The Burnt Orange Heresy (15) Review, November 2020

The Burnt Orange Heresy poster

 What is art ? That is a question Joanna Lumley's Patsy asks in the 90s television satire comedy, Absolutely Fabulous (BBC, 1992 - 2016). This a question The Burnt Orange Heresy (Giuseppe Capotondi, 2020) attempts to answer, but presents more questions than answers. To be art, does a piece of work have to be approved by a critique ? Does art have to physically exist or can it be a figment of someones' imagination ? Can an accident be considered art ? None of these have a clear answer, I think that is left to the cinema audience to decide. Some film fans may like this film because of the fact this film is different because, it is a piece of art in someways because it asks questions, and like art, some will like it, some will not.

The Burnt Orange Heresy tries to be too clever, there is a smugness to it. I just felt bored by how slow it was, and you can see "the plot twist" from miles off, theres a line fairly early on which tells you the ending. If the films reliance on fly theme throughout had not been there, then prehaps the ending would not have been so obvious. 

No flies on them: Sutherland, Jagger, Debicki & Bang

 

There is really only four characters in this. Protagonist in films are usually the main character we root for as it is through their eyes we enter the world on screen, even though they may be imperfect and have their faults. The apparent protagonist in this, James Figueras (Claes Bang) I really did not care for. Early on in the film he is fairly unlikeable. We know little of what got him to where the film starts, little backstory. We do not know what causes him to take the actions he does, why he cares about the art quite so much. He says a lot, but very little of it is very useful to us to establish who the character is. This means the plot twist is not that shocking, even if you had not already worked it out earlier in the film what was going to happen, you are not that suprised that James does what he does because we never find out enough about the character to like him. 

James (Bang) and Bernice (Debicki) take a walk

The other lead is a young mysterious women, Bernice (Elizabeth Debicki) , James's girlfriend. She is more likeable. The film may have been better told from her perspective. We know a little of her backstory, but could still have done with more. We still do not exactly know how she got to the lecture, which is the meet-cute. We know that what she did is apparently awful and scandalous. Really though her background story was not that bad. If you have ever seen The Girl On The Train (Tate Taylor, 2016), Bernice reminds me a bit of Megan (Hayley Bennett) in the way she talks about her past. Bernice is from Minnosota. I have never been to Minnesota but I would like to know what it did to offend the scriptwriter of The Burnt Orange Heresy so much. I felt Debicki was unnecessarily sexualized. We did not need to see her naked. This film is not alone with having actresses unnecessarily topless and this is still sadly a problem in many feature films still in 2020. Additionally, Bernice was slut-shamed. Sadly, this is never contradicted by any other character. This movie would certainly not pass the Bechdel test.

Third on the bill is Joseph, played by Mick Jagger. The character developement is so poor I had to look up his character name because you feel like your just watching Mick Jagger art dealing (Mick Jagger is quite well-known for painting so he was quite appropriately cast).  Jerome Debney is the final character, played by Donald Sutherland. Debney is the most interesting character, purely because we get most backstory and Donald Sutherland is of course fantastic in everything he is in. 

Bernice (Debicki) and Debney (Sutherland)

To conclude, The Burnt Orange Hersey is poorly scripted, the characters too under-developed, sexist and too many unanswered questions. The only film I can compare it too is the really bad and boring film which is premiered at the Cannes Film Festival within the hilarious comedy film Mr Beans Holiday (Steve Bendelack, 2007), before Mr Bean (Rowan Atkinson) edits it with his own footage. The opening shot of that fake film is really like the opening of The Burnt Orange Heresy (an extremely long shot). The difference is, the fake film within Mr Beans Holiday is supposed to be boring, thats the point. The Burnt Orange Heresy does not set out to be boring, but to me it was.

Is The Burnt Orange Heresy art ? That is for you to decide.  2 stars ✰✰ (one is for Donald Sutherland, the other Elizabeth Debicki).