Art/criticism/truth/crime combine in Giuseppe Capotondi's THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY

You may recall the name Giuseppe Capotondi from the crackerjack mystery, The Double Hour, released in the USA back in 2011. Signore Capotondi is back this year with another (sort-of) mystery entitled THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY, which, though not as extraordinary as his earlier film, still provides a lot of surprise, sophistication and fun -- especially if you enjoy movies about art, including a critique of the approaching-nonsensical criticism often written about it.

The filmmaker, shown at left, could not have cast his new film any better, had he a billion-dollar budget to waste. His quartet of performers does an extraordinary job creating full-bodied characters that alternately amuse, surprise, move and entertain us within the brief time  -- just 98 minutes -- that the movie lasts.

That cast includes the increasingly impressive Claes Bang (shown at left, below, and further below, of the recent Dracula series, as well as another very good film about art, The Square), who plays James Figueras, a relatively famous art critic whom we first meet rehearsing for and soon after giving one of his popular talks about the subject.

Into his audience, made up it appears of mostly and probably wealthy seniors, comes a very pretty young woman, Berenice (Elizabeth Debicki, at right, above and below) who remains after the "show" to spar a bit with the speaker and then ends up in bed with him.

Soon after, the two are on their way to Lake Como to meet with a famous and wealthy art collector named Cassidy, who has set up for the art critic a rare-to-impossible interview with a famous and reclusive artist named Jerome Debney.

Now, the rich collector is played by none other than Mick Jagger (above), and what a delight it is to see him acting on screen once again. You will think, 'Why doesn't he do this more often?!' and follow that with, "Well, of course: He doesn't have to; he's Mick Jagger.'  But, damn, he is good.

As the famous artist, we have no less than Donald Sutherland, giving another of his lately low-key and close to perfect performances, so you see what I mean about this great cast. As for the film's plot, it is one of those What's really going on here -- and why? explorations. Which is just fine until, toward the end, the movie takes quite a turn for the nasty.

This is jarring, to say the least, but it is not, TrustMovies thinks, the deal-breaker you might suspect because everything that happens has, in one sense, been prepared via the themes already opened and explored: art, avarice, power and, yes, the patriarchy.

Mr. Bang does a bang-up job in all respects, whether boning up his audience on art or simply boning his lady friend. He's sexy, charming and edgy -- continuing to take his place as perhaps the most prominent homme fatal of our time. Ms Debicki, lovely as always, is here even more vulnerable than she often is.

The excellent screenplay and dialog by Scott B. Smith (from the novel by Charles Willeford) is smart, subtle and sophisticated. By the finale of this artful little movie, you may find yourself with a lot of very mixed feelings. But you'll have been entertained and maybe knocked for a loop or two.

From Sony Pictures Classics, The Burnt Orange Heresy -- regarding that title, which doubles as the name of one of the artist's works, it is, notes the painter himself, "a bone tossed to the critics. They can wear themselves out chewing on it" -- opened last week in a few cities and will hit many more in the weeks to come. Here in South Florida, it will arrive on Friday, March 20, in Miami at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, and in Palm  Beach county at the Cinemark Boytnon Beach and Cinemark Palace, the  Regal Shadowood, the Living Room Theaters and the Movies of Delray. Wherever you live, click here to learn if the film is (or will be) playing at a theater or two near you.

Giuseppe Capotondi's European Film Award nominee THE DOUBLE HOUR opens

What is this new Italian film by first-timer Guiseppe Capotondi? It's a mystery, all right, but I use that word almost in its religious sense. Its stars are two of the Italy's most versatile, in-the-moment actors at work today: Filippo Timi (Musolini in last year's Vincere) and Ksenia Rappoport (The Unknown Woman), and my lord, do they shine, bouncing off each other brilliantly in THE DOUBLE HOUR (La doppia ora), an unusual combina-tion love story/mystery/heist movie/ghost tale that keeps rearran-ging itself as it goes along yet never loses our interest or belief.

As good as is the direction by Signore Capotondi, shown at left, who manages to keep us on-track (even when we're sure we're off it), a word must be said for the terrific screeplay by Alessandro Fabbri, Lucovica Rampoldi and Stefando Sardo, that so effortlessly combines what seems like a billion sub-genres without skipping a beat. it is also, in its dark, quiet manner, a visual feast. Because the movie is a mystery in more ways than one, the less said about plot, the better. But I will mention that it offers one of the oddest yet strangely satisfying conclusions in memory. It was also one of the best of the many good films in last year's FSLC Open Roads series.

Since TrustMovies won't talk about plot, he'll fill up his space with praise for the two lead actors: Timi (above) and Rappoport (below). The former, who has been extraordinary is every single role in which I've seen him (I do not exaggerate), beginning with Open My Heart in 2002 through In Memory of Me, Signorina Effe, Saturn in Opposition and As God Commands. Most American will have seen Timi in The American or perhaps Vincere. Few actors have the ability to bring us so close to themselves, to allow us to see deeply inside them, and Timi is one such. If you're a fan of his work or want to know more about him, you'll learn a little, at least, from my interview with the man a couple of years back.

As for Russian-born actress (who works a lot in Italy!) Ksenia Rappoport, I've only seen her in three other films: The Rider Named Death, The Unknown Woman and The Man Who Loves. But she has registered strongly in each, while appearing different enough to be almost unrecognizable. As does Timi, she possesses the ability to throw herself body and soul into a role (no wonder she won a peck of awards for The Unknown Woman: If you have not seen this film, do). Here, she proves the most mysterious part of the mystery at hand, and her graceful, fleet performance goes far toward bringing the movie home.

As do few serious films that also act as "entertainment," The Double Hour makes better people of its viewers by thoroughly wrapping us into the process at work here, while enabling us to wrestle with subjects such as immigration, employment and the "other"; love, trust and honor. When it's over, the characters we've spent time with have genuinely grown and changed -- while we've arrived at something rich and new from the experience. The film (95 minutes, in Italian with English subtitles), from Samuel Goldwyn Films, opens in New York this Friday, April 15, at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Sunshine Cinema -- with a welcome national roll-out to follow.