Johnny Depp returns to Hollywood with Modigliani: first directorial work

Accusations of domestic violence against ex-wife Amber Heard almost put an end to Johnny Depp’s career. For more than six months, the ex-spouses sorted things out in court and eventually came to an amicable agreement: the star of Pirates of the Caribbean proved that the accusations were slander. And now I’m ready to go to the cinema again. Already on May 16, at the Cannes Film Festival, the premiere of the film “Favorites” will take place, where the actor played the king of France, Louis XV. This is the first big role for the actor in three years. And in the fall, he will start shooting a film about the artist Amedeo Modigliani as a director. The other day, Johnny Depp announced who he took on the main roles in the film, which will be his second directorial experience.

The first film directed by Johnny Depp was in 1997. In The Brave, he also played the main role – an unemployed, recently imprisoned, living literally in the garbage dump of an Indian named Rafael, who agrees to a “deal with the devil”: the director offers the hero money in exchange for murder. The script for the psychological picture-parable, far from the fun adventure blockbusters, thanks to which the actor gained worldwide fame, by the way, he also wrote himself. Now, 26 years after The Brave, Johnny Depp will again try his hand at the role of the director and the film will again “draw” primarily a psychological portrait of the hero. The figure chosen is complex. Amedeo Modigliani is one of the most famous painters and sculptors of the early 20th century, and one of the most mysterious and tragic. The position of the master at that moment is similar to the situation of Raphael from Depp’s first directorial film.

According to the plot, the viewer, together with the artist, will live 48 hours in Paris. The year is 1916, the First World War is on. The capital of France, despite the bombing, poor food and other inconveniences, is trying to lead a pre-war lifestyle. The Italian Modigliani had been living in Paris for 10 years by that time. This life is not easy. “Since Modigliani was very poor and often drunk, he was despised for a long time even in the circle of artists,” Paul Guillaume wrote about him in November 1920, the year of the artist’s death. Until 1914, Modi – as Amedeo was called and that’s what Depp’s film would be called – was engaged in sculpture. With the beginning of the war, money became less and less, and, therefore, it was more and more difficult to engage in sculpture, besides, the artist was not taken into the army for health reasons, which made him get drunk even more often. Modigliani will spend these 48 hours on the run from the police, drinking and thinking – should he give up everything, end his career as an artist and leave the city?

From the memoirs of contemporaries, we know that Amedeo was helped by a Russian artist, who organized her art school in Paris, Maria Vasilyeva – she provided Modi with paints and canvases, so he began to paint. No, he used to draw before, but more often graphics, for example, a graphic portrait of Anna Akhmatova from 1911 has been preserved, which to this day excites descendants – was there a romance between the poetess and the master? But Modi went headlong into painting after 1914, and it was here that the genius of Modigliani was revealed. In addition, portraits better than sculpture helped him earn a living.

The artist wrote quickly, always in one session. The execution of these canvases differs in character and manner from the pre-war ones. A personal and global turning point deprived his art of its former elegance, now it is filled with the utmost psychologism and has become even more minimalistic. Amedeo was always faced with a choice: to write as his hand and heart require, or to make works for sale. Creativity or income? And, as it is not difficult to guess, he chose the first. Sometimes, remaining without a roof over your head. Relations with women were also difficult. More often than not, they didn’t last more than a couple of nights. One of his many ladies, Simone Tiru, ​​became pregnant by Modi, but the artist did not recognize the child as his own. By the time the baby was born, Amedeo and Simona were already suffering from tuberculosis, although the diagnosis had not yet been confirmed. Fortunately, the disease was not transmitted to the only son of the artist Serge, but he never recognizes his parents.

Then, in 1916, Modigliani was waiting for the first recognition: thanks to the Polish poet Leopold Zborodsky, his works will be shown at an exhibition in the Bertha Weil Gallery, which will turn into a serious scandal and go down in history. A police station was located opposite the art space, and the policemen, outraged by the paintings, would quickly close the exposition.

Let’s see how Johnny Depp presents Modigliani’s turbulent biography, but it is clear that the choice was not accidental. A Hollywood actor is interested in complex characters who have known hardships and hardships. After a scandalous divorce from Amber Heard, he himself slipped into depression, lost most of his fortune and had problems with alcohol.

“To show the saga of the life of Modigliani on the screen is an incredibly great honor for me. His life was filled with great difficulties, but in the end it turned into a triumph. This is a universal story that all viewers can identify with, ”Depp told a journalist about the film, which he will shoot with Al Pacino. The 83-year-old actor became the producer of the biopic about Modigliani and will play one of the important roles in it. The other day it became known that Al Pacino will play the role of a collector who will change the artist’s life.

Depp gave the lead role to Italian Riccardo Scamarchio, who played Santino D’Antonio in John Wick 2. The script for the film was written by Jerzy Kromolovsky and Maria Olson-Kromolovsky (In the Electronic Fog, 2009). Filming will begin in Budapest this fall.

The last couple of years, which Depp had little demand as an actor, can be called preparations for a film about the artist. After all, Johnny at that time not only suffered from depression, but he himself was actively involved in art. And he even managed to make money on creativity by selling a series of portraits made in the style of pop art. In April, Depp opened an exhibition of his work in a London gallery and in the first five days submitted many of them, earning more than £4.5 million. In a word, he did not have to feel like a very poor and hungry artist, like Modigliani, but the magic of art is clearly had its effect.