Review of Divertimento (2000) by Giulia C — 04 May 2009

Following Eureka, my latest fancy of watching long films continues with this almost-4hr uber-art flick about a guy painting a picture. There was certainly something hypnotic about the scenes in the artist's studio - the long silences, save for the scratch of a shitty sketching pen, being mercifully broken by brief bouts of awkward conversation. The little dots of plot between sittings were great, sometimes providing comic relief but usually piling on tension with the destination of a blow-out finale which didn't quite happen - although the part in the second half when he re-uses an old canvas is strangely shocking. I guess once you've been drawn into their artistic world you can appreciate the sorts of things that would send artistic types frantic. One could say it was a shame not to see the 'real' finished painting, but that was pretty predictable from the start and, more importantly, appropriate.

I enjoyed it in the same way as Betty Blue in the sense that I got the feeling of spending days with the small cast, almost like a little holiday with some French nutters. Of course, this effect could just be down to the long running times of both films, but they both kinda focus on the minutiae of these folkâ??s lives.

My main complaint, apart from confessing that sometimes I did get a bit bored of the real-time painting, is that I couldn't really see myself wanting to watch this again. Or at least not for a number of years. Unless I feel the need to see Emmanuelle Beart naked for extended periods of time, which is, well, a reasonable prospect.