Review of Daliland

Daliland (2022)
6/10
Interesting and valid, but wrong focus
16 October 2023
As noted in some other reviews, the film covers some aspects of Dali's life that are fascinating, in particular his complex relationship with Gala, his muse / lover / mother figure. The film also touches on the massive amounts of fraud occurring with Dali lithographs and prints, though it doesn't do much with this angle. So if you don't know the Dali story, this will be informational, at least about his later years. If you do know the Dali story, you will recognize the truth and have a richer experience.

While enjoyable, this film has a major structural problem. It focuses on a young person being brought into the world of Dali, and serving as our proxy as we learn about Dali, Gala and their struggles. This is a common storytelling tactic (used recently, for example, in both The Exception and Il Cattivo Poeta), but it's unnecessary and diverts attention from what we really came to see. No one will go this film for the young person's story, they will go for the Dali story.
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