Caravaggio's Shadow

The Pope opens a secret inquiry into Caravaggio, and an unnamed investigator known as the Shadow begins examining the painter's life: his models, his brawls, the killing he committed, and the fact that the saints in his pictures are faces picked up off the street. Michele Placido uses the inquiry as a frame for the painter's last years. Riccardo Scamarcio plays Caravaggio and Louis Garrel the investigator. The visual decision is explicit: scenes imitate the light of the paintings, the dark is kept broad and faces are lit from a single source. The chronology is broken and at times the film scatters, but the tension between the church and the street of the period is well built. Who it is for: viewers who like art history drama and period films. Who it is not for: anyone after biographical accuracy, since the investigator is an invention.