Movie Review: DALILAND

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: June 9th, 2023 / 04:45 AM

DALILAND movie poster | ©2023 Magnolia Pictures

Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Ben Kingsley, Barbara Sukowa, Christopher Briney, Rupert Graves, Alexander Beyer, Andreja Pejic, Suki Waterhouse, Ezra Miller, Avital Lvova, Mark McKenna, Zachary Nachbar-Seckel
Writer: John C. Walsh
Director: Mary Harron
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Release Date: June 9, 2023

Most of DALILAND is set in 1974, and the film has a very ‘70s pop feel. It’s glossy, fun to look at, and full of gossip, but also short on substance. This is not quite what we’d expect from a movie about the famous surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, played here by Ben Kingsley.

A prologue and epilogue is set in 1985, starting with a clip from Dalí’s appearance on a 1957 episode of WHAT’S MY LINE (with Kingsley playing Dalí). Here we learn a lot about how Dalí sees himself, and how he is seen by the world.

The clip is being broadcast on television in conjunction with a news broadcast that Dalí has been seriously injured at his home in a fire. The man watching the news, who we will soon learn is James Linton (Christopher Briney), is shaken.

We’re then in 1974 New York, where James is working at the Dufresne Gallery. Dufresne is set to host an exhibition of Dalí’s work in three weeks. The artist and his wife Gala (Barbara Sukowa) are in residence at the St. Regis Hotel. James is sent by his boss Christoffe (Alexander Beyer) to bring Gala a package.

James is met by the Dalís’ employee Captain Moore (Rupert Graves), who opens the door to the hotel suite, saying, “Welcome to Dalíland.” Inside, a party is going on, and it indeed seems to be taking place on some other planet (possibly the one where much of BARBARELLA takes place). Everyone is dressed in some form of ‘70s pop fashion, science fiction regalia, royal robes, or a combination thereof.

Gala Dalí takes an immediate liking to James’s looks and tells him to come back the next day with Christoffe for lunch. Dalí sees something in James that prompts him to invite the young man to serve as the artist’s assistant up to the exhibition. Both Christoffe and Gala want James to make sure that Dalí keeps painting rather than partying, but this is a difficult proposition.

DALILAND extends months past the exhibition. It also reaches back to the ‘30s, as Dalí tells James about his early days with Gala. The younger Dalí and Gala are played, respectively, by Ezra Miller and Avital Lvova.

Miller is arrestingly ardent as the young Dalí; his performance comes closest to suggesting the source of the man’s artistic creativity and personal eccentricity.

Otherwise, while we believe and are fairly engaged by Kingsley and Sukowa – these people are unique enough to hold our attention – we are observing them without much sense that we’re learning more than meets the eye. The marriage is simultaneously devoted and combative (sometimes violently). There is jealousy, infantilism, and financial exploitation, but woe to anyone who attempts to come between the pair.

So far, so dramatic, but we don’t get much sense of what’s driving all this, apart from the possibility that Dalí and Gala are the only two people crazy enough to match each other.

We’re seeing most of this from James’s point of view. James is an invented character, which means the filmmakers have license to make him as perceptive as they want. Instead, he just sponges up what we see, without being intriguing in himself.

In one way, John C. Walsh’s script is being honorable, by not attempting to speculate about real people. This prevents confusion in the public mind (there’s certainly much more than enough wrong info taken as fact because it was presented that way on film or TV). On the other hand, it keeps us feeling like we’re being kept near the surface of something that runs deep.

Director Mary Harron keeps everything eye-popping and lively, and also has a great handle on both the period and her cast. Kingsley is properly mercurial, ably regal, wise, petulant, and outright childlike. Sukowa is superb as Gala, likewise providing many shades of authority, maternal love, and insecurity.

Costume designer Hannah Edwards makes an essential contribution here, with clothing that makes artwork statements of its own.

DALILAND is a little like being at a loud party thrown by famous people. It’s pleasing to be invited, and it’s quite the event, but we don’t feel like we get to know more about the hosts than they were planning to reveal anyway.

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Visually sumptuous but not as revelatory as we might expect

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Article: Movie Review: DALILAND

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