STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON MUBI
LENGTH: 132 min
COUNTRY: Italy
YEAR: 2019
GENRE: Historical/Biopic
LANGUAGE: Italian w/English subtitles
FORMATS: DCP, Blu-ray & DVD
DIRECTOR: Andrei Konchalovsky
CAST: Alberto Testone, Jakob Diehl, Francesco Gaudiello, Federico Vanni, Glenn Blackhall, Orso Maria Guerrini, Anita Pititto
CREW: SCREENWRITER: Andrei Konchalovsky, Elena Kiseleva; CINEMATOGRAPHER: Aleksander Simonov; EDITOR: Sergey Taraskin, Karolina Maciejewska; MUSIC: Edward Artemyev; PRODUCER: Andrei Konchalovsky, Elda Ferri
Florence, early XVI century. Although widely considered a genius by his contemporaries, Michelangelo Buonarroti (Alberto Testone) is reduced to poverty and depleted by his struggle to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When his commissioner and head of the Della Rovere nobility Pope Julius II dies, Michelangelo becomes obsessed with sourcing the finest marble to complete his tomb. The artist’s loyalty is tested when Leo X, of the rival Medici family, ascends to the papacy and charges him with a lucrative new commission – the façade of the San Lorenzo basilica. Forced to lie to maintain favor with both families, Michelangelo is progressively tormented by suspicion and hallucinations, leading him to ruthlessly examine his own moral and artistic failings. Written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, SIN is a gripping reflection on the agony and ecstasy of individual greatness, and the profound humanity behind the legend of the Renaissance.
The Imaginative Conservative
By Joseph Phelan
“Set in the period after the completion of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the film, “Sin,” paints a rounded characterization of Michelangelo rather than the hoary cliché of the solitary misanthropic genius holed up in his studio. This episode of the artist’s career has never been so dramatically or so convincingly told.”
Los Angeles Daily News
By Peter Larsen
“ “Sin” strives to recreate the Renaissance world of Michelangelo in all its grit and grime, presenting the artist as a man driven by his earthly desires and filled with doubt over the divinity he seeks to achieve in his work.”
Variety
By Manuel Betancourt
“Andrei Konchalovsky’s handsomely lensed film about the great Italian artist grapples with how to create divine works amid earthly travails…There’s a painterly sensibility to Konchalovsky’s vision throughout. Along with his frequent DP, Aleksander Simonov, the filmmaker makes the Carrara quarry a vision of the sublime.”
LA Times
By Robert Abele
“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”
National Review
By Kyle Smith
“A richly immersive study in genius told in Italian by the 83-year-old Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky… situates the audience both in Michelangelo’s cruel and soiled world and in his self-lacerating, perfervid mind.”
Hyperallergic
By Paul D’Agostino
“Konchalovsky and his crew furnish an exquisite, bounteous viewing experience…There are scenes of exasperating beauty, from rolling landscapes to ‘divinely’ marble-filled mountainside quarries…And many of the cinematographic elements, from broad, sweeping vistas, to middle-grounded long takes and set pieces, to meticulously detailed, breathing stills, recall the compositional brilliance of greats like Michelangelo Antonioni, Akira Kurosawa, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.”
New York Times
By Ben Kenigsberg
“An austere, demanding sit, “Sin”… nevertheless has a stubborn integrity in exploring the competing forces of patronage and creative inspiration that Michelangelo confronted in the 16th century.”
Slant Magazine
By Pat Brown
“Sin gives vibrant expression to the paradox of Michelangelo’s art…Andrei Konchalovsky’s film is fascinated with the creation of great art in the midst of socio-political turmoil.”
Bloomberg News
By James Tarmy
“It is, in other words, an accurate depiction of what it takes to be a successful artist, and it’s one that contemporary viewers — inside the art world and out — might be well served to watch carefully…At its essence, the new movie SIN is a grand film about the decidedly unglamorous logistics of making art.”
Screen International
By Demetrios Matheou
“The veteran, Oscar-nominated director Andrei Konchalovsky’s sumptuously shot, rowdy, warts-and-all portrait of the artist Michelangelo, Sin (Il Piccato) shows that, at 82, the mercurial director has lost none of his ability to surprise… An intoxicating insight into an artist’s inspiration… Production design and cinematography conjure one viscerally compelling vista after another – whether beauteous landscape, or Roman and Florentine streets that are dilapidated and disgusting… Stands comparison with Derek Jarman’s CARAVAGGIO as a fascinating portrait of an artist fighting to survive.”
Eye For Film
Amber Wilkinson
“At the heart of the film is Alberto Testoni, who brings Michelangelo to simmering, volatile life, balancing his impetuousness with flashes of a soft heart. As the artist himself puts it: “I’m unable to control myself. I have no sense of balance.” The control instead belongs completely to Testoni and Konchalovskiy who between them sculpt the contours of Michelangelo’s life in such a way that you feel you could almost reach out and touch them.”
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