2/19/2021
Arriving in the U.S. almost simultaneously with his raved-about release
Sin centers on another artist whose grand projects often competed with each other: Michelangelo, whose talents were demanded by one pope even as he had years to go on a job for that man s predecessor.
A beautiful but decidedly unromantic look at artistic drive, the Italian/Russian production zeroes in on the great man s demons without, as art-biographical cliches usually have it, crediting them for his genius. A captivating lead performance and a truly massive central metaphor make it a memorable arthouse film, even if the arthouses in this case (from Film Forum to Austin Film Society to Laemmle in L.A.) are all virtual.
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Neither agonizing nor ecstatic, but solidly cinematic, Andrei Konchalovsky’s Michelangelo biopic “Sin” sees the veteran Russian filmmaker tackling the mystery of genius with what might be described as sumptuous grit. It’s a Renaissance-era recreation that looks both lavish and hard, bracketed in a sense by the infinite gaze from the Italian alps at one extreme and at the other, the everyday dodge in Florentine or Roman streets of emptied waste buckets; in between, amidst popes and peasants, one man made timeless art. But while the visceral pull of “Sin” commands the attention, it never exactly fuses its various strands of conflict into a cohesive vision of the irascible artist’s unique plight.
MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI, that incomparable Renaissance Man, is masterfully brought back to life by Russian film maestro Andrei Konchalovsky in Sin (Il Peccato), which he co-wrote and directed.
In it, Alberto Testone incarnates Michelangelo in early-16th century Renaissance Italy in Rome, Florence and the quarry where the sculptor connives to snag the world’s largest slab of marble known to man.
Will “the monster,” as this gigantic chunk of snow-white rock is called because of its sheer immensity, be for his Sistine Chapel patron Pope Julius II’s (Massimo De Francovich) tomb or will it be commissioned by the new Pope, Leo X (Simone Toffanin) for the San Lorenzo Basilica?
My father, Richard Rampell, was a photographer who used to exhibit his artsy black and white pictures in Manhattan’s top photo galleries. Always a good provider, Dad supported our family by teaching at Boys High in Bed Stuy, explaining: “All artists require patrons.