Caravaggio's Shadow () is a 2022 Italian-French

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

film directed by

Michele Placido Michele Placido (; born 19 May 1946) is an Italian actor, director and screenwriter. He began his career on stage, and first gained mainstream attention through a series of roles in films directed by the likes of Mario Monicelli and Marco Belloc ...

Plot

In 1610 in Italy, Michelangelo Merisi, better known as

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (also Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi da Caravaggio; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), known mononymously as Caravaggio, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the fina ...

, is considered a brilliant artist. He opposes church dogma, which dictates how religious subjects should be depicted in art. When

Pope Paul V Pope Paul V (; ) (17 September 1552 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death, in January 1621. In 1611, he honored Galileo Galilei as a mem ...

learns that Caravaggio uses prostitutes, thieves and vagabonds as models for his paintings, he orders an investigation into the artist by the Vatican secret service. The results of the investigation will determine whether Caravaggio's request to be pardoned from his death sentence for the murder of a rival will succeed. The lead investigator, known as "Shadow", reveals the contradictory vices and virtues of Caravaggio.

Cast

Riccardo Scamarcio Riccardo Dario Scamarcio (; born 13 November 1979) is an Italian actor and film producer. Early life Scamarcio was born in Trani, Apulia, the son of Irene Petrafesa, a painter, and Emilio Scamarcio. He went to train as an actor at the Scuola ...

as Caravaggio *

Louis Garrel Louis Garrel (born 14 June 1983) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his starring role in ''The Dreamers (2003 film), The Dreamers'', directed by Bernardo Bertolucci.

as Schatten *

Isabelle Huppert Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (; born 16 March 1953) is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two win ...

as Costanza Sforza Colonna *

Micaela Ramazzotti Micaela Ramazzotti (born 17 January 1979) is an Italian actress. Her film credits include '' Non prendere impegni stasera'', ''The First Beautiful Thing'' and '' The Big Heart of the Girls''. Ramazzotti was a regular cast member of the show '' C ...

as Lena Antonietti *

Lolita Chammah Lolita Chammah (born 1 October 1983) is a French actress. Background Chammah is the daughter of Ronald Chammah (of Syrian Jewish origin), and Isabelle Huppert. She grew up in Paris and had her first roles during childhood. Lolita Chammah has ...

as Anna Bianchini * Vinicio Marchioni as

Giovanni Baglione Giovanni Baglione (; 1566 – 30 December 1643) was an Italian Late Mannerist and Early Baroque painter and art historian. Although a prolific painter, Baglione is best remembered for his encyclopedic collection of biographies of the o ...

* Gianfranco Gallo as

Giordano Bruno Giordano Bruno ( , ; ; born Filippo Bruno; January or February 1548 – 17 February 1600) was an Italian philosopher, poet, alchemist, astrologer, cosmological theorist, and esotericist. He is known for his cosmological theories, which concep ...

Moni Ovadia Salomone "Moni" Ovadia (born Solomon Ovadia on 16 April 1946) is a Bulgarian-born Italian Jewish actor, musician, singer, theatrical author and activism, activist. His theatrical performances recall the lost world of Eastern European Jewish cul ...

as Filippo Neri *

as Cardinal

Francesco Maria del Monte Francesco Maria del Monte, full name Francesco Maria Bourbon del Monte Santa Maria, (5 July 1549 – 27 August 1627) was an Italian cardinal, diplomat, and connoisseur of the arts. His fame today rests on his early patronage of the important Bar ...

Tedua Mario Molinari born 21 February 1994 in Genova, known professionally as Tedua, is an Italian singer, songwriter, rapper and actor. Initially also known as Duate, Tedua is known as one of the members of the collective Wild Bandana, along with Izi ...

as Cecco *

Maurizio Donadoni Maurizio Donadoni (born 7 January 1958) is an Italian film, stage and television actor. Born in Bergamo, Donadoni started his career on stage in the late 1970s, working among others with Luca Ronconi and Gabriele Lavia. He made his film debut in ...

as Pope Paul V

Reception

Critical response

Davide Stanzione in Best Movie assigns the film 3.3 stars out of 5 and speaks of it as: "A surprising, bruised and sensual film, which manages to reproduce the works of Caravaggio within the visual fabric of the images and restores, with more accursed vigor than you stumble, the torrid demons of a boundless artist, torn between the torment of the body and the ecstasy of the sacred". According to Zinaida Pronchenko, "Placido does not try to diversify the usual narrative — he drank, copulated, transferred to the canvas — with conceptual solutions, as, for example,

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, poet, gardener, and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing ...

in his 1986 ''

''. Which is rather good". As Vittoria Scarpa ( Сineuropa) notes, "One of the film’s strengths is its demonstration of how aspects of reality entered into the painter’s works, how thieves, vagabonds and harlots appeared on the artist’s canvasses, as if on stage, transformed into eternal works of art".

Accolades

The film received five nominations for the 2023

David di Donatello The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David (Donatello, bronze), David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (the Academy of Italian Cin ...

Best Cinematography The following is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various films, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best ...

, Best Costumes, Best Make-up, Best Hairstyling, and David Youth Award. It won Best Hairstyling and the David Youth Award.

References

External links

* * 2022 films 2022 biographical drama films 2022 drama films 2020s French films 2020s historical drama films 2020s Italian films 2020s Italian-language films Biographical films about LGBTQ people Biographical films about painters Films directed by Michele Placido Films set in the 1590s Films set in the 1600s Films set in the 1610s Films set in Italy French biographical drama films Italian biographical drama films Italian-language French films {{2020s-drama-film-stub Cultural depictions of Caravaggio