Charlton Heston put his vest on ...

'The Agony and the Ecstasy' 2013

Today's cover star is the late lamented (by Republicans and the NRA) Charlton Heston in another one of his signature roles, Michelangelo in Carol Reed's 'The Agony and the Ecstasy,' in which he essayed a strictly hetero reading of the Renaissance's best known interior decorator and poet of gay love. This is from the mountain scene immediately before the Intermission (yes, there's an intermission, even on the DVD) which provides proof positive that, even when dealing with Renaissance art, the default cinematic aesthetic is 19th century Romanticism. Although the moment I opened a new tube of cerulean blue I realised that what I was likely to produce was more akin to an illustration in a ladybird book.

If you've looked at the Gallery page lately you will have doubtless noticed a couple of new pieces 'Love is the Devil' and 'Nightwatching'. Both movies are notable, at least if you read the IMDb comments, for featuring their male stars (Daniel Craig and Martin Freeman respectively) in the buff, a state of affairs that has doubtless led to countless DVD rentals and purchases that otherwise wouldn't have happened. From my perspective however 'Love is the Devil' presents a peculiar challenge in that the filmmakers were forbidden from showing any of Francis Bacon's artwork on screen. They chose instead to simulate the visual experience of his paintings using in-camera effects. Which left me trying to paint an approximation of a photographic approximation of a painting, by contrast a larger than life Martin Freeman as Rembrandt was relatively straightforward.

This will probably be my final blog post before the Watermark show opens on Nov 2nd after which I will be pulling out all the social media stops to plug it wherever and whenever I can, you have been warned! 

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