The Best Offer

Giuseppe Tornatore made this Italian production entirely in English, his first work in the language. Shooting started in Trieste in spring 2012 and spread to Milan, Bolzano, Merano and Ora, with Villa Colloredo Mels Mainardi near Udine standing in for the Ibbetson house, then continued in Vienna and Prague. The automaton that Robert reassembles piece by piece carries the mark of Jacques de Vaucanson, the eighteenth century inventor. It is not a decorative choice: this is where the film anchors its idea that forgery and authenticity share one object. Tornatore wrote Virgil directly for Geoffrey Rush and has described him as a synthesis of Brando and Mastroianni. The film took six prizes at the 58th David di Donatello: best film, director, production design, costumes, score, and the youth jury award. Ennio Morricone won European Composer for the same score at the 26th European Film Awards, where the film was also up for film, director and screenwriter. Reviews split hard. Rush was praised almost everywhere, while the screenplay was faulted for insisting on explaining its own symbols. A good fit if you are content to watch Virgil alone with objects for long stretches before the story turns. Not for anyone who will resent being told, item by item in the last act, how to read what came before.