Plot Summary:

Pierce plays the Dutch art forger, Han Van Meegeren, an effete bon vivant artist, infamous for his decadent soirees with high ranking Nazis during World War II. The owner of over 500 Amsterdam properties, he had sold forged Dutch paintings to top Nazi officials, including Hermann Göring. While Van Meegeren lived life to the hilt, Bang’s Captain Joseph (Joe) Piller, a Dutch Jew and former tailor, was fighting in the Resistance. His record was spotless and after the war was assigned to tracking down and identifying other stolen works of art, mostly from Jewish people, with the goal of returning them to survivors or families.

It is now May 29, 1945, three weeks after the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich. While Joe searches for stolen treasures, streets crackle with public executions by firing squads for people guilty of collaboration with the enemy. Joe is particularly interested in how Göring came into possession of Vermeer’s “Christ and the Adulteress,” and traces the sale to Han Van Meegeren, with whom he arrests. In a stark jail cell, the arrogant artist requests paints, paintbrushes, and canvases.  He is to be tried and if convicted, will face the firing squad. The stories that Han tells Joe begin to plant doubts that he is guilty. He insists that he painted the Vermeers and sold the fake paintings to the Nazis for exorbitant prices. In the meantime, the Dutch government wants Han in their custody and attempts to snatch him from prison. On hearing this, Joe races back to the prison and takes Han to a loft where he can paint while he continues his investigation.

The artist reveals that despite having art critics spit on his work, he knew he was an excellent painter and decided he would pull off the hoax of the century by painting a number of pieces and then pawning them off as Vermeers. Those transactions made he and his wife incredibly affluent, owning multiple homes and enjoying a lush lifestyle. However, the government agents ultimately track him down and throw him into their prison. Despite being incarcerated, Van Meegeren maintains his elitist demeanor and still insists he painted those Vermeers. Joe enlists his former army buddy Esper, well played by Roland Møller who discovers a treasure trove of photos and cash hidden under the floorboards of Han’s studio, which included pictures of Joe’s wife attending parties where Nazis were in attendance. He confronts her and she insists that although she worked for a German officer, she was able to funnel information that saved the lives of many people. An attraction begins to heat up between Joe  and widowed Minna, played by Vicky Krieps, who has been assisting him in the investigation.

Han is now on trial and all the Vermeers that he claims he painted are displayed in the packed courtroom. Unfortunately for him, the one person who could back up his claim is deceased. With dramatic flair, he testifies that the art world treated him with distain and he deliberately painted the forgeries that fooled some of the best authenticators in the art world, bragging that one of his counterfeits hangs in Washington’s National Gallery of Art.  Experts are called to testify, all of who had authenticated the paintings as being genuine. The accused explains in great detail how he painted the fakes – from the kind of brushes, paints, and canvases he used, as well as the chemicals applied for the aging process. Joe, who is acting as his co-attorney, begs the judges to let him perform an acid test to prove the paintings are fraudulent, but the judges refuse. They convene and in just minutes render a guilty verdict punishable by death. The courtroom explodes in shock and what happens in the closing minutes will have you on the edge of your seat. Yes. It’s an intriguing but true cliffhanger.

Technically, the film is perfect from the settings to costumes to the music but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Remi Adefarasin cinematography, which beautifully captures the changing physical portrait of post-war Holland.

The Last Vermeer

Director: Jonathan Lopez
Screenplay: James McGee, a Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby
Based on the book “The Man Who Made Vermeers” by Jonathan Lopez
Executive Producer:  Ridley Scott, Peter Heslop
Producers: Ryan Friedkin, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Vijay Waghmare
Production Company:  Imperative Entertainment, Mehra Entertainment

Distributor:  TriStar Pictures
Cinematographer: Remi Adefarasin
Edited By: Victoria Boydell
Music: Johan Söderqvist

Language:  English
Running Time:  117 minutes
Release Date: December 4, 2020 (United States)

Principals: Claes Bang, Guy Pierce, Vicky Krieps, Roland Møller

117 minute
Rating:  R
Release date:  November 20, 2020
Opening On-Screen Via TriStar Pictures

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The very talented Danish actor Claes Bang may not exactly be a household name.  However, as a reminder, he starred in The Square, and more recently, in The Burnt Orange Heresy, which co-starred Donald Sutherland and Mick Jagger. He is the kind of actor who compels your eye to stay riveted to the screen and his highly textured performance as Will in The Bay of Silence continues in that tradition.

Paula van der Oest directed Caroline Goodall’s screenplay, based on Lisa St. Aubin de Teran’s novel of the same name. The film begins with a series of rapidly changing scenes starting with a haunting scream of a little girl that immediately gets your attention. Following that opening, quick cuts to a confessional, a bicycle, and finally we see Will, a civil engineer, and his beautiful artist girlfriend Rosalind, wonderfully played by Olga Kurylenko, who delivers a highly nuanced performance. They are playful young lovers and are splashing around in the lake in Liguria, Italy where he feigns drowning.  Seeing how terrified Rosalind became, he immediately apologizes and proposes marriage. Eight months later she is pregnant. They are having a housewarming reception in the backyard of their London home. She is about to take a photo of the kids playing below, when the railing breaks and she falls to the ground, but is not injured.

Rosalind has twin girls from a previous marriage who Will embraces as his own. Eventually, she has a baby boy but, beginning her downward mental spiral, insists that she had twins and that they were hiding the other baby. Will tries to reassure her that she only gave birth to their son named Amadeo and slowly, ever so slowly we begin to see her unravel.  She has nightmares and walks in her sleep which her loving husband tries to understand. He is very playful with her twin girls and one evening they ask him to tickle them, which he does. Rosalind gets upset at his touching her children and snaps, “They need to sleep.” It is about here that we begin to get a glimmer of what might have taken place in her childhood, and perhaps there is a deep-rooted secret, but we still don’t have the facts. Her mother, Vivian, (Alice Krige) is married to Milton, well played by the always spot-on Brian Cox, who exhibits love and caring for Rosalind and is quite protective of her. After she gives birth, he visits his stepdaughter, bringing her a beautiful piece of gold piece jewelry and champagne.

Will’s latest project puts him in charge of constructing a bridge in Newcastle. One night, he returns home from work and finds everything in total disarray, the word liar scrawled in giant letters on a wall, and his wife and kids are gone. Milton shows up informing him that Rosalind called to say that she was leaving her marriage but even though he knows where she went, he won’t help. He has good reasons to resist guiding his son-in-law in his search for his family.

Will is desperate to locate his family and while searching the attic for clues of where she might be, he sees an old suitcase, which he breaks open. He finds a parcel had arrived from Normandy the day she disappeared which contained a camera case with strips of negatives hidden inside the lining. Also concealed were a bunch of photographs of his wife as a young girl. On the back of one of the photos are the words “I forgive you.” Will deduces what is pictured is a small coastal village in northern France and decides that’s probably where she went.   Armed with the photographs, he heads to what he believes is the village shown in the photos and goes in and out of local stores asking if anyone saw her or the children. Someone had indeed seen her and directs him to this old run-down house that appears to be boarded up, but on arrival he sees the twin girls fighting on the beach below with a baby carriage nearby. He goes down to where they are and finds the interior of the carriage covered with twigs and leaves. He slowly removes the debris and discovers Amadeo’s lifeless body. Rosalind is in the house sitting in a dark corner and her decent into total madness is clear. Now, during Will’s quest to find his family, one young man in town seemed to be popping up consistently. At first, Will is suspicious of Pierre Laurent, nicely played by Assaad Bouab, but eventually they become allies as he unveils the unthinkable truth about the wife’s past and the secret that has been causing her mental decline. Eventually, through perseverance, he unearths a hornet’s nest of family falsehoods and deceptions.

Aiding and abetting the intriguing story telling is Guido van Gennep haunting cinematography, John Swihart’s music, and perfect editing by Sander Vos and Paul Tothill, all of whom contributed immensely to creating this mysterious mosaic of intersecting lives and the duplicitous nature of some of the people inhabiting this tale. Like any Hitchcockian thriller, just when you think you’ve figured everything out, along comes another shocking twist so like Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over  ‘till it’s over,” but in this case, you’re not actually sure it’s over and what you’re seeing might not be the truth of what you’re seeing.  If that’s vague, well it’s meant to be.

The Bay of Silence*

Director: Paula van der Oest
Screenplay: Caroline Goodall
Distributor:  A Vertical Entertainment Release
Cinematographer: Guido van Gennep
Editors: Sander Vos, & Paul Tothill
Music: John Swihart

Language:  English
Running Time:  95 Minutes
Cast: Claes Bang, Olga Kurylenko, Alice Krige, Brian Cox

The film will screen through Virtual Cinemas and on digital and VOD platforms beginning Friday, August 14.

*The beautiful Bay of Silence in Liguria is a small picturesque bay located on the Italian Riviera and is frequented by locals during the summer months.

The post Paula van der Oest’s “The Bay of Silence” — An Intriguing Mystery Thriller appeared first on Traveling Archive.

Italian director Giuseppe Capotondi’s directing career kicked off at age 23. He cut his teeth on music videos and over 250 TV commercials, subsequently winning international awards. The Burnt Orange Heresy, his second feature, is a fascinating Hitchcockian mystery which has more twists and turns than a salted pretzel. Capotondi’s casting is superb with Danish Claes Bang as James Figueras, an art critic whose successful days are behind him.  He fills his time giving lectures to uninformed art audiences, which changes quickly when he meets Berenice Hollis played by Australian actor Elizabeth Debicki.

Their romantic adventures takes them to the magnificent Lake Como home of Joseph Cassidy, a wealthy art dealer played by Mick Jagger.  He commissions James to steal a painting from the reclusive, famous artist Jerome Debney, played by the iconic Donald Sutherland.  Once James and Berenice meet this eccentric artist, the story does a 360 and takes off into the most unexpected, dark places with James’ desperation catapulting him into a complicated web of deceit out of which there is no escape.  Just when you think you’ve figured it out, along comes another totally unexpected, shocking turn of events that will leave you on the edge of your seat to the final frame and beyond.

Director Capotondi and Claes Bang sat down for an interview with a small group of select journalists and the following has been edited for content and continuity.

How did you learn about the book and did the script stick close to the original story?

Guiseppe: Charles Willeford’s novel is set in Palm Beach, Florida but it was hard to shoot there, so we moved the action to Lake Como.  Also, the character of Berenice is developed a lot more than in the book in which she was a marginal character.  But, the story is more or less the same.

How did you find that beautiful manor at Lake Como?

Guiseppe:  Actually, nobody lives there so we had to totally redecorate it. You can rent it.  It’s a huge house and very cold in the winter.

When you read a script, what three things jump out that makes you want to play that character?

Claes:  It’s never about three things. Every script is different and it wouldn’t be good to tick off three boxes.  It has to say something to me – sort of like wow, I just want to start doing these scenes.  With this one, it was very much about that twisted, weird relationship between James and Berenice.  Like, whoa, what’s going on here?  What’s the dynamic they have with each other?

You just came off The Square, which also dealt with art.  How is your knowledge of art?

Claes:  I’ve always been super interested in art.  I’ve been going to museums and involved in art forever.  Obviously, for The Square, I talked to a lot of museum art directors to find out about that job.  That research really came in handy for this film.

Guiseppe:  I don’t think we were trying to make a satire on the world of art. (Laughs)

Claes:  We are not trying to say something about the art world per se; it was just about my character’s job and obviously it gives us a chance to talk about the perception of art and its seduction.

How was it working with Mick Jagger and Donald Sutherland – two icons.

Guiseppe:  It was different because Donald is a legend and I was nervous about the idea of working with him.  But, he is a very sweet man and very generous.  Before I met Mick in London, I was really sweaty and didn’t know what I was going to say to him.  The moment you get to know him, you find that he very approachable and is quite normal, funny, and very sweet.

After the ordeal she just went through, what was Berenice’s motivation for returning to the apartment? (Laughter)

Guiseppe:  If you think about it, many women who are abused by their husbands always go back.  First of all, we tend to hope that people we like walk a straight line, but they don’t always do that.  Maybe she was in shock.

Claes:  It’s always about finding something irrational in your character.  Like why would you ever go and do that?  As an audience, it actually engages you and you want to shout no, no, no.  Don’t do that!  (Laughter)

Guiseppe:  We did have a lot of conversations about that scene.

Claes:  My character of James is pushed over the edge, which is why he takes those actions.   The Jagger character basically has him by the balls so either he does what he says or there will be no way back to his career in the art world.  He’s fallen from grace and is a persona no gratis and is fed up with lecturing.  Berenice catches him red handed and reacts negatively. We worked hard to get that bathroom scene. He had no idea that in three days, his life would do a 360.  He’s just trying to survive and that ambition drives him too far.

When you are in an emotionally intense scene, how do you decompress?

Claes: I’m not a “Method” actor. I like to think of myself as an instrument – like a piano you can play. That’s in an ideal world but sometimes I’m a bit too opinionated so I’m not a totally neutral instrument, but I try to be.  I have the feeling that if I lose myself too much, I won’t be able to take direction.  For a very long time I heard all these teachers from drama school in my head – remember to stand like that, to talk like this, do this and that and I would l think can you get the f…ck out of my head and just let me just be.   You have to keep a distance in a way and I don’t go home devastated.

Did you give a lot of character direction?

Guiseppe:  No. I think they all drew from personal experiences, except maybe the killing experience. We talked before and then I would just smoke my cigarettes (Laughter)

Claes:  You have to get use to that.  I was always wanting to do more takes, but

Guiseppe would say, no, no. We’ve got what we need.  (Laughter)

The end of the film is a cliffhanger. 

Guiseppe:  We talked a lot about that ending and that was the biggest change.  It wasn’t written like that.  I didn’t want to give this character absolution and wanted to just leave the ending with a question mark.

Claes:  Our ending is mysterious.  Now you leave the cinema wondering what’s going to happen.

Best of luck with the film.

“The Burnt Orange Heresy”

Presented by: Sony Pictures Classics; Ingenious Media Presents an MJZ Production; A Wonderful Films Production; A Rumble Films Production; In association with HanWay Films; In collaboration with Indiana Production; S.PA., In association with Carte Blanche Cinema

Directed by: Giuseppe Capotondi
Screenplay by:  Scott B. Smith, Based on the book by Charles Willeford
Director of Photography:  David Ungaro, AFC
Production Designer:  Totoi Santoro
Edited By: Guido Notari
Music by: Craig Armstrong
Costume Designer:  Gabriella Pesucci

Genre: Mystery
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 98 Minutes

Cast List:  Claes Bang, Elizabeth Debicki, Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Alessandro Fabrizi, & Rosalind Halstead.

Playing at the Landmark Theatres

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