Mary Harron's Dalíland (2022) tells the story of fictional gallery-assistant-to-gallery-owner James Linton's (Christopher Briney) time with one of the unquestionably most important figures in 20^th^ century art, Salvador Dalí (Sir Ben Kingsley) and his wife, Elena Ivanovna Diakonova otherwise known as Gala (Barbara Sukowa) during the early 1970s.
The film's main thrust (or should I say droop) is aging: in that specific period Dalí was in his 60s, Gala in her 70s, and although the mad parade they cultivated continued around them, Harron presents the famous couple out of breath trying to keep up with it all, caught up in their own act. Dalí is shown as tired, occasionally neurotic and succubus to Gala, presented here as a sort of Nora Desmond. Gala keeps a sloppy control of the Dalí empire, with bad limited-editions being overprinted among other imprudences. They both have their various…ahem…dalliances, Gala with Jesus Christ Superstar's Jeff Fenholt (played by Zachary Nachbar-Seckel), Dalí with latest muse Amanda Lear (portrayed by Andreja Pejić) and others of his entourage, but ultimately these are shown to be not only empty acts of selfish pride but apparently unconsumated.
Kudos to Harron and crew for capturing the era in which the film takes place with a palpable accuracy; it all has a certain Nicholas Roeg feel to it.
Harron's film is slow to start, but once it gets moving it's an interesting glimpse into a period of the lives of the iconic surrealist and his original (and lifelong) muse.
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~Photo:~ ~Roger~ ~Higgins,~ ~Public~ ~domain,~ ~via~ ~Wikimedia~ ~Commons~
