Todorovsky made the paintings "Vise", "Dudes" and "Odessa" with him. Vasyanov shoots "The Dante Codex" in his favorite manner: the camera is constantly in motion, it creates suspense, which is even more important than what is happening in the frame. The cameraman "tries to turn away" especially effectively when there is another outburst of violence in the scene. And there are a lot of such things here, the film is not for the faint of heart.
The director constantly confuses us in the coordinate system, making us feel uncomfortable while watching. Sometimes it's a philosophical and conspiracy detective story like "Foucault's Pendulum", then suddenly it turns into "The Da Vinci Code", then it pretends to be an infernal trip, as in "Apocalypse Now", then it lets us into Martin Scorsese's "Evil Streets" (who himself plays a big and important role in the picture), then it turns into an aesthetic journey through Italy, like in Ripley, and Gerard Butler delivers verbal balancing acts with such energy, as if trying out for a new Quentin Tarantino film. This is perhaps the best role of Butler in his long career — he has never played such a complex and charismatic monster. It's only by the end of more than two hours that we finally decide what kind of movie we're watching, and we're not sure if we're going to like it.
What's wrong with the Dante Codex?
Almost 20 years from the idea to the premiere is already alarming. Back in 2008, Johnny Depp, a fan of Nick Toshes' work, bought the film rights to his novel "The Dante Codex" in order to play the main role there. And it would be a logical continuation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" mixed with "The Dead Man." But it couldn't be done quickly. In 2011, it was announced that the director of the film would be Julian Schnabel, who at that time was at the peak of his cinematic career and Depp had previously starred in the film "Until the Night Falls."
It is difficult to say what happened to the project next. Toshes managed to die, and Depp remained his fan, even bought out his archive, but he withdrew from participating in the film adaptation. In 2023, it became known that Oscar Isaac would play the role of Toshes in the film, and the rest of the cast was also announced. Like in Schnabel's other films, he's a superstar—no one was surprised.
Obviously, it wasn't easy to find the money for the project. IMDB lists 18 studios from different countries, the film is positioned as a joint production of the USA, Great Britain, Italy and Chile, but it is known that Russian studios also participated. Alexey Uchitel and Konstantin Yelkin are among the executive producers in the credits, and the domestic distributor of the film Nashe Kino confirmed to Izvestia the participation of their studios Rock Films and RWV Film. At the same time, Russia is not listed among the manufacturers.
Before the premiere of the film in the Venice competition, it turned out that a rough version of it has been online for almost a year, because one of the studios uploaded working copies to Vimeo without password protection. Then there was a lukewarm reception from the press, who compared the project to Coppola's infamous "Megalopolis" and Gilliam's "The Man Who Killed Don Quixote."
Now we also need arguments to explain to the viewer why you need to go to the cinema for money for a film that has already been released on Netflix with a Russian dubbing, albeit of poor quality, made in Israel. However, there is just an explanation here — from the distributor. He told Izvestia that the dubbing for Russian distribution will be different: "We tried to attract actors who usually voice Isaac, Malkovich, Gadot, Butler and other stars familiar to the Russian audience. We should do better than on Netflix."
This is a serious argument, however, cinephiles understand that it is better to watch such a movie with subtitles. No one can duplicate Martin Scorsese, you need to hear Gal Gadot's accent and the way Isaac and Momoa speak Italian. And, of course, it is especially important to fully appreciate Butler's character — a real benefit. Plus, there's Al Pacino, whose scene is clearly influenced by Christopher Walken's famous monologue in Pulp Fiction.
There are really a lot of dialogues that you want to hear again later. "I sent half of humanity to hell and looked at them from the height of my pen, unattainable and detached, like a God," says Dante, who, like the writer, is played by Isaac. "God is not suspended!" replies the hermit in heavy makeup, but with Scorsese's unique eyes and nose. I even wonder how it will sound in Russian.
The film is saturated with information, so it may have to be reviewed in order to figure it out to the end. The September 11 disaster is integrated into the plot, Gal Gadot portrays a naked Botticelli Venus, Nick Cave performs his hit Into My Arms, Mephistopheles plays the piano, Momoa and Butler are sophisticated in torturing their victims, and Malkovich pokes everyone with the "original" Rembrandt self-portrait. Because of this, it sometimes seems that this, in fact, is not a long film lasting four hours and requires the viewer to be too seriously immersed in underground culture, the history of world cinema and, of course, Dante's "Comedy", which is constantly quoted and played out here. But Schnabel is also a cult figure in order to have the right to make such statements. And Dante and Toshes will now take their places in the gallery of images created by him next to Van Gogh, Basquiat, Warhol and other legendary creators.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
