Microcinema DVDs - Michelangelo: Self Portrait

2010-08-06 Educational Media Reviews Online
By Eugenia Abbey

In this, his latest film on Michelangelo, director Robert Snyder reprises his triumphal masterpiece The Titan: Story of Michelangelo, which won him the 1950 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and is included here as a bonus feature, allowing for close comparison. As stunning as the earlier black and white film is, the newer one, in color, brilliantly conceived and executed, soars above it in every way. This second film is itself a work of art. In his signature verite style, Snyder presents masterpiece after masterpiece, moving in close for views in far greater detail than possible in person. For the first time since 1972 the Vatican allowed a crew to film the Pieta from behind the bulletproof glass protecting the sculpture. The close-up views of the Sistine Chapel frescoes are breathtaking. While many pieces such as David, Moses, the first Pieta and the Sistine frescoes are iconic, others such as the last Pieta and Michelangelo’s first carvings as an art student are less well-known. The numerous architectural drawings are revelatory. The narration is almost entirely in the artist’s own words, taken from his letters, diaries and poems (which we are able to glimpse from time to time) together with the writings of contemporary biographers and quotations from his beloved Dante’s Divine Comedy. Michelangelo describes his spiritual and temporal journey, his struggles to come to terms with his love of classical art and philosophy versus his Christian faith, the years of unrest, warfare and strife in Renaissance Italy, the frustrations as well as triumphs of the artistic life and his many struggles with both powerful patrons and jealous rivals. As we view his creations he offers his own descriptions and interpretation of his work. The background music beautifully underscores the visual, using the works of two late Renaissance musicians, Monteverdi and Frescobaldi, blending in perfectly and reflecting the mood and tone of the art on the screen. Technical quality is very high. Ideal for teaching art history, European history, Italian history and the Renaissance. Highly recommended for high school and public libraries with strong art, history or travel collections and essential for all academic libraries.

2010-07-10 Blogcritics.com
By Jack Goodstein

Oscar winning director Robert Snyder revisits the life and work of Renaissance master Michelangelo Buonarroti in his newly released DVD, Michelangelo: Self Portrait. In 1950 his black and white film, The Titan: Story of Michelangelo won the Academy Award for best documentary. The film, which is included as a bonus feature on the current DVD, uses Nazi footage discovered by Snyder in Europe while working with the OSS combined with newly shot material. It is narrated by Frederic March in his best scenery-chewing manner and seems as much interested in melodrama as it is in documentation. Nonetheless, it provides a fascinating look into the life and work of the artist, and may well be worth the price of the DVD all on its own.

But then, Snyder's new effort has some advantages of its own. There's color for a start, new closer access to work like the "Pieta," and a script by Michael Sonnabend which uses material from Michelangelo's diaries and poems, his contemporary biographers, Vasari and Condivi, and his favorite poet Dante's Divine Comedy. All this is complemented by a score of period music by Monteverdi and Frescobaldi.

Beginning at the end of the artist's life, the film goes back to his birth in March of 1475. The narrator who is not identified on the DVD, but who seems to have been Snyder himself, speaking in the voice of Michelangelo, talks about his father's unhappiness with his desire for a career as an artist, and describes how he was taken under the wing of the powerful Lorenzo de Medici. His early work is illustrated and the conflict between Christian and Pagan elements is emphasized by the comparison between his "Madonna of the Stairs" and his "Battle of the Centaurs." This conflict between the spiritual and the earthly is something that will haunt him throughout his life.

The film follows his career chronologically: taking time to provide extensive views of all of his major work, from the great sculpture like the statues of "David" and that of "Moses," modeled on Pope Julius II, to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and "The Last Judgment." It details the problems he had with some of his papal commissions, the fears raised by the denunciations of the conservative cleric, Savonarola, and the role he played in the short-lived Florentine republic. It looks at the human element—the broken nose he got from a fellow apprentice less than enchanted with his critical eye; and it looks at the monumental vision—the plans for the Dome of St. Peters. It points to all the angst-ridden self-portraiture running through his work, self-portraiture which at least one critic sees as the artist's guilt trip. In the end he hopes that somehow the spirituality of his work will make up for what he calls his "worship of art" and his pursuit of fame.

Most interesting, perhaps, is the aesthetic commentary, both on the interpretation of individual works and on the nature of art, especially sculpture. The Sistine ceiling for example is said to be a representation of a world above our world. Some of the unfinished statues intended for Julius' tomb are "caught in the act of freeing themselves." This last is in keeping with the artist's general sculptural aesthetic. The stones, he tells us, hold his images in them waiting to be released. The sculptor cuts away layers until the figure emerges, "the figure that lives within it." It would seem that rather than creating something, the sculptor is really concerned with revealing something that is already there. There is something Platonic about this kind of thinking. In the end, it is man's work—his art—that takes him step by step closer to God.

Aside from The Titan, the DVD also includes an interview with Snyder, a filmography, and some selections from other films on creative artists like Willem De Kooning, Henry Miller, Pablo Casals, and Anais Nin. The Titan runs about an hour and the Self Portrait about 85 minutes.

2010-04-27 DVD Talk
By Casey Burchby

Like the best documentaries, Robert Snyder's Michelangelo: Self-Portrait is simultaneously entertaining, enriching, and inspiring. Simple in concept, but complex in its editorial approach, Snyder's film is narrated through the artist's own words, taken from diaries, letters, and early biographers, and accompanied by images of his work. The result is a stirring and unique film biography, one that is devoid of narrative cheats and artifice.

We begin with Michelangelo's voice in a letter to the great biographer Giorgio Vasari; the artist complains of his various ailments and describes a new pietà he has begun (the Rondanini Pietà). From here, the narration consists of more or less chronological biographical information in "flashback" form, as Michelangelo regales us with tales from his early life, his first works, and his imbroglios with authority - particularly the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo: Self-Portrait is grounded in the artist's own time and own words; we see him as an artist and a man, assessing his own work with honest criticism and equally fair egotism. He is not a monolithic cultural figure here - he's a man driven to make art, in his own way, and often at great personal risk. Immune to criticism now, that was hardly the case during his lifetime.

The most compelling aspect of this documentary is not the biographical detail, per se, nor the beautifully photographed works of art on display here; the most revealing content comes from Michelangelo's discussion of the sense of investment he had in his art - the passion he felt, as well as the highly personal details present in almost every work he made. In a post-Impressionist world, it's too easy for modern audiences to shrug off Renaissance artists as hired guns, working for the authority figures of the era, whether they were Church officials or the nobility. We are quick to allow for supreme technical proficiency, but just as quick to ignore the soul of their work. The more overtly expressive art of the last century is easier to attribute (or impose) emotional significance. Here, Snyder gets at Michelangelo's own assessment of his work, as well as the intense connection he felt to it. In particular, the physicality of sculpture seems to have engendered a stronger bond between artist and material than with frescos and other painting. Michelangelo speaks of growing up around quarries and the intimacy with which he understood the manipulation of stone. Just as the artist's mind is often ignored, the craft of art-making is undervalued today; we tend to place a higher value on "expression," even though it's wholly subjective and impossible to measure.

This is a carefully-constructed film, and an enormous amount of time was spent shaping the script and selecting the imagery. Snyder's camera is patient and loving when photographing the Michelangelo's work, and his approach to editing is fluid and informative, always cutting or dissolving to images that dovetail appropriately with the narration. The narrator, interestingly, is not credited; I would assume it's Snyder himself. Music is almost contemporaneous (Monteverdi and Frescobaldi), and quotations from Dante are judiciously included.

Snyder's film is a great work of art itself: a documentary that reveals a man whose life and mind have been clouded by the vast scope of his artistic achievement. But ultimately, he was someone with his own share of triumphs and tragedies, very much a human being, and Snyder finds a way to access Michelangelo's humanity from across the centuries, in spite of his legendary status.

The DVD

The Video
The full-screen image appears to replicate the film's original aspect ratio. (I haven't been able to confirm the OAR, but compositions don't look cropped.) This 1989 feature doesn't look like it has been restored or remastered, although it would have benefitted from some attention in that regard. The image is fairly solid, a little dark, boasting a film-like quality heavy with grain. There's nothing wrong with the image, but it could have been a little bit tighter.

The Audio
The stereo soundtrack is clear and relatively dynamic - especially since the only sounds we hear are the narration and music. (Occasional sound effects are employed for dramatic effect.)

The Extras
A few solid bonus features are included here. First and foremost is Snyder's earlier film, The Titan: Story of Michelangelo (63:26). Narrated by Frederic March, this 1950 documentary was created using footage shot by the Nazis for propaganda purposes and later seized by the OSS, which was then edited together with newly-shot material by Snyder. The result won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Snyder tells much the same story here as he would later tell through Self-Portrait, but using a more straightforward narrative format. It's very good. Also included here are excerpts from other Snyder films (28:01), World of Buckminster Fuller (Fuller was Snyder's father-in-law), Pablo Casals: Of Music and Humanity, Anais Observed: A Portrait of the Woman as Artist, Claudio Arrau, The Henry Miller Odyssey, and Willem de Kooning: Artist. Finally, we have a short Interview with Robert Snyder (6:33), in which he discusses Self-Portrait. It's a nice set of bonuses.

Final Thoughts

Michelangelo: Self-Portrait is a lasting film biography that utilizes an engaging narrative approach to illuminate the life and mind of one of the most towering cultural figures of all time. It's a very memorable documentary. Highly recommended.

2010-02-15
By Joseph Campbell

"An awe inspiring experience... a powerful work of art, the film transcends tragedy and comedy and reaches the sublime. Like any great work of art it must be seen again and again."

2010-02-15 L.A. News
By Alan Rich

"The timelessness and sheer beauty of its images and sound, make this film an experience not to be missed."

2010-02-15 Los Angeles Times
By Kevin Thomas

"Evokes the very spirit of the man... Even more enthralling the second time around... illuminates the man in his own words."