Screening to be followed by a Q&A with Elizabeth Debicki
Moderated by Mara Webster
SYNOPSIS
This seductive, cerebral neo-noir starts with a reckless attraction. Two strangers adrift in present day Italy, both outwardly cavalier but hiding wounds from compromised pasts, entwine at just about first sight.
James Figueras (Claes Bang) needs a hit. Long on charm but currently short on life’s more bankable currencies, the darkly handsome art critic treads water at his profession’s margins in Milan, fueling a shaky search for career redemption with hits of a pharmaceutical nature. Ethereal young beauty Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki), meanwhile, seems preternaturally sel fpossessed when she wanders late into one of James’ cleverly self-aggrandizing lectures. Whatever her motives, she is a breed apart from every other American tourist trapped under the spell of this well-rehearsed routine — more intrigued with what she sees than with what is said and armed with formidable charms of her own.
Just when their electric liaison appears over, James surprises Berenice with an offer to extend. He is driving to the country for a weekend getaway. Moneyed art world power-player Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger) has summoned the eager critic to his palatial Lake Como villa. Along with some world-class pampering, the invitation portends employment. Figueras assumes his scholarly services are wanted. But Cassidy has other ideas.
With a Machiavellian élan, their host reveals another guest next door, the ultimate “get” across his art world lane and James’. No living painter has been less accessible and consequently more coveted than Jerome Debney (Donald Sutherland). Beyond his artistic skills, this sage but confounding J.D. Salinger of the canvas has assumed mythic status due to a storied reclusion following the devastating loss of his life’s work to a fire.
Now, precisely because no one owns a Debney, Cassidy must have one. If negotiating a successful acquisition requires some Faustian deal points, well... even better. Helpfully, Cassidy knows more about Figueras’ curriculum vitae than can be found in his book, The Power of the Critic.
Amused but largely immune to all the calculated moves around him, Debney avoids his influential patron. When at last the aging artist deigns to emerge and engage with James, he ends up truly taken with Berenice. In her, Debney sees something rare, precious, maybe even vulnerable. At the same time, James’ field of vision narrows as paranoia and other pressures close in.
With unfettered ambition running wild in a realm where power flows so completely from perception, how much will they all pay for the truth?
