Life of Leonardo Da Vinci (2pc) [DVD]

It's unfortunate that the first thing many people would think of today at the mention of Da Vinci's name is the fictitious Da Vinci code rather than, say, the Mona Lisa. I think this presentation's subtitle is absolutely correct when it names Da Vinci "the most brilliant mind in history." Artist, scientist, architect, military designer - he was all of these and more. The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci covers the Maestro's complete life over the course of four and a half hours and then throws in five impressive bonus features on top of that. Philippe Leroy gives an impeccable performance in the starring role, backed up by a cast of hundreds against a backdrop of more than 90 locations in Italy. Produced in 1972, the production looks its age, but it also shows the care and respect with which it was filmed.

We really don't know all that much about much of Da Vinci's life. It sounds a little funny when the film points this out and then goes on to dramatize it all, anyway. Clearly, though, what was put on film here was the result of meticulous research. Of course, probably the greatest treasure trove of history is the remaining collection of Da Vinci's notes, which provide early sketches of some lost works, a record of Da Vinci's incredible inventions, and a record of his anatomical studies of the human body. Truly he was a man hundreds of years ahead of his time, coming up with the original ideas for the tank, an underwater breathing apparatus, the helicopter, the parachute, the machine gun, etc. Tragically, many of his notes and sketches were lost to history, as were some of his artistic creations. Many might be surprised to learn that we have only eleven completed pieces of Da Vinci artwork today. This film takes you through the creation of all of those masterpieces - plus some that have been lost or were never finished.

Da Vinci was a truly fascinating man, and this film does an excellent job communicating his isolation from the rest of the world. He was an illegitimate child who never really had a home of his own. In his prime, he sojourned between his native Florence and Milan, forced to flee on several occasions when the constantly shifting tides of military power among the Italian city states shifted or when France invaded. In his later years, he was forced to suffer the abuse of the hot-tempered upstart Michelangelo, before finally finding some sanctuary in France in his last days.

I think the film does quite a fair job of dramatizing Da Vinci's life. Many biographical treatments resort to sensational charges concerning the mysterious legal troubles that fueled his original exit from Florence and indulge in unfounded speculations of homosexuality. Everything here is based as accurately as possible on what history tells us. Da Vinci's biggest problem was that he was really too brilliant. Forever fascinated with nature, he found himself distracted all too often from other work he was doing, and his meticulous methods required great patience on the part of his clients. He could go days without touching a brush, yet he was working all the same - unlike any other artist, Da Vinci's art pieces were "written" as well as painted. He studied every facet of horses and how they moved, for example, before attempting to make a bronze horse sculpture.

Da Vinci was not only the most brilliant mind in history, he was also probably history's most brilliant failure. Besides the number of commissioned works he never completed, some of his works were plagued with problems: his Battle of Anghiari mural was ruined as the result of a failed experiment with drying the oil-based paint, for example. Even his marvelous fresco of The Last Supper began suffering cracks shortly after its completion. Seeing both his successes and his failures recreated on the screen, one gets a much deeper appreciation of the man and his humanity. It's not really a happy story, as Da Vinci suffered many wrongs in his life and was never really given the respect he deserved (even his grave was desecrated and his bones hurled into a mass burial pit by foreign invaders several years after his death).

Besides the feature film, the DVD also includes five short bonus features: The Rise of Renaissance Italy, Leonardo's Masterpieces, Da Vinci's Inventions, The Maestro vs. Michelangelo, and The Works of Two Great Masters: A Timeline. The whole presentation brings Da Vinci to life in as realistic a way as possible, and that makes The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci a masterpiece of sorts in and of itself.

Leonardo was not appreciated in his own time. He was sidelined, persecuted and many of his works destroyed. A similar fate has befell this documentary. I saw this film in the 70s. It was shown on Australian TV (where I live) and I thought it then, and probably still do, the greatest TV film I have ever seen. Leonardo, I believe, excelled his contemporaries in the range of his discoveries, and I believe he excells our contemporaries in the same way: this is a man whom to see as a precursor of 20th century science is to belittle. Castellani's film now exists in three versions. To save other viewers the trouble of the research, following is what I have found out about each version.

"The Life of Leonardo da Vinci" was a 1971 Italian TV production directed by Renato Castellani, a famous and critically esteemed director of the time. It tapped into a moment of patriotic fervour in Italy and was funded by the Italian government to an unprecedented extent, becoming the most expensive production made in Italy up to that time. It was produced in the same way that Hollywood epics are fabled to be, with on location shoots at every place Leonardo was known to have lived or visited, and with a 'cast of thousands'. Meticulous care was taken with costumes and sets, without exception both luxurious and authentic. Particular care was also taken with casting. An innovative and appropriately experimental approach (for the time) saw the casting of a famous TV personality, Giulio Bosetti, as a modern dress narrator, strolling onto the historical sets to give a modern day perspective of the events depicted.

The original Italian version is available on a 3 DVD set. It has an Italian soundtrack and Italian subtitles, but no English, I presume to avoid competing with versions released in English speaking countries. If you understand Italian, this is the preferred version. It runs at the original broadcast time of 320 minutes.

The English language distribution rights for the film were secured by Questar Inc of Chicago, a specialist distributor of historical and other documentary material. Questar released a version on VHS videotape which dropped the Italian soundtrack for a (very well) dubbed English one. This version is still available for those not adverse to videotape. It is on a set of 3 videocassettes and runs for 270 minutes.

Questar Inc also released a DVD version of the film. This version has been shortened and is on 2 DVDs. Removed is all the material featuring Giulio Bosetti as the modern dress narrator, which would have also meant shortening some of the scenes on which he makes a commentary. Presumably the editors thought viewers would be puzzled by the sight of a modern narrator stepping out from an historical set (forget the contribution of structuralist film critics and the impact of Jean-Luc Goddard on cinema - this is supposed to be an historical epic, right?). The film survives this blundering butchery, it's that good. The dubbed soundtrack is slightly out of synch though. Somewhat unforgivably, Questar lifted the film specs from their video release and describe it as running at 270 minutes. There is no mention of any cuts. As a compensation, 5 short documentaries of 5-10 minutes each are included on the second disk. The film's running time is 230 minutes (total time including extras is back to 270 minutes).

This is the only version English speakers who prefer disk format can see Castellani's film. Even Japanese viewers have to watch this version (with Japanese subtitles). I think people who care about film, about Leonardo, who object to false advertising and concealed censorship, should object, but doubtless I'm in the minority.

Worth looking for is a 2004 BBC documentary, "Leonardo da Vinci", a 3 episode, 160 minute film which features spectacular photography, reconstructions and testing of some of Leonardo's machines (and some insights about them never before appreciated), location shoots, dramatic re-enactments, readings from the Notebooks and commentary by scholars. While not as good as Castellani's original film, it is better than the truncated version.