Kirpianuscus For many motifs I see this film as special. For atmosphere, for Romanian actors performances, for an inspired portrait of Modigliani. And for the nuances of battle against Picasso . Short, a real interesting biopic.

SnoopyStyle It's around 1919 Paris. Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (Andy Garcia) is in heated competition with the angry pompous Pablo Picasso (Omid Djalili). Modigliani is a confident flamboyant Jew in love with the Catholic Jeanne Hébuterne (Elsa Zylberstein). She has a child with him that her disapproving father won't allow him to even see. Modigliani needs money to take and raise his child. There is an annual art competition that nobody good enters and Modigliani signs up for it. This draws Picasso into the competition.This movie opens with the most decisive of all disclaimer about how fictional this movie is. I'm sure the lawyers had a field day but they should have kept it much simpler. I think it's actually possible to make a fictional movie about real people. The movie itself is a scrambled prodding tired mess. It moves in a confused timeline jigsaw. I'm sure that I missed plenty of stuff. Sometimes things don't get explained well. It also doesn't help that the international cast are all doing their own different accents. Andy Garcia is always magnetic but he is never anybody other than Andy Garcia. He needs to stretch out his acting to create other personalities because he is the same character in every movie since 'The Untouchables'. And quite frankly, this movie is way too long trying to do too much without any kind of central vision. The style is all over the place. Some of it is interesting, but most of it look like a cheap TV movie trying to look grand. There are also some strange choices like a skinny model playing a woman doctor in 1919. I haven't seen anything else from writer/director Mick Davis. He seems to be a man desperately trying to make an art film. This movie had more ambition than capabilities.

pabloruizpicasso I agree with the comments about the lack of truth in this movie, regarding the facts in the life of Modigliani. I would like to comment on the casting of Picasso. Some viewers are impressed with the actor; obviously they know nothing about Picasso and haven't seen his pictures. When I first saw the "Picasso" in this film I was so shocked and disgusted I wanted to quit and not watch it any more. (May be it was a good idea - I would've saved an hour or so). Picasso was nothing like this physically - he was athletic, robust, virile,oozing sexual power. He was Spaniard. Nothing like the greasy, obese, fat-nosed actor in the movie who looked more like an aged Middle Easterner with dyed hair (well, he is actually from Iran). To sum it up - regarding not only the casting of Picasso but the whole story - this is a very bad film, made by people who not only had no idea about the artists concerned, but they even had no interest to research the period, the place, the art scene. Their only concern was to make some easy dollar for the simple fact that most people have no information about Modigliani, his life and friends, and will take everything in the movie for a fact.This is one of the worst films I have ever seen in my life, this is for sure. Picasso and Modigliani were spinning in their graves when this pretentious insult to their memory was made!

Nozz This is a movie about painters in Paris that tells us nothing about painting and shows us nothing of Paris. (Even a little stock footage would have been welcome.) The most profound observation anyone in the movie makes about Modigliani's work is that he exaggerates the length of the neck. To add a little excitement to the mix, characters fire guns in one another's general direction (twice) and the manner of Modigliani's death is irresponsibly fictionalized. At least I consider it irresponsible, because people will come to the movie not knowing the facts and come away thinking they've learned them. Andy Garcia is to be commended for taking the title role-- Modigliani is worth a movie, and I'm sure no one set out to make it a bad one-- but he is less convincing and interesting than the supporting actors who bring Soutine, Utrillo, and especially Renoir to life.