The Agony and the Ecstasy

The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) is a historical drama from Carol Reed that you can watch online on iFILM. Charlton Heston plays Michelangelo and Rex Harrison the warrior pope Julius II, locked in a years-long battle over a single painted ceiling.

Rome at the height of the Renaissance. The fighting pope commissions his sculptor to fresco the vault of the Sistine Chapel, but the artist doubts himself, walks off the scaffolding and flees. He comes back and then drags the job out for years, flat on his back under the dome, quarreling over every figure and every ducat. Two stubborn men, the genius and the man who pays him, neither willing to give an inch.

Adapted from Irving Stone's novel, shot in widescreen 70mm with a score by Alex North, it makes the act of painting feel almost physical. This one's for fans of old-school costume epics and the old argument over who owns a masterwork — the hand that makes it or the purse that funds it. Stream The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) online on iFILM.