Portrait of a Man I don't get it! Well, how can such a film be bypassed by moviegoers!
I do not understand what guides television, buying and repeating several times more than ordinary pictures, and only once showing such a movie!
The picture I saw on RTR, in 1995, in the cycle of screenings for the 100th anniversary of the movie, and it was called “Portrait of a Man”. This name, by the way, is much more suitable for the tape, since it more accurately reflects its content. “A game of murder” sets a potential viewer on a criminal way, and a short local annotation can create a false expectation of a love drama. The first is not in sight, and the second is just a side storyline. In fact, this is a stunning in depth and brilliant in form study of the phenomenon of creativity.
The story, briefly. At the villa of the famous, fondled by criticism and viewers, the film director comes a friend of his youth and also a director. The owner greets him with all cordiality. In the house a lot of people, boiling life: interviews, negotiations, flirting. After a while, we realize that the lives of old friends have developed very differently. The guest's career failed and his ex-wife is now the owner of the house. After some time it turns out that the owner is mortally ill and lives out the last days.
All this seems to imply a melodramatic collision. Not at all. Damiani, leading the viewer through further vicissitudes, creates a truly large-scale and, at the same time, elegant canvas of a human personality torn by contradictions. And the plot is not as simple as it may seem at the beginning: it intrigues the viewer to the last, making unexpected kulbits. What creativity is, how a work of art is born, and what sacrifices art demands - that is what this picture is about. In my personal rating, this film is firmly in line with such films as 8 and a Half and All That Jazz. Moreover, they are united not only by a common theme, but also by its magnificent embodiment. However, if the tapes of Fellini and Fossa are recognized and loved, then Damiani’s masterpiece (I am not afraid of this word) was in the position of Cinderella.
Elegant dialogues, subtle psychologicalism, filigree play of actors - all this together creates a unique atmosphere, and the development of events gives rise to a lot of reflections about the nature of man and the place of art in his life. And of course, directing. About how Damiano Damiani owns the profession can be judged even by the serial “Soctrum”. Here he showed all that the master is capable of. The action does not sag for a second, and the film looks in one breath.
I recommend it to all lovers of smart psychological movies. For those who have chosen a creative profession, look for sure!
10 out of 10