🇪🇸 Toca para versión en español
The night in San Sebastián took on a special air when Johnny Depp stepped onto the festival’s red carpet. His presence at the event was no isolated occurrence; the actor’s bond with this festival has grown over the years. This time, he returned not just as a Hollywood star but as a filmmaker, presenting his latest project behind the camera: Modi: Three Days on the Wing of Madness.
The anticipation was palpable. Fans, media, and onlookers gathered around the Kursaal to catch a glimpse of Depp. The now director, who visited the San Sebastián International Film Festival for the third time, has built a close relationship with the festival since receiving the Donostia Award in 2021 in recognition of his career. But this time, he wasn’t there to receive honors—he came to showcase his vision as a director, a role he continues to explore after The Brave (1997).
A Personal Vision of Modigliani
In Modi, Depp takes us through three crucial days in the life of Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, a tormented artist whose struggle for recognition and acceptance defined his tragic fate. The film, infused with a meticulous aesthetic and intense storytelling, reflects not only Modigliani’s brilliance but also the shadows that haunted him until the end.
During the presentation, Depp was sorrounded by the film cast: Riccardo Scamarcio (Amedeo Modigliani), Antonia Desplat (Beatrice Hastings), Bruno Gouery (Maurice Utrillo), Luisa Ranieri (Rosalie Tobia) and Ryan McParland (Chaïm Soutine), as well as IN2 Film representatives: Stephen Deuters and Stephen Malit. Depp appeared approachable, reflective, and, as usual, uninterested in conventional speeches. “I wanted to tell his story from the intimacy of those final days, when art and despair become inseparably intertwined,” he remarked at the press conference. His admiration for Modigliani was evident, and his film serves as a heartfelt tribute to those creators who find their only refuge in art.
An unexpected surprise
The audience in San Sebastián, always devoted, did not disappoint. Depp was greeted with a standing ovation that reflected not only the affection of his fans but also recognition of his courage in continuing to pursue personal filmmaking, away from major franchises and the industry’s prefabricated molds.
We, as the artist’s Official Fanclub, could witness the warm welcome in the Festival, and even received a great surprise from Depp and his team: Johnny meet us characterized as Captain Jack Sparrow, right before his visit to a children’s hospital in Donostia. You can watch the full video in our Instagram.
The San Sebastián Film Festival has once again witnessed a new chapter in Johnny Depp’s career. Modi, which premiere on Spanish Cinemas is scheduled for next February, is not just a film about a painting genius; it is also a statement of intent from an artist who continues to seek his place in cinema—a place where, like Modigliani in his time, he can keep expressing himself freely.
Depp left San Sebastián with the promise to return. And if there’s one thing the past few years have shown us, it’s that his story at this festival is far from over.
In The Brave, Johnny Depp plays Raphael, a family father desperate for finding a job as soon as possible to get out of the most absolute misery. In a gloomy warehouse, a mysterious figure offers him enough money to drastically improve his family’s life. In return, he must allow them to film his murder.
Although critics were divided, today this feature film is considered a cult classic.
Who is Modigliani, the main character of this new film?
The artist who will bring Depp back behind the camera is none other than Amedeo Modigliani (Wikipedia), an Italian painter and sculptor whose life and works will be presented to us in the form of a biopic (biographical film).
Modigliani (Livorno, 1884 – Paris, 1929), nicknamed “El Greco of the Avant-garde,” is known for his elongated portraits and nudes. Alicia Vallina describes him very well in her article in the magazine “Descubrir el Arte”:
Like El Greco, Modigliani tries to reach the sky through his infinite figures, not neglecting to sculpt faces with sinuous elongations, with eyes of empty orbits. Sculpture brings him closer to the anthropology of the African, to the simplicity and beauty of the Greek, to the philosophy of silence in the churches where he discovers Bellini and Carpaccio.
Alicia Vallina – “Descubrir el Arte” Magazine (nº 253)
Born into a Sephardic Jewish family, he was raised among the works of philosophers like Spinoza and Nietzsche. From a young age, he also read writers such as Dante and Baudelaire. At the age of 14, he learned to paint with one of the masters of the artistic movement known as “macchiaioli”. Later, he enrolled in the Free School of the Nude (Florence) and subsequently in the Institute of the Arts (Venice).
Art and frenzy in Paris
In 1906, Modigliani decided to move to Paris, the cradle of avant-garde, where the most important artists of the time were concentrated. Painters such as Gauguin, Cézanne, and Toulouse-Lautrec changed his artistic perspective. The latter, known for his nudes done behind the scenes in the most exclusive Parisian cabarets, awakened his passion for painting the female body.
You can’t make love with a cube.
Modigliani about Picasso’s artwork, on his first steps into cubism.
Jeanne, his muse until death
Although his nudes were the subject of various women, his great muse was Jeanne Hébuterne, a painting student and bourgeois whose family disowned her for having a romantic relationship with the painter. He never painted her nude.
Modigliani was taken years later by tuberculosis. Hours after his death, Jeanne, pregnant with their second child, threw herself from the fifth floor of the house they lived in.
Like most artists, Modigliani gained posthumous fame, his works becoming more recognized after his death.
¿Qué te ha parecido el artículo? Para nosotras, ha sido un placer disfrutar del estreno mundial de este film, una visión marcadamente personal del artista a través de los ojos de Depp. Cuéntanos tu opinión en los comentarios: