There is no stopping painter-sculpter-filmmaker Julian Schnabel‘s penchant for cinematically embracing fellow artists. In an impressive filmography
There is no stopping painter-sculpter-filmmaker Julian Schnabel‘s penchant for cinematically embracing fellow artists. In an impressive filmography, he always seems to be giving them their due with major introspection in films like his Oscar-nominated The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which was about writer Jean-Dominique Bauby; Basquiat, about street artist Jean Michel Basquiat; Before Night Falls about Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas; Lou Reed’s Berlin; and his most recent film, 2018’s At Eternity’s Gatem about Vincent Van Gogh.
His latest doesn’t veer from this interest but instead doubles down on it. Oscar Isaac stars in In the Hand of Dante, an epic that spans two eras 700 years apart with each drawn to the exact same masterpiece from the 14th century: the original manuscript of Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s “The Divine Comedy,” written in his own hand. Centuries later, in 2002, that manuscript is much desired by the mob — if it ever existed at all.
Isaac plays Dante in sequences shot in color in Italy that explore his efforts in writing the classic and looking for mystical knowledge. He also plays author Nick Tosches, whose 2002 book In the Hand of Dante makes him out to be a renowned Dante expert employed by a mafia don to confirm its existence and then steal it for him. Those sequences, quite violent in parts, are shot in black-and-white to show contrast between the more artistic world of the 1400s vs. today’s brutal and greedy landscape where art is just a commodity for some.
He’s accompanied by ace assassin, Louie (Gerard Butler, almost unrecognizable), and another goon, Lefty (Louis Cancelmi). The don, Joe Black (John Malkovich), sends them off to the Vatican, where supposedly the original manuscript actually could be verified and brought back to him. On this journey Nick finds himself on a parallel journey with Dante, both searching in their own ways for love and beauty and, in Nick’s case, perhaps actually thinking he is Dante himself coming back after 700 years to protect his masterpiece after newfangled influences have messed it up.
It becomes a bizarre story of time travel in a spiritual sense and includes the woman he falls in love with now, Giulietta (Gal Gadot), and he also might have been married to all those centuries ago. Thus it becomes a chance to redeem himself in that relationship as well. Both eras are played out, with many of the actors taking on parts in each. They include Isaacs and Gadot but also Butler, who plays hitman Louie and no less than the pope. With this cinematic trick, Schnabel seems to be winking at us a bit, allowing the suspension of belief in the name of art.
It is a huge, starry cast he has employed to carry this off, most notably Isaac, who credibly takes on both of his roles and manages to pull them off believably, as does Gadot. Butler is playing against type and proving he can be as vicious as the next guy in playing Louie, a man who has no hesitation eliminating anyone in the way of finishing the job. Malkovich is amusing as the mafia kingpin but, acting-wise, isn’t taking his career beyond what we have seen before. Among this gang it is Cancelmi who has the best moments and the most dimensional character.
Also in the cast are — wait for it — Jason Momoa and Martin Scorsese, just to give you an idea of the eccentricity of Schnabel in putting together his ensemble. Momoa is Rosario, a shady dude who comes into the picture when Nick’s investigation leads him to librarian Susanna Pulice (a fine Sabrina Impacciatore), whose obsession with Dante’s work, and the revelation that the original might be hiding in plain sight right in front of her, borders on becoming a religious experience. Scorsese, complete with long gray beard, is Isaiah, the 14th century mentor who gives Dante the key to unlocking his work (and he also is one of the 38 credited executive producers). Italian legend Franco Nero shows up briefly, as does Al Pacino, who offers wisdom to the newborn Nick Tosches in an early flashback.
With a unpredictable, if uneven, screenplay that is all over the map (Louise Kugelberg is the co-writer), Schnabel’s scenario bites off possibly more than it can chew, taking us back and forth but not quite making all the connections plausible before it all goes high opera and becomes a bloodbath for many of these characters. Still, few these days seem to be taking this kind of gigantic swing, so you have to give him props, and the Dante sequences attempt to do the challenging: make the act of creativity rich and alive in a movie. Period piece? Crime thriller? Specialty film? Take your choice.
Production Design by Paki Meduri and costumes by Mariano Tufono are on the money. Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov expertly zigzags though rich color and succinct black and white.
Dante lovers will be in heaven no doubt because it is uncommon Hollywood shows interest in the man’s work 700 years later. You have to love Schnabel for admirably keeping the flame alive for him — and more importantly art — in his ambitious if not quite divine opus.
Producers are Jon Kilik, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Olmo Schnabel, Gabriele Bebe Moratti, Vito Schnabel and Julian Schnabel. It is looking for distribution.
Title: In the Hand of Dante
Festival: Venice (out of competition)
Sales agents: CAA, WME
Director: Julian Schnabel
Screenwriters: Julian Schnabel and Louise Kugelberg
Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, John Malkovich, Louis Cancelmi, Franco Nero, Sabrina Impacciatore, Benjamin Clementine, Paolo Bonacelli, Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa
Running time: 2 hr 31 min
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