Leonardo Da Vinci The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection

Leonardo Da Vinci The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection

0h 26m 7.0/10

Overview

A portrait of the artist as a "sublime demon with the archangel's face", with an innovative musique concrète soundtrack.

Director

Enrico Fulchignoni

Top Billed Cast

Alan Badel

Alan Badel

Narrator

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

2/8/2024

7/10

The English language version finds accomplished British actor Alan Badel guide us through a collection of some of the most beautiful and haunting images created by Da Vinci. From a close analysis of the man himself, to his more gruesome and violent imagery of war and brutality. His fascinating designs for weaponry striving to perfect huge great cannon, shrapnel, armoured tanks, catapults. His more pacifist nature is also illustrated with his meticulous attention to floral subjects - the detail is precise, intricate and entirely natural. The "Adoration of the Magi" uses geometry to conceive his depiction, but is unfinished - he couldn't find a way to satisfy his own demands. "The Last Supper", "Leda and the Swan", the "Lady with the Weasel" and, of course, "La Gioconda" amongst many that feature here. For me, anyway, it's his engineering and medical drawings that prove the most fascinating. Not just in their early depiction of technology and the human interior, but in the manner by which he used precision mathematics and anatomy to create something that must have looked almost heretical then, but now seems eminently sensible and almost architectural now. This documentary provides us with a vehicle to examine the vast range of works that this creative genius seemed able to conjure from nothing, or from the inspiration of the plants, the people and the structures surrounding him. His tortured, almost demonic, phase of grotesque abhorrences! His eyes seeing things that few others could before they had to watch many of his great works destroyed by the ravages of time as, finally, he journeys to the banks of the Loire to await his final companion. As a compendium of a single man's work, this is an enthralling cook's tour of his imagination and vitality and it really does make you marvel - and want to enjoy a more leisurely look at his works of art in greater depth, too.

Similar Movies

I Needed Color

7.7

I Needed Color

2017

Mucha: The Story of an Artist Who Created a Style

6.0

Mucha: The Story of an Artist Who Created a Style

2020

Ondřej Sekora – Práce všeho druhu

7.0

Ondřej Sekora – Práce všeho druhu

2019

Joachim Barrande – ztracená moře

0.0

Joachim Barrande – ztracená moře

2019

Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras

6.0

Elton John: Tantrums & Tiaras

1997

Diana: In Her Own Words

7.7

Diana: In Her Own Words

2017

Belmondo, le magnifique

7.7

Belmondo, le magnifique

2017

Vice Versa: Chyna

7.8

Vice Versa: Chyna

2021

Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern

0.0

Ingmar Bergman: The Magic Lantern

1988

Clint Eastwood: Hollywood Outlaw

7.5

Clint Eastwood: Hollywood Outlaw

2020

The Great Museum

6.0

The Great Museum

2014

Paul Newman, Behind Blue Eyes

8.0

Paul Newman, Behind Blue Eyes

2021

Filmmakers of Our Time: François Truffaut or the Critical Spirit

6.0

Filmmakers of Our Time: François Truffaut or the Critical Spirit

1965

Cinéastes de notre temps : Erich von Stroheim

5.0

Cinéastes de notre temps : Erich von Stroheim

2012