Caravaggio (1986 film)

Caravaggio 1986 is a British film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalised retelling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

As an adult, Caravaggio still lives under the roof and paints with the funding of Del Monte. Caravaggio is shown employing street people, drunks and prostitutes as models for his intense, usually religious paintings see the article on the painter for examples. He is depicted as frequently brawling, gambling, getting drunk and is implied to sleep with both male and female models, including the male Jerusaleme and the female contortionist Pipo Dawn Archibald. In the art world, Caravaggio is regarded as vulgar and entitled due to his Vatican connections.One day, Ranuccio Sean Bean, a street fighter for pay, catches Caravaggios eye as a subject and potential lover. Ranuccio also introduces Caravaggio to his girlfriend Lena Tilda Swinton, who also becomes an object of attraction and a model to the artist. When both Ranuccio and Lena are separately caught kissing Caravaggio, each displays jealousy over the artists attentions. One day, Lena announces she is pregnant although she does not state who the father is and will become a mistress to the wealthy Scipione Borghese Robbie Coltrane. Soon, she is found murdered by drowning. As the weeping Ranuccio looks on, Caravaggio and Jerusaleme clean Lenas body. Caravaggio is shown painting Lena after she dies and mournfully writhing with her nude body. Ranuccio is arrested for Lenas murder, although he claims to be innocent. Caravaggio pulls strings and goes to the Pope himself to free Ranuccio. When Ranuccio is freed, he tells Caravaggio he killed Lena so they could be together. In response, Caravaggio cuts Ranuccios throat, killing him. Back on his deathbed, Caravaggio is shown having visions of himself as a boy and trying to refuse the last rites offered him by the priests. ........

Source: Wikipedia