John Malkovich as Gustav Klimt

Saffron Burrows and John Malkovich in “Klimt.”  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)

Ina Kopp in a scene from “Klimt.”  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)

Saffron Burrows portrays Klimt’s muse, Lea de Castro.  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)

Veronica Ferres as Klimt’s longtime partner, Emilie Floge.  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)

Nikolai Kinski portrays painter Egon Schiele in the film.  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)

John Malkovich and Saffron Burrows. To evoke the golden, swirling surfaces of Gustav Klimt’s images, writer-director Raul Ruiz used a range of low-tech effects, including some that the painter himself used to create his visually fractured imagery.  (Bernhard Berger / Outsider Pictures)