The Agony and the Ecstasy (film)

Last updated
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Agony and the Ecstasy 1965.jpg
Theatrical release poster by Howard Terpning
Directed by Carol Reed
Screenplay by Philip Dunne
Based on The Agony and the Ecstasy
1961 novel
by Irving Stone
Produced byCarol Reed
Starring Charlton Heston
Rex Harrison
Diane Cilento
Harry Andrews
Alberto Lupo
Cinematography Leon Shamroy
Edited bySamuel E. Beetley
Music by Jerry Goldsmith
Alex North
Production
company
International Classics
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date
  • October 7, 1965 (1965-10-07)
Running time
138 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7 million [1]
Box office$8 million [2]

The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 American historical drama film directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's 1961 biographical novel of the same name, and deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the 1508-1512 painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It also features a soundtrack by prolific composers Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith. [3]

Contents

The film was shot in Todd-AO and Cinemascope versions. The Todd-AO version was used for the DVD release because of its superior picture quality.

Plot

The film opens in documentary style, chronicling the work of Michelangelo Buonarroti. It then follows Michelangelo, a renowned sculptor of the Republic of Florence in the early 16th century, and shows him at work on large-scale sculptures near St. Peter's Basilica. When Pope Julius II commissions him to paint the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo resists because he finds the ceiling's paneled layout of the Twelve Apostles uninspiring. Nonetheless, he is forced into taking the job. During the initial attempt, Michelangelo is discontented with the results, and destroys the frescoes. He flees to Carrara, and then into the mountains where he finds inspiration from nature.

Michelangelo returns and is allowed to paint the entire vault in a variety of newly designed biblical scenes based on the Book of Genesis, which the Pope approves. The work proceeds nonstop, even with Mass in session. Once, Michelangelo faced opposition and criticism from the cardinals and the Pope himself, due to its depictons of nudity in the paintings. As months turn to years, Michelangelo's work is threatened when he collapses due to fatigue. He is nursed back to health by Contessina de' Medici, daughter of his old friend Lorenzo de' Medici. After recovering, Michelangelo returns to work after learning he is at risk of being replaced by Raphael, whom the Pope commissions him to paint the reception rooms of the Papal palace.

Meanwhile, the Papal States are threatened during the War of the League of Cambrai. Preparing for battle and having reached the limits of his patience, the Pope terminates Michelangelo's contract, and the scaffolding is torn down. Raphael, impressed with the work in progress, asks Michelangelo to show humility and finish the ceiling. Michelangelo travels to see the injured and weakened Pope, and pleads for him to restore the patronage. Though the Pope believes an invasion of Rome is inevitable, he raises the money needed to resume work on the ceiling.

One night, Michelangelo finds the ailing Pope inspecting the portrait of God in The Creation of Adam , which the Pope declares "a proof of faith." He then collapses and becomes bedridden. Though everyone assumes that the Pope will die, Michelangelo goads him into having the will to live and to finish his work. As Michelangelo leaves, the Pope recovers by leaving his deathbed and upon seeing the cardinals and the monks as well the choir, he angrily shooed them away. The tide of war turns in favor of the Papal States, as allies (Including England and Spain) pledge to assist the Pope.

A Mass is held in which the congregation is shown the completed ceiling, to a positive response. After the ceremony, Michelangelo asks to begin carving the Pope's tomb. Realizing he has a short time to live, the Pope agrees. Together, the two admire the masterpiece until the Pope gives Michelangelo another commission to paint new frescoes after the Pope noticed the dilapidated ones behind the altarpiece. As the Pope leaves, Michelangelo turns back to look at the space behind the altarpiece, where he would later paint his Last Judgement 25 years later.

Cast

Production

Film rights to the novel were bought by 20th Century Fox for a reported $125,000. The head of the studio was Peter Levathes, and Burt Lancaster was linked to the film. [4] In 1962, Fox almost collapsed due to cost over-runs on a number of films, notably Cleopatra. This resulted in Darryl F. Zanuck returning to run the studio. He installed his son Richard D. Zanuck as head of production. [5]

In January 1963, Richard Zanuck signed Philip Dunne to write the script. [6] In October 1963, Zanuck announced the film would be one of six "roadshow" movies the company would make over the next 12 months, worth $42 million all up. The others would be The Day Custer Fell (turned into Custer of the West), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines , Justine , The Sound of Music and The Sand Pebbles . [7] In November 1963, Charlton Heston signed to play the lead. [8] Fox wanted Rex Harrison to co star and he wanted Fred Zinnemann to direct. [9] By January, Carol Reed was set to direct and Rex Harrison to co star. [10]

Shooting

The film's production schedule ran from June 1964 to September 1964.[ citation needed ] When it came time to film the feature, the Sistine Chapel could not be used, and it was recreated on a sound stage at Cinecittà Studios in Rome. During the production, Rex Harrison and Charlton Heston did not get along. (Reed and Heston had originally wanted Laurence Olivier for Pope Julius, but he was unavailable.) Twelve years later, while filming The Prince and the Pauper , Harrison completely avoided Heston.[ citation needed ]

According to his diary, Heston was interested in playing Michelangelo before any studios decided to produce the film. Once cast in the part, he was excited to act under Reed, who had directed The Third Man (1949). Heston felt that this would be the film to resurrect Reed's directorial reputation, describing it as having the best audience-preview responses of any film he had ever seen. However, it only did modest business at the box office. [11]

Release

Box office

The film grossed around $4,000,000 during its US theatrical run in 1965. It later went on to make about $8,166,000 worldwide in rentals. [12] In September 1970 Fox estimated the film had lost the studio $5,281,000. [13]

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 86% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.6/10. [14]

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times felt the film was, "not a strong and soaring drama but an illustrated lecture on a slow artist at work." He sympathized with the Pope and his mounting impatience with Michelangelo, criticizing Heston's acting as lacking any warmth to endear him to the audience. Furthermore, he believed the script suffered from being "wordy." [15]

In a 2013 retrospective review in The Guardian , Alex von Tunzelmann noted that the film's "intent to inform is laudable, but a fictional film should really be able to convey its subject without a lecture," and echoed Crowther's observation that "the screenplay goes heavy on the dialogue, light on the action." She laments that the sex-less film fails to reveal "the real Michelangelo's passions" (particularly his reputed attraction to men), and concluded the film would have been more interesting "if it were told with a lot more humour and a lot less prudishness." [16]

Accolades

The film was nominated for five Academy Awards: [17] [18]

It was nominated for two Golden Globe Awards:

It won two awards from the National Board of Review:

It won the Best Foreign Film at the David di Donatello Awards.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelangelo</span> Italian artist, architect and poet (1475–1564)

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlton Heston</span> American actor and political activist (1923–2008)

Charlton Heston was an American actor and political activist. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction films and action films. He won the Academy Award as well as nominations for three Golden Globe Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards. He won numerous honorary accolades including the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1978, the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1967, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1971, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1997, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sistine Chapel</span> Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican City

The Sistine Chapel is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the Cappella Magna, the chapel takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and 1481. Since that time, the chapel has served as a place of both religious and functionary papal activity. Today, it is the site of the papal conclave, the process by which a new pope is selected. The fame of the Sistine Chapel lies mainly in the frescoes that decorate the interior, most particularly the Sistine Chapel ceiling and The Last Judgment, both by Michelangelo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Harrison</span> English actor (1908–1990)

Sir Reginald Carey "Rex" Harrison was an English actor. Harrison began his career on the stage in 1924. He made his West End debut in 1936 appearing in the Terence Rattigan play French Without Tears, in what was his breakthrough role. He won his first Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as Henry VIII in the Broadway play Anne of the Thousand Days in 1949. He returned to Broadway portraying Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady (1956) where he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

<i>The Creation of Adam</i> Fresco by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel

The Creation of Adam, also known as The Creation of Man, is a fresco painting by Italian artist Michelangelo, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel's ceiling, painted c. 1508–1512. It illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man. The fresco is part of a complex iconographic scheme and is chronologically the fourth in the series of panels depicting episodes from Genesis.

Irving Stone was an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians, and intellectuals. Among the best known are Lust for Life (1934), about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961), about Michelangelo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sistine Chapel ceiling</span> Cycle of frescoes by Michelangelo

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted in fresco by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, is a cornerstone work of High Renaissance art.

The Agony and the Ecstasy may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Fleischer</span> American film director (1916–2006)

Richard Owen Fleischer was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Dunne (writer)</span> American screenwriter, film producer & director (1908–1992)

Philip Ives Dunne was an American screenwriter, film director and producer, who worked prolifically from 1932 until 1965. He spent the majority of his career at 20th Century Fox. He crafted well regarded romantic and historical dramas, usually adapted from another medium. Dunne was a leading Screen Writers Guild organizer and was politically active during the "Hollywood Blacklist" episode of the 1940s–1950s. He is best known for the films How Green Was My Valley (1941), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Robe (1953) and The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965).

<i>The Agony and the Ecstasy</i> (novel) 1961 novel by Irving Stone

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1961) is a biographical novel of Michelangelo Buonarroti written by American author Irving Stone. Stone lived in Italy for years visiting many of the locations in Rome and Florence, worked in marble quarries, and apprenticed himself to a marble sculptor. A primary source for the novel is Michelangelo's correspondence, all 495 letters of which Stone had translated from Italian by Charles Speroni and published in 1962 as I, Michelangelo, Sculptor. Stone also collaborated with Canadian sculptor Stanley Lewis, who researched Michelangelo's carving technique and tools. The Italian government lauded Stone with several honorary awards for his cultural achievements highlighting Italian history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Harrison</span> American actress

Linda Melson Harrison is an American television and film actress. She played Nova in the science fiction film classic Planet of the Apes (1968) and the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes; she also had a cameo in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of the original. She was a regular cast member of the 1969–70 NBC television series Bracken's World. She was the second wife of film producer Richard D. Zanuck ; her youngest son is producer Dean Zanuck.

<i>Cleopatra</i> (1963 film) 1963 film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Cleopatra is a 1963 American epic historical drama film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, with a screenplay adapted by Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall and Sidney Buchman from the 1957 book The Life and Times of Cleopatra by Carlo Maria Franzero, and from histories by Plutarch, Suetonius, and Appian. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor in the eponymous role. Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, and Martin Landau also appear in major roles. It chronicles the struggles of Cleopatra, the young queen of Egypt, to resist the imperial ambitions of Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art patronage of Julius II</span> Papal commissions in the Vatican (1503–13)

Pope Julius II, commissioned a series of highly influential art and architecture projects in the Vatican. The painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo and of various rooms by Raphael in the Apostolic Palace are considered among the masterworks that mark the High Renaissance in Rome. His decision to rebuild St Peter's led to the construction of the present basilica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florentine painting</span> Naturalistic painting style developed in the 14th century Florence

Florentine painting or the Florentine School refers to artists in, from, or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in Florence in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of Western painting. Some of the best known painters of the earlier Florentine School are Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, the Ghirlandaio family, Masolino, and Masaccio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelangelo and the Medici</span> The artists relationship with the Medici family

Michelangelo had a complicated relationship with the Medici family, who were for most of his lifetime the effective rulers of his home city of Florence. The Medici rose to prominence as Florence's preeminent bankers. They amassed a sizable fortune some of which was used for patronage of the arts. Michelangelo's first contact with the Medici family began early as a talented teenage apprentice of the Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio. Following his initial work for Lorenzo de' Medici, Michelangelo's interactions with the family continued for decades including the Medici papacies of Pope Leo X and Pope Clement VII.

<i>Prophet Jonah</i> (Michelangelo) Fresco on the Sistine Chapel ceiling

The Prophet Jonah is one of the seven Old Testament prophets painted by the Italian High Renaissance master Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican Palace of Vatican City.

This is a chronology of notable fictional and semi-fictional stories that are set, either wholly or partially, in Vatican City, Rome. The years listed on the left refer to the year of release of the works.

<i>Sin</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

Sin is a Russian-Italian biographical drama film written and directed by Andrei Konchalovsky released in October 2019.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling is a 2002 book written by Ross King, a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. It garnered nominations in 2003 for the Governor-General's Literary Award (Canada) and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

References

  1. Solomon, Aubrey (2002). Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History . Rowman & Littlefield. p. 254. ISBN   978-0-8108-4244-1.
  2. "The Agony and the Ecstasy, Box Office Information". The Numbers. Retrieved January 22, 2013.
  3. Clemmensen, Christian. "Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004) tribute". Filmtracks.com . Retrieved 2011-04-14.
  4. Archer, Eugene (January 14, 1962). "BY WAY OF REPORT: Top Novel and Hit Play Acquired for Movies" . The New York Times . p. X9.
  5. Schumach, Murray (February 14, 1963). "FOX STUDIO BACK IN PRODUCTION" . The New York Times. p. 5. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  6. "Dunne Will Script 'Agony and Ecstasy'" . Los Angeles Times . January 14, 1963. p. C12. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  7. "20th Century-Fox to Spend $42 Million on Six Movies" . Los Angeles Times . October 10, 1963. p. A1. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  8. "New role for Heston". The Christian Science Monitor . November 11, 1963: 6.
  9. Hopper, Hedda (December 6, 1963). "Looking at Hollywood: Harrison to Get Choice of Film Scripts" . Chicago Tribune . p. B14.
  10. Scheuer, Philip K. (January 16, 1964). "Carol Reed Directs Heston, Harrison: Buchwald 'Claim Check' Set; Scofield as Train Passenger" . Los Angeles Times. p. C9.
  11. Ben Mankiewicz on Turner Classic Movies[ full citation needed ]
  12. "The Agony and the Ecstasy". IMDb . 7 October 1965.
  13. Silverman, Stephen M. (1988). The Fox that got away: the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox . L. Stuart. p.  259. ISBN   978-0-8184-0485-6.
  14. "The Agony and the Ecstasy". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media . Retrieved October 7, 2021. OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  15. Crowther, Bosley (October 9, 1965). "Michelangelo Firm Opens in N.Y." . The New York Times. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
  16. "The Agony and the Ecstasy: more passion would've been less painful". The Guardian. London. May 24, 2013. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  17. "The 38th Academy Awards (1966) Nominees and Winners". AMPAS. Retrieved 2011-08-24.
  18. "The Agony and the Ecstasy". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . February 13, 2009. Archived from the original on 2009-02-13. Retrieved 2008-12-26.