Fade To Black review

Movie buffs and film students will have a field day with this film noir pastiche, which makes legendary director Orson Welles – in Italy to shoot 1949 duffer Black Magic – the detective hero of a convoluted whodunnit involving fascist war criminals, political chicanery and an on-set murder. But take away the numerous self-conscious nods to Citizen Kane, The Third Man and The Lady From Shanghai and you have The Good German 2 – an elaborate in-joke that wears out its welcome as quickly as star Danny Huston’s omnipresent smirk. Nothing rings true in a flick where Belgrade stands in for Rome and Spain’s Paz Vega and Mexico’s Diego Luna are both cast as Italians. “I made a crummy picture and not a lot of difference,” sighs Orson at the end; director Oliver Parker could well say the same.