Incognito (1997 film)
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | John Badham |
| Produced by | James G. Robinson |
| Screenplay by | Jordan Katz |
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| Music by | John Ottman |
| Cinematography | Denis Crossan |
| Edited by | Frank Morriss |
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Incognito is a 1997 American crime thriller film directed by John Badham and starring Jason Patric and Irene Jacob. Written by Jordan Katz, the film is about a talented art forger who paints a fake Rembrandt despite pressure from his dying father who urges him to use his talent on his own original paintings. The film is notable for a sequence that reveals the specific details involved in forgery, including canvas aging, precise paints, and other deceptions.
Talented New York painter Harry Donovan is an expert of copying famous artists' paintings, but is struggling to become a legitimate artist in his own right. Until now, he has avoided detection by forging third and fourth tier masters, but that is about to change. Frustrated by the cancellation of an exhibition of his paintings, Harry accepts a job forging a long lost Rembrandt for $550,000 from three art dealer clients—Alistair Davies (Thomas Lockyer), Ian Hill, and Agachi—against the wishes of his artist father who wants his son to give up forgery and concentrate on his own work.
Despite his father's wishes, Harry takes the job and travels to Amsterdam to study Rembrandt. He decides to forge a never-discovered portrait of the master's blind father lost supposedly off the coast of Spain over 350 years ago. Harry continues his research in Paris, where he meets a beautiful Rembrandt scholar, Professor Marieke van den Broeck, who tells him she is a "student". Harry does not know that one of his main source books was written by Marieke. With her unwitting help, he gains access to an actual Rembrandt being restored at the Louvre from which he obtains scrapings of the original varnish. Soon Harry and Marieke become involved romantically.
Harry travels back to Amsterdam, where he paints his "Rembrandt" in an attic studio using period materials and a photograph of his own father as a model. He then journeys to Spain where he shows his three clients his forged masterpiece. After they find a local farmer who is paid to claim to have "found" the painting, the three clients invite two art experts to examine the painting, and they "confirm" it to be a Rembrandt. They return to London with the painting for a final authentication by a group of experts, which includes Marieke, to Harry's surprise. Several experts agree it is genuine, but Marieke does not. Dismayed to learn that his clients plan to hold a public auction, Harry tries to take back his painting but Davies pulls a modified Beretta handgun on him. Harry manages to evade his line of fire and makes his escape with the painting while Davies shoots and kills Agachi and frames Harry for the murder and the theft of the painting.
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