''The Burnt Orange Heresy'' is a 2019
crime thriller
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...
film directed by
Giuseppe Capotondi
Giuseppe Capotondi (born 1 January 1968) is an Italian director of feature films, music videos and commercials signed to Oil Factory in the United States and Factory Films in the United Kingdom. Before signing with Factory Films, he worked with ...
and with a screenplay by
Scott Smith. The film is based on the book of the same name by
Charles Willeford and stars
Claes Bang
Claes Kasper Bang (; born 28 April 1967) is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film '' The Square'', which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the r ...
,
Elizabeth Debicki
Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990) is an Australian actress. After studying drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, she made her film debut with a brief role in the Australian comedy ''A Few Best Men'' (2011). Debicki's role in Baz Lu ...
,
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
, and
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films ''Citizen X'' (1995) an ...
.
''The Burnt Orange Heresy'' was selected as the closing film at the
76th Venice International Film Festival
The 76th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 28 August to 7 September 2019. Film director Lucrecia Martel was appointed as the President of the Jury. '' The Truth'', directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, was selected to open the f ...
and was released on March 6, 2020, by
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...
.
Synopsis
Art critic James Figueras is enlisted by a wealthy art dealer to steal a painting from reclusive painter Jerome Debney.
Cast
*
Claes Bang
Claes Kasper Bang (; born 28 April 1967) is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film '' The Square'', which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the r ...
as James Figueras
*
Elizabeth Debicki
Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990) is an Australian actress. After studying drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, she made her film debut with a brief role in the Australian comedy ''A Few Best Men'' (2011). Debicki's role in Baz Lu ...
as Berenice Hollis
*
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
as Joseph Cassidy
*
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films ''Citizen X'' (1995) an ...
as Jerome Debney
*
Rosalind Halstead
Rosalind Halstead (born 18 July 1984 in Islington, London) is an English actress, model, and dancer.
Early life
Halstead trained for five years at the Central School of Ballet, and danced at Sadler's Wells Theatre (Earl's Court and Her Majesty ...
as Evelina Macri
* Alessandro Fabrizi as Rodolfo
Production
In February 2018,
Elizabeth Debicki
Elizabeth Debicki (born 24 August 1990) is an Australian actress. After studying drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, she made her film debut with a brief role in the Australian comedy ''A Few Best Men'' (2011). Debicki's role in Baz Lu ...
and
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken (born Ronald Walken; March 31, 1943) is an American actor. Prolific in film, television and on stage, Walken is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Awar ...
were cast in the film adaptation of
Charles Willeford's book ''The Burnt Orange Heresy'', to play Berenice Hollis and artist Jerome Debney, respectively. In April 2018,
Claes Bang
Claes Kasper Bang (; born 28 April 1967) is a Danish actor and musician. He is best known for playing the leading role of Christian in Ruben Östlund's 2017 film '' The Square'', which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and for the r ...
joined the film to play the lead role of James Figueras, a fiercely ambitious art critic and thief. In early September 2018,
Mick Jagger
Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
was cast to play Joseph Cassidy, an art dealer. In late September 2018,
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland (born 17 July 1935) is a Canadian actor whose film career spans over six decades. He has been nominated for nine Golden Globe Awards, winning two for his performances in the television films ''Citizen X'' (1995) an ...
was cast in the film, replacing Walken, to play an enigmatic painter who becomes the target of an art-world heist.
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
on the film began late September 2018 in
Lake Como
Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...
, Italy.
Release
The film had its world premiere at the
Venice International Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
on September 7, 2019. Shortly after,
Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...
acquired distribution rights to the film. It was released on March 6, 2020. Following the closure of theaters a week later due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, Sony Pictures Classics opted to hold the film for when theaters re-open instead of putting the film on digital platforms. It was re-released on August 7, 2020.
Critical reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "''The Burnt Orange Heresy'' has a certain stylish charm, even if -- much like the art world it depicts -- it'll strike some viewers as pretentious." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film holds a rating of 57 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews."
The ''
Boston Herald
The ''Boston Herald'' is an American daily newspaper whose primary market is Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eight Pulit ...
'' notes that the artist adds the
image of a fly to each of his paintings, "a metaphor for sin and evil"; the image recurs throughout "this dark fable".
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Burnt Orange Heresy (film), The
2019 films
2019 crime drama films
2019 crime thriller films
2019 thriller drama films
2010s heist films
American crime drama films
American crime thriller films
American thriller drama films
American heist films
English-language Italian films
Italian crime drama films
Italian crime thriller films
Italian thriller drama films
Italian heist films
Films shot in Italy
Films based on mystery novels
Films based on American novels
HanWay Films films
Sony Pictures Classics films
Works by Scott Smith
2010s English-language films
2010s American films