Al Pacino IS... Salvador Dali.

"She's got a great ass... and you got your head all the way up it!"

oh look, young dali gets a biopic too

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/littleashes/

Daliland, about which I've heard zero, plays here this weekend. Saw the poster with Ben Kingsley, immediately thought "No," but I see it's directed by Mary Harron, so I'll give it a chance.

Nothing special, but because it's Mary Harron, some good songs (and one great one, Steve Harley's "Make Me Smile"; also Roxy Music, Shirley & Company, the Spinners, and another Cockney Rebel song, "Tumbling Down," I didn't know and thought was Mott the Hoople) and a good feel for the era, especially for the women around the edges of Dali's entourage. Kingsley's pretty good.

Three things (skip if you're going to see it):

1. There are a few (clumsy, I thought) flashbacks to the young Dali and Gala, one of which concerns the creation of "The Persistence of Memory." It leads right to the moment where you expect the painting to fill the screen, but they don't show it. Conceding that almost anyone who sees the film is already very familiar with the work, not everyone will be--maybe someone younger seeing it with parents. I don't think showing it would have hurt. (Could be a copyright issue--I don't think any work is actually shown, come to think of it.)

2. A snippet of a audio clip in 1985 announces the hospitalization of Dali, who's said to be the world's most famous living artist. Wouldn't that have been Warhol in '85?

3. Most of the film is set in '73, and there's a moment involving Gala that I swear is a reference to The Exorcist.

I'm probably being a little too forgiving of the film, grateful that someone bothered to make it. There's some funny stuff involving a character who's supposed to be either Murray Head or Ted Neeley, or maybe a composite.

Actually, two great ones--"Could It Be I'm Falling in Love" is the Spinners song.

Should have also mentioned Barbara Sukowa as Gala, who I thought I hadn't seen since her Fassbinder heyday of Berlin Alexplanderplatz and Lola but was also in the recent Air. Can't say as I really took pleasure from her performance, but I'm guessing the real person tested one's patience too.

My wife was her stand-in on M. Butterfly; Sukowa was apparently very quarrelsome but Cronenberg handled her diplomatically.

One of only two or three Cronenberg films I haven't seen.

I assume this is even more of financial windfall than finding an unopened box of sports cards with Mantle or Jordan or Gretzky rookie cards. (A Honus Wagner box, probably not.)

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/28/style/dali-prints-discovered-garage-gbr-scli-intl/index.html

IDK, I think there's a whole bunch of signed Dali prints out there.. he was prolific as hell