The Burnt Orange Heresy: Mick Jagger and Donald Sutherland Propel Lofty Crime Drama

By Thom Ernst

Rating: B

The Burnt Orange Heresy is a crime drama set in the world of art, art criticism, and art collecting. That might sound a bit dreary but there is more to the film than watching paint dry.

Director Giuseppe Capotondi bases his film on Charles Willeford’s 1971 novel of the same title. I’ve not read Willeford, but I gather from the films made from his other works (Miami Blues, Cockfighter) that Willeford’s crime-writing would be comfortable hanging out with Elmore Leonard on the pulp-fiction rack.

But if Willeford’s book has its roots in pulp-crime novels, then Capotondi’s film injects a slight upgrade by moving the action from Florida and setting it along the coast of Lake Como, Italy. (Sorry Florida, but Italy is an upgrade).

The story opens on a tracking shot along a corridor towards an open door from which classical music plays. The scene ends with the abrasive sound of a needle dragged across vinyl. Can there be any more infusive way of alerting the audience that trouble awaits?

We are soon introduced to James Figueras (Claes Bang, probably best known from The Square) a pill-popping, chain-smoking art critic who gives public art lectures to tourists. Figueras has a gift for making the complexities of criticism accessible to a general audience. His efforts aren’t hurt by his charisma and good looks.

But Figueras barely contains his disdain for his audience while they in turn eat up his every word. That is until a young American tourist, Berenice Hollis (Elizabeth Debicki), attends one of his lectures. Beauty quickly recognizes beauty and soon Figueras and Hollis are frolicking in his apartment before trekking off to Lake Como on the invitation of a wealthy art collector, Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger).

Figueras is unsure of Cassidy’s motives behind the invite but suspects it could be an opportunity for a new book. Instead, Cassidy proposes that he can secure Figuera an interview with the enigmatic painter, Jacob Debney (Donald Sutherland). In exchange for the interview, Figuera is to procure a Debney original—a daunting task since no one has seen Debney nor his work since, decades earlier, a studio fire destroyed all his paintings.

Figueras is reluctant, but he is also ambitious and, besides, Cassidy holds something over him making it impossible to say no. He accepts the challenge and before you can say Modigliani (you’ve already said it, haven’t you?) things turn ugly and lethal.

Screenwriter Scott B. Smith (A Simple Plan) uses up a lot of space with mechanical chatter about art, and art appreciation, to the point where characters risk sounding hopelessly affected and pretentious, even for a film where character affectations are part of the oeuvre. But a closer listen reveals few wasted words.

The dialogue frequently performs as an analogy to the events as well as serving up some crafty bits of foreshadowing. And Smith gives the major players a sub-story to be slowly revealed through the course of the film, some more deeply explored than others.

The performances here are all good, although Jagger, who hasn’t appeared in a film in nearly 20 years, is somewhat overshadowed by his iconic persona. It takes a while for him to settle in as anything other than an aging rock star.

Debicki casts a much larger shadow than that of the film’s ingénue and Sutherland gives Debney an unexpected allure that blasts Figueras’ thin veneer of charm right off the canvas. Some of the films more satisfying moments belong to scenes where Debicki’s Hollis and Sutherland’s Deneby spend time together.

The Burnt Orange Heresy is more mysterious than mystery. Still, there are reveals best kept secret until the moment when they are intended to be dropped. Capotondi’s film requires patience, which may be problematic for those who don’t find discussions about art, truth, and the symbolic use of flies scintillating.

In the film, Figueras effectively demonstrates in his lectures how knowing a back story can help you appreciate a work of art. And though that can’t always apply to film, it does, in its way, put The Burnt Orange Heresy in the unusual category of film that is best seen twice.

The Burnt Orange Heresy. Directed by Giuseppe Capotondi. Starring Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Claes Bang, and Elizabeth Debicki. Opens at selected theatres on August 7.