The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci
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Movie Reviews of The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci
Movie Review: Warning!: Bastardized Leonardo
Summary: 2 Stars
I would normally write a much longer review of this DVD, given the subject matter, AND would have given it 5 Stars. But, considering that this release by Questar is pointlessly a cut up, BASTARDIZED version of the original mini-series (which can still be had in its entirety on VHS, also from Questar), I am forced to focus more on what's wrong with this particular release, rather than extoll the astonishing merits of the wonderful film. Please avoid this version at all costs, and if you can, get the full version on VHS. Questar has cut out some of the best moments of this film series for no valid reason I can discern - maybe just to save 2 bucks on the overall package price. They have done great damage to this film, by removing, amongst other key scenes, the important in-story narrator. This element added much charm and charisma to an already fasicinating film - and was one of the many reasons it is, in its original form, so enchanting. Removing the in-story narrator also necessitated removing some key speculations concerning important areas of Leonardo's life and thought. I, personally, am glad I still have my VHS copy, and would like to submit a separate review on that one. This one, you can skip.Movie Review: An excellent drama based on Leonardo da Vinci's life
Summary: 5 Stars
This 1972 series is an excellent drama based on the Italian Renaissance man Leonardo da Vinci's life, with many of his inventions and paintings profiled and explained in detail. The camera work is excellent, and the locations where this was filmed - I presume in northern Italy - create an authentic atmosphere. Costumes, props, and acting are all first rate. This was originally a co-production between a Chicago TV company and one in Milan, Italy, and the actors are Italian, but there are English overdubs, which are sometimes noticeable, but not distracting, at least not so to me.
Philippe Leroy, an actor I've never encountered before, plays Leonardo da Vinci as an adult. He shows the serious, at times almost dour side of Leonardo the genius, constantly involved in an invention or painting. Leonardo has a huge burden for the inventions he creates, and terrific commitment to the princes and dukes he serves. One wonders in our more egalitarian age if the royalty Leonardo worked for felt a similar sense of commitment to him.
The narrator interjects different theories about Leonardo's life and inventions, attempting to dispel some myths which arose over the 5 centuries since Leonardo's time (he died in 1519, in the service of the French King Frances, considered an enemy by many of the Italian princes, and Leonardo was a native Italian.) One such myth is that Leonardo, considered a "King" in a sense because of his genius, died in the arms of the King of France, since proven to be more legend than real event.
I bought this VHS series in 1990, and have enjoyed it from time to time ever since. Picture, color and sound quality are all very good. Highly recommended for students of history, Renaissance painting, or anyone who likes biographies of great men of history, of which Leonardo was an excellent example: serving humanity with his genius.
Movie Review: Great learning tool, but entertaining, too.
Summary: 5 Stars
Because of this movie, I launched into a research project to learn everything I could learn about Da Vinci. It was THAT inspirational for me. I didn't learn much more through books and websites than I did through this movie, so that should tell you how educational this DVD set really is. Yet, don't let the word "educational" make you think it was dry & sleep-inducing. It was an entertaining watch, too. We enjoy documentaries and biographies, though. Still, if you want to learn about Da Vinci, this is the best film to get, hands down.Movie Review: A Suspect Edition
Summary: 4 Stars
This wonderful film successfully re-creates the period by filming on location and by meticulous attention to costume and sets. Inevitably there are gaps in its treatment, even as there are gaps in what we know of Leonardo's life and thoughts. The 'reconstructed' episodes of lost biography help, but other periods are ignored. Or are they?
Then I thought to time the episodes. Here are some questions for Questar, who released the film on VHS and DVD. The feature length is given as four and a half hours (270 minutes) on the packaging. The actual length is three hours 50 minutes (230 minutes). To be exact, the parts are 60, 39, 41, 45 and 45 minutes respectively. Questar, why did you remove 40 minutes of Castellani's film? The parts I can remember as missing are those featuring Giulio Bosetti as the modern dress narrator giving the 20th century perspective on what had happened in several of the scenes. There could be other missing parts. Again, Questar, why? Would anyone here want to buy a truncated, censored film which masquerades as the complete version? And why, Questar, given DVD technology, did you not restore the original Italian soundtrack and provide subtitle options? The dubbed voices were good but there was a synch problem the whole way through the film.
This is a very good film with a very poor American release.
And Leonardo? This film shows him to be a stranger in a strange land, someone who lived his whole life excelling his contemporaries' standards, yet somehow, marching to a different drum. The reason has to be Caterina, his mother, taken from him when still a child yet always a haunting memory. A child has to make sense of this inexplicable experience, has to question the world in which it exists to make sense of something unexplainable. And was it after his mother died that Leonardo began to paint the Mona Lisa with such an enigmatic smile? Did the child Leonardo see that rueful, sad and accepting smile on the face of Caterina?
Movie Review: Brings the quintessential Renaissance man back to life
Summary: 5 Stars
It's unfortunate that the first thing many people would think of today at the mention of Da Vinci's name is the fictitious Da Vinci code rather than, say, the Mona Lisa. I think this presentation's subtitle is absolutely correct when it names Da Vinci "the most brilliant mind in history." Artist, scientist, architect, military designer - he was all of these and more. The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci covers the Maestro's complete life over the course of four and a half hours and then throws in five impressive bonus features on top of that. Philippe Leroy gives an impeccable performance in the starring role, backed up by a cast of hundreds against a backdrop of more than 90 locations in Italy. Produced in 1972, the production looks its age, but it also shows the care and respect with which it was filmed.
We really don't know all that much about much of Da Vinci's life. It sounds a little funny when the film points this out and then goes on to dramatize it all, anyway. Clearly, though, what was put on film here was the result of meticulous research. Of course, probably the greatest treasure trove of history is the remaining collection of Da Vinci's notes, which provide early sketches of some lost works, a record of Da Vinci's incredible inventions, and a record of his anatomical studies of the human body. Truly he was a man hundreds of years ahead of his time, coming up with the original ideas for the tank, an underwater breathing apparatus, the helicopter, the parachute, the machine gun, etc. Tragically, many of his notes and sketches were lost to history, as were some of his artistic creations. Many might be surprised to learn that we have only eleven completed pieces of Da Vinci artwork today. This film takes you through the creation of all of those masterpieces - plus some that have been lost or were never finished.
Da Vinci was a truly fascinating man, and this film does an excellent job communicating his isolation from the rest of the world. He was an illegitimate child who never really had a home of his own. In his prime, he sojourned between his native Florence and Milan, forced to flee on several occasions when the constantly shifting tides of military power among the Italian city states shifted or when France invaded. In his later years, he was forced to suffer the abuse of the hot-tempered upstart Michelangelo, before finally finding some sanctuary in France in his last days.
I think the film does quite a fair job of dramatizing Da Vinci's life. Many biographical treatments resort to sensational charges concerning the mysterious legal troubles that fueled his original exit from Florence and indulge in unfounded speculations of homosexuality. Everything here is based as accurately as possible on what history tells us. Da Vinci's biggest problem was that he was really too brilliant. Forever fascinated with nature, he found himself distracted all too often from other work he was doing, and his meticulous methods required great patience on the part of his clients. He could go days without touching a brush, yet he was working all the same - unlike any other artist, Da Vinci's art pieces were "written" as well as painted. He studied every facet of horses and how they moved, for example, before attempting to make a bronze horse sculpture.
Da Vinci was not only the most brilliant mind in history, he was also probably history's most brilliant failure. Besides the number of commissioned works he never completed, some of his works were plagued with problems: his Battle of Anghiari mural was ruined as the result of a failed experiment with drying the oil-based paint, for example. Even his marvelous fresco of The Last Supper began suffering cracks shortly after its completion. Seeing both his successes and his failures recreated on the screen, one gets a much deeper appreciation of the man and his humanity. It's not really a happy story, as Da Vinci suffered many wrongs in his life and was never really given the respect he deserved (even his grave was desecrated and his bones hurled into a mass burial pit by foreign invaders several years after his death).
Besides the feature film, the DVD also includes five short bonus features: The Rise of Renaissance Italy, Leonardo's Masterpieces, Da Vinci's Inventions, The Maestro vs. Michelangelo, and The Works of Two Great Masters: A Timeline. The whole presentation brings Da Vinci to life in as realistic a way as possible, and that makes The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci a masterpiece of sorts in and of itself.