Johnny Depp’s latest directorial outing, ‘Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness’, was recently screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
During a press conference, Depp reflected on the nearly three decades since his last feature outing, 1997’s much-maligned ‘The Brave’, Variety reported.
The movie focuses on a 72-hour whirlwind during World War I in Paris as the protagonist Modigliani manoeuvres “bombs, policemen, girlfriends and critics in an increasingly desperate search of a home for his art.”
Asked to compare his own experiences with those of his film’s protagonist — the bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani — Depp said both of them have had to earn their stripes.
“Sure, we can say that I’ve been through a number of things here and there, but I’m alright,” he said.
Depp then seemed to allude to his recent legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard, saying, “I think we’ve all been through a number of things, ultimately ... Maybe yours didn’t turn into a soap opera, televised in fact, but we all experience and go through what we go through.”
The project unspools over 72 frantic hours in the life of bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani (Riccardo Scamarcio) as he navigates through a war-torn Paris and the country’s vibrant art scene in 1916. Hiding from the police after a confrontation in a bougie restaurant, Modi mulls over the possible end of his career and life in the City of Light. After receiving advice from his art dealer and friend, Leopold Zborowski (Stephen Graham), Modi risks everything for a meeting with American collector Maurice Gangnat (Al Pacino), who could transform him from starving artist to global megastar with a word.
Depp said his more recent experience directing was “infinitely more positive” than the one he went through helming “The Brave,” a film in which he also acted and which was dead on arrival with critics and audiences when it was released more than a quarter-century ago.
