Movie Breakdown: The Lost Leonardo (Noah)

Pre-Screening Stance:

A documentary about a controversial painting that might be a DaVinci that is also kind of a mystery and features global intrigue? Yeah, I’m in for that.

Post-Screening Ramble:

There’s only a handful of documentary “stories” anymore. And I don’t mean that in a bad way, just an observational way – there’s only a small selection of story categories and I truly believe almost every documentary can fall into one of them. The Lost Leonardo falls into, “A seemingly simple truth that is actually FAR more complicated.” You know, it’s a movie about a very famous painting that everyone wanted to be a DaVinci, and might’ve been a DaVinci, but also, might not have been a DaVinci. In smart and stylish fashion, the filmmaker, Andreas Koefoed, tracks the painting from its discovery, to its restoration and then across the world and back again as it grows bigger and bigger in fame and infamy and worth before … disappearing altogether. Along the way, Koefoed explores the vaguely skeptical world of museum curation, the even more sketchy world of art sales, the lives and times of a variety of art world characters (Jerry Saltz being the stand out) and finally dips a finger in the world of global politics. It’s a lot, but the director draws a fine and efficient line from Point A on-wards and there isn’t a moment where the slow unveiling of the story isn’t fascinating. Does it break the mold of documentary filmmaking? No. But nothing does anymore, and this doesn’t break the mold with style.

One Last Thought:

I’m almost positive that the “freeport” ran by the very shady Belgian businessman is the same place Denzel Washington’s son robs in reverse in Tenet.

Another Last Thought:

The idea of riffling through all the goodies in that “freeport” is enough to keep me up at night.