THE
AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (Oct 1965) aka: IRVING STONE'S THE AGONY & THE ECSTASY.
Director: Carol Reed.
Writers:
Irving Stone, Philip Dunne.
Starring: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews, Alberto Lupo, Adolfo Celi, Venantino Venantini, John Stacy, Fausto Tozzi, Maxine Audley, Tomas Milian.
Stupendous over-acting from both Rex
Harrison and Our Man Charlton is the saving grace of the lavish THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY, which threatens to bog itself sermonizing over
religion and art, set in an epoch seemingly dominated by both,
The Renaissance.
Adapted
from a slice of Irving Stone's book of the same name, Heston
is Michelangelo Buonarroti, all melodramatic neck-grabbing
and body-hugging, whose quest to complete the Sistine Chapel
ceiling fresco is tempered by his patron and inadvertent nemesis,
Harrison, as Pope Julius II, who must balance the Chapel commission
against his war efforts, constantly spurring Michelangelo
into gratuitous melodrama.
The most dogged nullifidian would find inspiration in this
tale through the sheer pioneering brilliance and stamina
invested in the completed vault, camera in final scene panning
over the Sistine's magnificence, vainly trying to capture
on 70mm that which is uncapturable. Goethe effuses: "Without
having seen the Sistine Chapel one can form no appreciable
idea of what one man is capable of achieving."
Midway to completion, Julius tries to convey the majesty of
his craft to Michelangelo, who self-effaces, "It's only
painted plaster, Your Holiness." Indeed. And Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony is only music notes.
THE
AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (Oct 1965)
Director: Carol Reed.
Writers: Irving Stone, Philip Dunne.
Starring: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews, Alberto Lupo, Adolfo Celi, Venantino Venantini, John Stacy, Fausto Tozzi, Maxine Audley, Tomas Milian.
Adapted
from a slice of Irving Stone's book of the same name, Heston
is Michelangelo Buonarroti, all melodramatic neck-grabbing
and body-hugging, whose quest to complete the Sistine Chapel
ceiling fresco is tempered by his patron and inadvertent nemesis,
Harrison, as Pope Julius II, who must balance the Chapel commission
against his war efforts, constantly spurring Michelangelo
into gratuitous melodrama.
