You may see better art heist movies than Ruben Brandt, Collector, but you won’t see a crazier one. This largely English-language Hungarian animated film concerns a psychiatrist (voiced by Iván Kamarás) who has become famous for his use of art therapy. However, he needs something stronger than art to cure him of his horrible nightmares about Western art masterpieces attacking him, so he turns his patients into a crew of art thieves who steal great paintings from Tokyo to Rio to Berlin.
The drawing style of Slovenian writer-director Milorad Krstic is heavily influenced by the Surrealists, and art lovers will enjoy his Picasso-influenced recreations of canvases by Botticelli, Manet, and Roy Lichtenstein. However, movie lovers will find almost as much to chew over with the film’s quotes of Pulp Fiction, The Little Mermaid, and The Bourne Ultimatum. Krstic also lifts the diner from Hopper’s “The Night Hawks” into a deserted cityscape of Giorgio de Chirico. The climactic museum shootout alone is an orgy of contemporary art in-jokes, and to top it all off, a nightclub chanteuse does a hot-jazz cover of “Oops! I Did It Again.” What better place for this wacky film to play than the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth?
Ruben Brandt, Collector screens Fri-Sun at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 3200 Darnell St, FW. Tickets are $8-10. Call 817-738-9215.
