Choppy green, blue and red lights illuminate a huge neon crucifix.
At his feet, a dozen white-robed novices dance with the sensuality of Salma Hayek in
Robert Rodríguez's
Open Until Dawn
.
Meanwhile, in the basilica the music of the duo Sofi Tukker reverberates: “I'm not winning, but I'm having a great time / You can call me, the girl from the good old days”.
In the background, lit by flashes, stands
The Wedding at Cana
, Veronese's masterpiece.
It is the start of the new season of
The Young Pope (
HBO), filmed by Sorrentino.
The original canvas is kept in the Louvre in front of the
Mona Lisa
.
The filmmaker has used a millimetric reproduction (installed where the original canvas hung, the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice) created in Madrid in the Factum Arte workshops.
"We didn't know they were going to use it, it was a fantastic surprise," says Adam Lowe, its manager.
Every day art supports more series and movies.
Build the plot, reinforce the character's sense, and convey status.
In this universe there is a professional who resembles that "girl from the good old days."
Curator Fanny Pereire has been creating art collections for people who don't exist for two decades.
He was able to get a
cy twombly
of 25 million dollars (just over 20 million euros) - the most expensive work he has ever worked with - for the thriller
Paranoia
(2013).
"85% of the time I use reproductions, and when I use originals I try not to have them for more than three days, due to insurance and logistics issues," admits Pereire.
But his gaze has imagined the set of series like
Succession, Mrs. America, Divorce, Billions, The Undoing
or
Gossip Girl.
Although if there is a film where art overflows its frame, it is Billions.
Years of cat and mouse game between hedge fund shark Bobby Ax Axelrod (Damian Lewis) and New York prosecutor Chuck Rhoades (Paul Giamatti).
Trompe l'oeil Basquiat, David Salle, Adam Pendleton, Aaron Young, Motherwell hang out in the Ax offices for several seasons.
The names any Wall Street insider would want around them.
It is logical.
Billions'
co-creator
is Andrew Sorkin, a finance journalist at
The New York Times.
He has visited many
hedge fund
barracks
and they all chase the same trophies: Richard Prince, Christopher Wool or Robert Longo, who, by the way, refused to have his work appear in the series.
However, the pieces are one more performer.
In
The Undoing
a
jeff koons
is reflected in the mirror, and in Mrs. America authentic pieces by Mondrian, Lawrence Weiner or Léger appear in the rotunda of the Guggenheim in New York.
It is a perishable image.
The copies must be destroyed and photos or videos must be sent to confirm it.
Nobody wants fakes on the market.
In Spain, in the fifth season of
La casa de papel they
used reproductions of
El aquelarre
and
Duelo a garrotazos
(Goya),
Adán y Eva
(Dürer),
The ages and death
(Hans Baldung) and
Auto de fe in the Plaza Mayor,
scored by Francisco Rizi.
"We always demand to know in what context the paintings are shown and we prohibit any distortion of the images", explains Cristina Alovisetti, managing director of the Prado.
Quite nearby, at the Reina Sofía, where
Picasso's
Guernica
horse screams
, the works never leave the rooms to decorate series.
But high resolution images are rented.
The genius cartoonist would like the letter.
"I'm not winning, but I'm having a great time."