Gustav klimt biography movie john malkovich
After the visual abuses of Snark Week, I wanted to watch something beautiful, a real “sit back and let the art wash over you” moment. Klimt (2006) fit the bill, being an appropriately arsty-fartsy biopic of Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (played by John Malkovich). The story plays fast and loose with history, but it does include the artist’s relationship with Austrian reformist fashion designer Emilie Louise Flöge (Veronica Ferres). Both Flöge’s historical fashion designs and Klimt’s artwork are interpreted by costume designer by Birgit Hutter into what the characters wear, making for some interesting looks.
The film bears a lot of similarity to director Raúl Ruiz’s other work that I’ve reviewed Time Regained aka Le Temps Retrouvé (1999) in that both are nonlinear and use similar visual techniques. The “plot” doesn’t make a ton of sense and doesn’t particularly adhere to the facts of Klimt’s life. Malkovich plays the artist as an egotistical, horny, obsessive jerk, when biographies suggest Klimt was more shy, introverted, and taciturn. There’s also a scene where he’s rude and dismissive to his mother and sister, when in reality, he lived with and supported them (he had two unmarried sisters) and held his family roots quite dear.
The film has it’s own point of view about Klimt’s relationship with Emilie Flöge, which historians agree was his closest lifelong partnership. It’s often suggested that his most famous painting The Kiss is based on him and Emilie kissing, but if their relationship was romantic, it was certainly not exclusive. Neither married, and Klimt had at least six acknowledged children with three different women. In this movie, Emilie is shown pining after Gustav while he lusts after other women, in particular a fictional French dancer, Lea de Castro (Saffron Burrows).
But as I said at the top, this is a flick where you sit back and enjoy the 4/10 Being John Malkovich was one of, if not the, strangest movies I have ever seen. Klimt is similarly strange, but not quite that strange. Like Russell Crowe's John Nash in A Beautiful Mind, Klimt hallucinates people, and in a similar way, you, in the audience are just as confused about who is real and who is imaginary. You are only gradually let in on understanding this. 5/10 i have always been a fan of Malkovich's work but this one is a real stinker despite the good effort and the risks Saffron Burrows took for her role in the movie. the director's did a poor job since the film doesn't hold up or live up to the fame of artist. there is no opening shots,, the first scenes are so behind the purpose of the story.. the soundtracks were another failure by the director... the camera-work is odd and pointless and in no way helps t 2006 Austrian film Klimt is a 2006 Austrian art-housebiographical film about the life of the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). It was written and directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, with an English screenplay adaptation by Gilbert Adair. The director of photography was Ricardo Aronovich, and the music was composed by Jorge Arriagada. The title role is played by John Malkovich and the cast includes Stephen Dillane. Both a 130-minute-long director's cut and a shortened producer's cut of 96 minutes were shown at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. A few months later the film was shown at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival where it was nominated for two awards, winning the Russian Film Clubs Federation Award. This art house film is presented in the format of a sequence of nearly two dozen often disassociated vignettes taken from the life of Gustav Klimt and visualized by him in his recollection. All of this occurs while he is being treated late in life in hospital using mercury treatments for advanced syphilis which he had contracted earlier in his life. In his advanced age, Klimt has become a leading artist in Vienna and his work is celebrated at all levels of society in Austria. Throughout his life, Klimt has had a special interest in the depiction of the beauty he associates with the female form and his studio is constantly occupied by nude models posing for his drawings and oil paintings. Klimt is open minded as to the expression of his own sexuality and casually forms relationships of an intimate nature with many of his models. A number of his models bear his children, and Klimt's visualized recollections of his younger years showing him as being aware of having fathered many children, some of whose identities he knows and some of which are nearly anonymous to him. In one visit to a local brothel with a male acquaintance, an older Klimt .Strange, confusing, arty
The movie is decorated with dozens of naked women who mainly parade about, or who try to seduce Klimt. Given that he is not particularly handsome, charming or intelligent, I failed to see the attraction. Perhaps it was just his fame as a painter.
The interiors and costumes are opulent turn of the century Vienna. Elaborate Viennese pastries tempt the eye. The sets are the main appeal of the movie.
There is a lot of cat and mouse dialogue where the characters reveal nothing and say nothing while attempting to sound profound. It is all quite frustrating.
Nikolai Kinski plays the homosexual painter Egon Schiele in an exaggeratedly swish way, reminiscent of Da'an's hand gestures in Earth Final Conflict.
The costumes and hair treatments are so elaborate, that I could not for the life of me tell the female characters apart. Is this a new character or an old one in a new do? The characters all behave the same way and look similar. I didn't develop any bond with any of the characters because I could not even tell them apart.Real disappointment from Malkovich
Klimt (film)
Plot