Have to say though… Pacino as Dali? I don’t know about that. Robert Pattinson looks so far so good in my opinion!

Dali and I: The Surreal Story starring Al Pacino is based on a book written by an art dealer who was convicted of selling fake Dalí’s shortly after Dalí’s death in 1989. It depicts Dalí’s outrageously decadent final decades, and shows him as a bitter, abusive, depraved, perverse hoaxster. There are 769 official “authentic Dali signatures” recognized by the art establishment, only one of which actually came from his hand. A very large percentage (we’ll probably never know exactly how large, but certainly over half) of Dali paintings, drawings and prints produced post-1940 were the work of hired commercial artists. By the mid-sixties, Dali spent several hours every morning signing thousands of blank sheets of paper. He used his considerable down-time to organize extravagant weekly “sex circuses,” featuring dwarves, hunchbacks, live lobsters, fascist dictator themed dildos, and several A-list celebrity hangers-on, like Mia Farrow, Andy Warhol, and David Bowie, as well as any other social-climbers he could round-up. He would direct these orgies as a voyeur, and would take every opportunity to humiliate and degrade all participants.

The Banderas movie I understand is a mixed CGI/live action musical comedy focused on his artwork and his relationship with his business manager/wife Gala.

There’s also a Peter O’Toole film called “Goodbye, Dali,” based on the memoirs of some tv character actor who was in Dali’s sycophantic inner circle during the sixties and seventies. I expect more of the same as the Pacino picture from this one.

As an artist doing a great deal of research on Lorca, Dali, and several other associated lights at the moment for a project of my own, it seems the only one of the four worth my time is Little Ashes, in that it attempts to show the man behind the deliberately constructed public persona we’ve all become familiar with, and explores the tragedy that caused Dali to don that mask, which he’d wear 24/7 for over five decades, in the first place. He only took it off on his deathbed, when he confessed that he had always believed Lorca was his soulmate, but that he was simply “too scared” to continue, knowing a relationship with the increasingly out Lorca could well derail his fledgling career and quite possibly lead to his early death, as was the case with Lorca.

As to the trailer, I think the film itself looks amazingly lush, considering the miniscule budget ($1.4 mil), and from all indications is carefully researched, well-written (the screenplay won a major European award even prior to production), and well-done. I do agree, however, that the voice-over is horrendous, particularly since he get’s Lorca’s first name wrong (it’s Federico, not Frederico!) I suspect they spent all their money making the film and have not much left for staging a well-done promotion.

Dali and : The Suureal Story is based on a book by an art dealer who was arrested and convicted just around the time of Dali’s death in 1989 and portrays Dali as a bitter, abusive, outrageously decadent and depraved hoaxster — there are 769 official “authentic Dali signatures”, only one of which came from his own hand, and a very high percentage of post-1940 Dali paintings, prints and drawings were the work of commercial hired-hands. By the mid-sixties, he was signing thousands of blank sheets of paper every morning and using his considerable down-time to stage elaborate and surrreal “sex circuses” which he would direct as a voyeur and which would include dwarves, hunchbacks, dozens of live lobsters, fascist dictator themed dildoes, and sycophantic A-list celebrities like Mia Farrow and Andy Warhol.

The Banderas picture is supposedly a mixed CGI/live action musical comedy focusing on his artwork and relationship with his business-manager/wife, Gala.

I am not a Pattinson fan. I am an artist and activist who happens to be doing research into Dali and Lorca at the moment for a project of my own. And it seems to me the only truly serious picture offered is Little Ashes, in that it examines the tragedy that precipitated Dali donning his deliberately constructed outrageous public persona we have all come to know, and attempts to peek behind that mask he wore 24/7 for over five decades. He would only take it off on his deathbed, when he confessed that he’d always believed Lorca was his soulmate, but that he’d simply been “too scared” to continue with the relationship, knowing it would curtail his career and quite possibly, as with Lorca, lead to his early death.