It's around 1919 Paris. Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani (Andy Garcia) is in heated competition with the angry pompous Pablo Picasso (Omid Djalili). Modigliani is a confident flamboyant Jew in love with the Catholic Jeanne Hébuterne (Elsa Zylberstein). She has a child with him that her disapproving father won't allow him to even see. Modigliani needs money to take and raise his child. There is an annual art competition that nobody good enters and Modigliani signs up for it. This draws Picasso into the competition.This movie opens with the most decisive of all disclaimer about how fictional this movie is. I'm sure the lawyers had a field day but they should have kept it much simpler. I think it's actually possible to make a fictional movie about real people. The movie itself is a scrambled prodding tired mess. It moves in a confused timeline jigsaw. I'm sure that I missed plenty of stuff. Sometimes things don't get explained well. It also doesn't help that the international cast are all doing their own different accents. Andy Garcia is always magnetic but he is never anybody other than Andy Garcia. He needs to stretch out his acting to create other personalities because he is the same character in every movie since 'The Untouchables'. And quite frankly, this movie is way too long trying to do too much without any kind of central vision. The style is all over the place. Some of it is interesting, but most of it look like a cheap TV movie trying to look grand. There are also some strange choices like a skinny model playing a woman doctor in 1919. I haven't seen anything else from writer/director Mick Davis. He seems to be a man desperately trying to make an art film. This movie had more ambition than capabilities.

No. No. Nooooo. Nooooooooooo. Typical Hollywood dirge. Disgusting. Crap. Unwathchable. Another Godfather. Nothing of redeeming value. Nothing. Not one thing. None. Don't watch this. If you want to watch a film about an artist, watch Lust for Life. Or, watch paint dry. It will be better for you and more entertaining. At least you won't have anger issues or nightmares. And, you'll see real paint. God help us! God save us from Hollywood style movies. I mean propaganda. I mean lectures. I mean violent, juvenile, pop-philosophy manipulations. I mean artificial, staged, formulaic, insipid, exaggerated, preposterous, and most importantly, phony garbage. No!

I just bought the DVD blindfolded in a way , without knowing much about the movie , Now I congratulate myself for this buy . The comments from this site are like from the agony to ecstasy , some are giving few stars 1 or 2 and others 10/10. I regret I did not give it a 10/10.Of course there are some goofs,mistakes,anachronisms ...etc.But you should get your attention to the story . Painters are artists and therefore they are not normal people , they can't be .An artist does not measure in material things . How much earned Phidias , or Ovid , or Aesop ? Their works lasts centuries and millenniums , time is the best critic . I felt sympathetic for Modigliani , for his tragic and sad life .But nothing was in vain.That is my opinion . Very moving film , touching . A must see ! I highly recommend it.

I saw this movie last year and watched it again the other evening. I have studied art for many years and I applaud the detail and attention paid to each moment that reflected that period. Modigliani was, by all accounts, exactly as in the movie, charismatic, a drunk, a genius, a haunted individual. Picasso was, as in the movie, a genius, a misogynist, a jealous man and very charismatic. The performances of both Garcia and Zylberstein were truthful and painfully real. I have read the critics on this movie. I'm amazed at their lack of knowledge, one can only presume, they never bothered to research and just piggy-backed the last bad critic. One critic blasted the movie saying Picasso didn't know Modigliani, yet there are photographs taken by Jean Cocteau of them together, laughing with each other -- and Picasso helped carry the coffin of Modigliani! However, I believe the movie itself will not go away as some of these art snobs would wish, but in fact, I believe it will grow through time to become a classic. My advice to those in doubt, colored by what they read, study the individuals and the period and you will be amazed to discover that, for the most part, all that you see was sadly true. Kudos to all involved and my students of art agree.