2:30pm PST – Agony And The Ecstasy, The (1965) – Michelangelo fights censorship and an autocratic pope to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Cast: Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews Dir: Carol Reed C-134 mins, TV-PG
When will you make an end?
When I am finished!
History shmistory. It doesn’t matter how true this beautifully realized story of the painting of the Sistine Chapel is. What director Carol Reed wants is to explore the human toll paid by the artist and those around him as the internal and external forces necessary to create timeless art play themselves out.
Charlton Heston is superb as Michelangelo, a fiery, prideful, devout man unwilling to compromise his vision. Rex Harrison is equally good as the Warrior Pope who commissions a few frescoes to spruce up a bland chapel and ends up in a years-long emotional tug of war with an impossible individual whose manic genius and artistic integrity demands respect even as it vexes all those around him.
Second only to the overall plot, a film’s success can rise or fall based on the central relationship(s) of the main players. The more complicated the better, and today’s pick represents about as interesting a dynamic between two human beings as you’ll ever see on screen – much of it due to two larger than life actors, the likes of which we will never see again.
Shot in exquisite 70MM color, be sure to catch the opening when Reed takes you on a ten minute tour of Michelangelo’s breathtaking work. The director makes the interesting choice of showing you the outcome before embarking on a psychological tour of what it takes to create the eternal.
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