Florence (Eleonore Bernheim) and Antoine (Nicolas Gob), in the French TV crime series “Art of Crime.” Courtesy of MHz Choice
This light crime series from France, “The Art of Crime,” provides the usual elements of TV mysteries with a painless education in the meanings of classic paintings and personalized art history. Don’t yawn yet. Keep reading a bit further.
The Paris police have a special unit for art-related crimes. Antoine (Nicolas Gob) is assigned to it as a banishment from the serious crime squad he’d thrived on until he pissed off the wrong honcho. His complete lack of knowledge about or interest in this milieu makes the transfer even more punitive. He’s also forced to accept a partnership with a quirky consultant, Florence (Eleonore Bernheim), whose expertise in the Old Masters is essential to catching the offenders. Each case is handled in two 50-minute episodes, so no pressure to binge.
The novelty is that Florence hallucinates conversations with the subject artist of each case in reaching her “aha!” moments of insight into the who and why of all the thefts, forgeries, murders, etc. they handle. Whenever I Googled the artist or painting du jour, the scripts seemed to be on the nose, providing an entertaining and painless path to learning something new. Those already educated in this area may differ on the facts, interpretations and speculations in the scripts, so don’t take my words or theirs as gospel.
As must be the case for all oil-and-water pairings in such fare, the two clash constantly. Antoine seems incapable of absorbing and retaining whatever he needs to learn about the art. He also runs on a default angry setting, due to resentment about how he got there, and some serious daddy issues. Florence is excited about this new use for her knowledge but has a whole different set of issues with her dad, Pierre (Philippe Duclose), who keeps inserting himself into her personal and professional existence, whether wanted or not; usually, the latter. Pierre’s annoying actions in trying to prove himself indispensable make him an unusual asset to the production.
The tension between the two principals leads to an all but inevitable will-they-won’t-they bit of comic relief that runs throughout. Season Six is a pair of two-part episodes, in which the personal dynamic between Antoine and Florence takes some odd turns straddling the fence separating warm humor from silliness. It may be the funniest of the series, while still offering a couple of sufficiently twisty crimes for the suspense factor. The first begins with a dead nude model that requires a deep dive into Monet.
Production values are first-rate, making excellent use of the Louvre and many other Paris landmarks and attractions in each of its stories. The scripts also maintain a nice balance between the sleuthing and personal subplots. The progression of several relationships makes watching them in order advisable.
In the second, a murdered actress posed in a subterranean vampiric tableau triggers Florence’s imaginary chats with Edvard Munch for resolution. The season ends with some lingering questions but fear not. Season Seven has just aired in France, and is sure to follow the first six across the ocean.
“The Art of Crime,” in French with English subtitles, streams on MHzChoice starting May 14.
RATING: 2.5 out of 4 stars
Eléonore Bernheim as Florence and Nicolas Gob as Antoine, in the French TV crime series “The Art of Crime.” Courtesy of MHz Choice
Frida Kahlo remains endlessly intriguing, in part because the Mexican artist’s colorful paintings remain striking, mysterious and even slightly disturbing and partly because of her bold, dramatic, sometimes tragic life. The artist has been the subject of several films, both narrative and documentary, and Kahlo has been played beautifully by actresses Salma Hayek and Ofelia Medina among others. But in director/writer Carla Gutierrez’s new biographical documentary FRIDA, Frida Kahlo plays herself.
Gutierrez’s FRIDA brings fresh insights into Frida Kahlo’s life and work, by putting that life into her own words for the first time, words exclusively drawn from her letters, interviews and her illustrated diary. We also hear the words of those who knew her, including husband and fellow painter Diego Rivera. The documentary is Carla Gutierrez’s directorial debut but Gutierrez is an acclaimed editor whose films include the Ruth Bader Ginsberg documentary RBG. FRIDA is excellent, both engrossing in its narrative and visually appealing, as it covers about 40 years of the artist’s life. The writer/director had unrestricted access to materials about the artist and the film includes materials never before revealed to the public.
We feel we are getting a true sense of the artist personally by hear her words. As we hear those words read by various actors, they are illustrated by Frida’s colorful, biographical paintings and by charming animations, often animating the paintings themselves. Kahlo’s color-drenched canvases are so animated anyway, that adding movement to them seems entirely natural.
The animated paintings and the voice-over readings are accompanied by a plethora of black-and-white photos and film footage, often with their own added animated splashes of vibrant color.
Frida Kahlo began life as the feisty, independent, creative child of a professional artist. Originally she planned to become a doctor, and at college she fell in with a group of pranksters. As the only woman in the group, Kahlo often dressed as a man, a cutting-edge fashion choice in the 1920s, and she participated in the pranks and had a budding romance with one of the group. Her life was suddenly changed forever by a serious traffic accident, which left her with life-long physical problems with her spine and pelvis and in pain.
While in recovery, confined to bed, she was given paints, canvas and a mirror, and thus began her habit of self-portraits, portraits that reflected her feelings and experiences in symbolic, surrealist form. Her paintings have been described as surrealist, magical realism and native for their immersion in Mexican culture, but she developed her own unique style, entirely apart from other artist movements.
The documentary covers her romance with the older artist Diego Rivera, their open marriage, and her adoption of dressing in a Mexican folk style, to express her proud Mexican identity. The film follows the couple’s travels to the U.S., their shared communist beliefs, and the couple offer of refuge to Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky when he was exiled by Stalin, among other moments in her life.
One of the most striking things about hearing Frida Kahlo’s own words is how much they reveal her personality. Her writings are sharp and witty, but also sometimes biting and even salty, which feels a bit unexpected. We hear her thoughts on wealthy Americans she met in New York and European artists she met in Paris, like Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso, both generally negative but with a pointed humor too.
Important figures from Frida’s too-short life also weigh in, including Diego Rivera, friends, fellow artists, and relatives, which helps FRIDA paint a well-rounded portrait that brings you closer to this remarkable woman artist like never before.
Hearing others who actually knew her speaking about Frida helps us realize things about her, such as how small and fragile she was, with many describing her as bird-like. That delicateness is not something revealed in her forceful paintings or even in the many photos of the artist, who often looks out at us boldly with a confident or challenging stare.
Overall, FRIDA is a fascinating, thoroughly enjoyable film about a great artist who truly painted from her heart. It is a worthy, even essential, addition to the many films about Frida Kahlo, offering the most deeply personal insights on the artist herself.
FRIDA debuts streaming on Thursday, Mar. 14, on Amazon Prime.
The “invisible hand of the marketplace” is a favorite term of laissez-faire globalized economics, but LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND is a dark comedy science fiction tale about a teen-aged artist living on a near-future Earth transformed by twenty years of occupation by creatures from another planet. We expect invaders from space to be scary monster with big weapons but what if the space aliens who came to conquer the Earth weren’t monsters with ray guns but annoying, harmless-looking bureaucrats who used economic soft power and brought advanced technology which made most human jobs obsolete?
The aliens, called the Vuvv, met resistance from ordinary people and governments when they first arrived but then were aided by human capitalists who saw a golden economic opportunity. The impact of the “invisible hand of the marketplace” brought by colonization by the Vuvv certainly was good for the aliens and some people, but it has left most humans unemployed and impoverished. That is the near-future world where high school student Adam Campbell creates his colorful paintings, in Cory Finley’s smart, funny, satiric science fiction comedy-drama LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND.
Adam’s colorful paints are sprinkled throughout the film, as director Cory Finley uses absurdist humor crossed with social satire and mixed with surprisingly realistic human relationships and insights, in his hilarious, smart and clever film. Finley, whose previous films include BAD EDUCATION and THOROUGHBREDS, wrote the screenplay based on the 2017 novel of same name by M. T. Anderson, a National Book Award winner who writes thought-provoking children’s and young adult novels.
Income inequality, class and race are among the issues touched on in this funny but thought-provoking absurdist comedy. Even though this is science fiction, much of it is set in a more ordinary Earth landscape which actually adds to the humor of the absurd situations.
This delightful, creative film centers on teen-aged artist, Adam Campbell (a winning Asante Blackk), and it is filled with Adam’s colorful, naive art paintings, as he tries to figure out his place in this strange world. The planet his parents grew up on has been transformed by twenty years of rule by the bureaucratic Vuvv, coffee table-shaped beings from outer space, who thanks to their advanced technology now run everything.
Adam, his younger sister Natalie (Brooklynn MacKinzie) and lawyer mother Beth Campbell (Tiffany Haddish) live in their big, once-nice, suburban house, which is now falling into disrepair. Adam creates his paintings, while his sister grows tomatoes and other produce in what was their swimming pool and his attorney mother searches desperately for any menial job she can find.
Dad left sometime ago, going to California in search of work (the only place you can make a living, he said) with promises to send money and return for them. But it has been a long time since they have heard anything from him and they assume he has abandoned him for his new life in California. The family eat meals of unappetizing food cubes made in Vuvv factories. Real food is scarce, and so is hope.
At Adam’s high school, the one of the last human teachers just has been replaced by “educational” broadcasts produced by the Vuvv, focused mostly on touting the how “wonderful” their rule has been. But Adam is more interested in the new girl who has just arrived, Chloe Marsh (Kylie Rogers). After kind-hearted Adam learns her family is living in their car, he impulsively invites her and her family, an unemployed accountant father (Josh Hamilton) and sullen older brother Hunter (Michael Gandolfini), to stay at his family’s house. Adam’s worried mother resists the idea but reluctantly agrees to let them move in – temporarily. Like Adam’s family, the Marshes were once affluent but with the adults unable to find work, funds are tight to non-existent.
Kylie comes up with a wild idea to earn money: she and Adam will live-streaming their budding romance – or what seems to be a budding romance, as they barely know each other. Human love, particularly romantic love, fascinates the Vuvv, who reproduce by budding and having nothing like it in their world. And the Vuvv are willing to pay big money to watch unfolding romantic relationships, like between Adam and Chloe.
The live-stream program takes off with the Vuvv, and soon Adam and Chloe are supporting both their families in much more comfort. But with success comes pressures on both of them, and their relationship.
Absurd comedy abounds, starting with the alien overlords themselves. The Vuvv are wonderfully ridiculous-looking creatures, who one character describes as resembling “gooey coffee tables,” moist, brown, rectangular and squat, with the personality of rigid bureaucrats. Further, tThe Vuvv communicate by rubbing together their fin-like paddles, which they have in place of hands, producing a sound like someone in corduroy pants walking quickly. The Vuvv expect people to be able to learn to speak this language but realistically, an automatic translating machine is needed.
Absurd comedy is a big feature of this movie but so is surprisingly realistic human interactions. Living in close proximity brings conflicts between the families and the weird economic situation warps a lot. The fact that the Campbells are Black and their house-guests the Marshes are white adds to the complexity.
The cast is splendid, starting with the appealing Asante Blackk as Adam, a sweet, kind-hearted teen confused by the harsh world he’s living in and who expresses himself and his feelings through his paintings. He is excellent in this lead role, which might be a star-making turn for the young actor. Tiffany Haddish also is excellent as Adam’s strong mother Beth, a smart woman who is determined to do what is best for her family and with little patience for whining from her live-in white guests. Josh Hamilton is very good as Mr. Marsh, Chloe’s anxious, insecure father, who is defensive, privileged, and clueless, and inclined to echoing pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps platitudes (like insisting that learning to speak Vuvv is the key to success) while having no real insight. Kylie Rogers is touching as a girl who is devoted to her family and trying hard to do what is best for them but who doesn’t always see the big picture.
Twelve-year-old Brooklynn MacKinzie is cute and funny as Natalie Campbell, Adam’s precocious younger sister, who seems wise beyond her years but sometimes drops the facade to be just a kid. Michael Gandolfini gives a strong, often unsettling performance as Hunter Marsh, a confused young man seething with resentment that covers his fears for the future.
Weird things happen as this plot unfolds, leading to plenty of dark comedy and also to insights on human life and our own society, as all good science fiction does. LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND is an outstanding dark comedy with both a head and a heart, and one you should not miss.
LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HAND opens Friday, Aug. 18, in theaters.
THE ARTIST’S WIFE screensas part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival November 5th – 22nd.Ticket information for the virtual screening can be found HERE
Living in the shadow of a famous and talented spouse can be hard, particularly when one has to give up ambitions of their own ambitious. It is nearly always the wives who abandon their careers to focus on a famous husband’s work, particularly if it was in the same field. In THE ARTIST’S WIFE, Claire (Lena Olin) is long reconciled to dropping her own career as an artist to support the career of her famous, successful artist husband Richard (Bruce Dern). In fact, Claire thinks of Richard’s career as “their career” and Richard’s loving devotion to Claire, his younger second wife, reinforces her view that they are an artistic team. But when Richard receives a devastating medical diagnosis and the artist’s wife faces the prospect of life alone, Claire’s long-buried feelings about her abandoned artistic work resurface.
Artistic genius Richard had always been impulsive and hot-tempered but lately he seemed more erratic. Claire has chalked it up to heavy drinking but a lapse during a speech while accepting an award sends them to the doctor. The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s hit Claire like a brick wall, while Richard was barely affected, a not unusual response. After the doctor tells Claire, to not do this alone, she determines to reach out to Richard’s only child, a long-estranged daughter from his previous marriage. The daughter, Angela (Juliette Rylance), is decidedly cool to the idea.
Lena Olin’s Claire has been comfortable with her choice to focus on Richard’s work for so long, that it almost surprises her that the impulse to resume painting surfaces. Partly, it may also be an escape from facing the new reality of Richard’s illness but it also seems to be Claire contemplating a future life on her own.
Director Tom Dolby’s drama does not
really explore new ground in this familiar scenario, although the
film could have, particularly with such impressive lead actors in the
primary roles. There are some strong scenes between Olin and Dern,
which are among the best in the film, but the script seems clunky,
too familiar. and even less than believable in some moments.
It is not the clunky story that makes
this film worthwhile but the work of Lena Olin and Bruce Dern. Their
performances are fiery and leap off the screen, both together and on
their own. As the title suggests, the focus is on Olin’s character as
she struggles with news that will change to bedrock of her life, and
Olin delivers brilliantly. Dern’s quirky, egotistical Richard is the
perfect foil, particularly as he loses the thread while still keeping
his character’s enormous ego. At a brief one hour and 34 minutes, the
performances alone make the film worth seeing.
THE ARTIST’S WIFE is an imperfect movie rescued from forgettable by the perfect performances of Lena Olin and Bruce Dern.
Bruce Dern as famous artist Richard and Lena Olin as his wife Claire, in THE ARTIST’S WIFE. Courtesy of Strand Releasing.
Living in the shadow of a famous and talented spouse can be hard, particularly when one has to give up ambitions of their own ambitious. It is nearly always the wives who abandon their careers to focus on a famous husband’s work, particularly if it was in the same field. In THE ARTIST’S WIFE, Claire (Lena Olin) is long reconciled to dropping her own career as an artist to support the career of her famous, successful artist husband Richard (Bruce Dern). In fact, Claire thinks of Richard’s career as “their career” and Richard’s loving devotion to Claire, his younger second wife, reinforces her view that they are an artistic team. But when Richard receives a devastating medical diagnosis and the artist’s wife faces the prospect of life alone, Claire’s long-buried feelings about her abandoned artistic work resurface.
Artistic genius Richard had always been impulsive and hot-tempered but lately he seemed more erratic. Claire has chalked it up to heavy drinking but a lapse during a speech while accepting an award sends them to the doctor. The diagnosis of Alzheimer’s hit Claire like a brick wall, while Richard was barely affected, a not unusual response. After the doctor tells Claire, to not do this alone, she determines to reach out to Richard’s only child, a long-estranged daughter from his previous marriage. The daughter, Angela (Juliette Rylance), is decidedly cool to the idea.
Lena Olin’s Claire has been comfortable with her choice to focus on Richard’s work for so long, that it almost surprises her that the impulse to resume painting surfaces. Partly, it may also be an escape from facing the new reality of Richard’s illness but it also seems to be Claire contemplating a future life on her own.
Director Tom Dolby’s drama does not
really explore new ground in this familiar scenario, although the
film could have, particularly with such impressive lead actors in the
primary roles. There are some strong scenes between Olin and Dern,
which are among the best in the film, but the script seems clunky,
too familiar. and even less than believable in some moments.
It is not the clunky story that makes
this film worthwhile but the work of Lena Olin and Bruce Dern. Their
performances are fiery and leap off the screen, both together and on
their own. As the title suggests, the focus is on Olin’s character as
she struggles with news that will change to bedrock of her life, and
Olin delivers brilliantly. Dern’s quirky, egotistical Richard is the
perfect foil, particularly as he loses the thread while still keeping
his character’s enormous ego. At a brief one hour and 34 minutes, the
performances alone make the film worth seeing.
THE ARTIST’S WIFE is an imperfect movie
rescued from forgettable by the perfect performances of Lena Olin and
Bruce Dern. The drama opens September 25 in select theaters and on
demand on various platforms.
Oliver Masucci as Professor Antonius van Verten, in NEVER LOOK AWAY. Photo by Caleb Deschanel, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
Art and history meld in the Oscar-nominated NEVER LOOK AWAY, a German-language epic tale that begins in 1937 Nazi Germany, and follows Kurt, an artistically-gifted young German, from his boyhood under the Nazis, to life in communist East Germany, and finally in the West in the 1960s. The personal story is used to explore life in eastern Germany under two repressive regimes, and those regimes shifting views on modern art under those regimes. Naturally, the drama also touches on Nazi war crimes, the war itself and its aftermath under communism but the lens is this child’s experience in wartime and then as a young artist.
NEVER LOOK AWAY is an Oscar nominee in this year’s Foreign Language category and also in the Cinematography category, for Oscar-winner Caleb Deschanel’s stunningly lush work. The visual lushness is a must for a period film centered on art, but three-time Oscar winner Deschanel far exceeds expectations, creating one of the many elements that make this dramatic film so compelling to watch.
German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck also wrote and produced this excellent film. His feature film debut, 2006’s THE LIVES OF OTHERS, won the Foreign-Language Oscar. That drama also touched on the treatment of artists in communist East Germany. Sebastian Koch, who played a lead role in THE LIVES OF OTHERS, returns in this film, appearing as a Nazi doctor, Professor Seeband.
NEVER LOOK AWAY is as much art history as political history, and both form the backdrop for a absorbing personal saga. We first meet Kurt (Cai Cohrs) as a young boy in 1937 Germany, when he and his aunt Elizabeth (an amazing Saskia Rosendahl) are visiting a Nazi exhibit on “Degenerate Art.” While the tour guide descries the various “evils” of the modern art works on display and praises traditional art, Kurt and Elizabeth listen politely. Hanging back as the tour group moves to the next gallery, Elizabeth whispers to her nephew that she likes the “degenerate” art anyway. Elizabeth is Kurt’s mother’s teenage sister, and she is as wild and creative as she is beautiful. Kurt adores her and she encourages Kurt’s drawings, urging her nephew to “never look away” from anything in life.
The period drama has a truly epic scope, covering about 30 years, and a running time to match, at just over 3 hours. Yet the film does not feel long, never drags and keeps the audience engaged and even absorbed in its sweeping story. Love, art, tragedy, family and sweeping change all suffuse this outstanding film.
At first, the family, who live in an idyllic rural area near Dresden, think they have nothing to fear from the Nazis since they are “Aryans.” Kurt’s father, a teacher, finds Nazi ideas personally distasteful, yet he joins the Nazi party at his wife’s insistence, and her belief that it will advance his career. The rest of the family goes along as well, with the older boys in the Hitler Youth and then the army, and pretty blonde Elizabeth, the picture of the Nazi ideal, chosen to hand a bouquet to a Nazi leader visiting her school. Their expectations turn out to be tragically wrong, starting when Elizabeth’s behavior becomes unstable and she comes in contact with Nazi doctor Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch).
Tom Schilling plays the teenage and then grown-up Kurt, as the drama follows him and his family through the sweeping changes of the war and its aftermath. Kurt does become an artist, a very gifted painter, through a circuitous path that takes us through the shifting landscape in post-war East Germany.
NEVER LOOK AWAY takes a different tack on history than audiences might expect, skipping some more familiar subjects usually covered in WWII set films. The epic is as much art history as political history, and all the history is more backdrop for this personal story. The drama picks and chooses historical details, based on aspects that touch the main character directly. The war and Nazis are depicted through the child Kurt’s experiences, thus it focuses on Nazi ideas about eugenics and extermination of those they deemed “defective” rather than the atrocities heaped on Jewish people. Rather than multiple battles, the film depicts the firebombing of Dresden, in a horrific, powerful sequence. After the war, the hunt is on for Nazis but party members in name only, like Kurt’s father, are as likely a target as real ones like Seeband.
On the art history side, we see Nazi repression of modern art replaced by the communists’ focus on only propaganda-laden Socialist Realism. Even in the non-communist West, the arbiters of artistic taste tell painter Kurt that “painting is dead” and he must embrace some other medium.
Still, the particular events in this life do play symbolic roles to highlight some aspects of the history, noticeable enough that it seems like more than mere chance is at work where some character story lines intersect. Donnersmarck does a masterful job blending the personal and the historic in this art-focused epic.
The acting is as outstanding as the powerful story and beautiful photography. Tom Schilling is superb as the young artist, effectively depicting him from a teen to an ambitious young man. The actor captures to struggle of the artist to express himself despite the strictures of the cultures he finds himself in, and the hunger to create.
Yet audiences might be as taken with the two young women in Kurt’s life. As star-crossed aunt Elizabeth, Saskia Rosendahl is hypnotic, radiating charisma and madness in an emotional, pivotal role. Paula Beers, who was so fabulous in FRANTZ, plays the young fashion designer Kurt meets at art school, a role she carries off with enormous charm.
Sebastian Koch as the doctor is a perfect villain, a fully-rounded person with the impulse to protect his family, but fully committed to the Nazis’ cold ideas. The complexity and intelligence of the character makes him all the more chilling, as he becomes entwined in Kurt’s life in ways neither expect. It is a relationship fraught with tension and secrets, some that neither realize until much later. The other cast are strong as well, with Oliver Masucci as art school teacher Antonius van Verten particularly effective.
It is best to approach this film without expectations built on its historical setting and just let it sweep you up in its flow. One of the year’s best, particularly for fans of art, NEVER rewards well those willing to make the effort to read subtitles and be patient with its epic length. It is well worth it.
NEVER LOOK AWAY opens Friday, February 15, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s AT ETERNITY’S GATE. Photo credit: Lily Gavin
Willem Dafoe gives an amazing performance as Vincent Van Gogh is Julian Schnabel impressionistic biopic AT ETERNITY’S GATE. Schnabel ‘s beautifully-shot film is presented from the viewpoint of the artist, and makes a perfect companion to the earlier animated film LOVING VINCENT,which told the artist’s story told from the viewpoint of someone trying to understand him and is presented through animated oil-painted recreations of his works.
Director/co-writer Schnabel based AT ETERNITY’S GATE on Vincent Van Gogh’s letters, commonly agreed on events from his life, and rumors, but then invented or improvised scenes, to create a sense of the artist at work in his productive but troubled later life. The film suggests the life of Vincent Van Gogh rather than being a straight-forward biography, and focuses more on his art and the process of painting than on familiar events. The director describes the film as being “about what it is to be an artist.” Schnabel, a painter himself, is just the director to explore that.
It is also a more sympathetic film that most on the artist, one that avoids wallowing in the “mad genius” theme in favor of concentrating on the astonishing number of masterpiece paintings Van Gogh was able to produce despite his failing mental health. His mental health issues are shown more as the obstacle to his work than the source of it, although there is a little nod to the idea that his mental state may have helped free his perceptions from restraints.
Watching AT ETERNITY’S GATE is often like being in Van Gogh’s paintings, although less literally than in than the animated LOVING VINCENT. Using a hand held camera, Schnabel takes us through an impressionistic version of Van Gogh’s years in the south of France. The film is largely from the artist’s point of view, and is seen in a disjointed, emotional fashion that represents both his fragile mental state and his compulsion and joy in painting. The film is anything but straight-forward and seems as impressionistic as his paintings. Events are seen through the artist’s eyes, often hazy, sometimes are confusing or upsetting, occasionally even inappropriate. We are both moved by the artist’s emotional pain and comprehend the misunderstanding and even negative reaction he produced in some townspeople.
The most riveting thing about this film is Dafoe’s outstanding performance. Dafoe finds a resemblance to Van Gogh that is striking in this film, most notable in several shots recreating Van Gogh’s his self portraits, despite the actor,in his 60s, being much older than Van Gogh, who died at age 37. The film’s excellent supporting cast includes Rupert Friend as Vincent’s supportive art dealer brother Theo, Oscar Isaac as fellow artist and friend Paul Gauguin. Mathieu Amalric appears as Vincent’s friend Dr. Paul Gachet and Mads Mikkelsen plays a pivot role as a priest at an asylum, while Emmanuelle Seigner plays another friend, Madame Ginoux.
The film is filled with gorgeous photography by director of photography Benoît Delhomme, depicting the artist in the midst of creating famous works. We see scenes in rooms where famous works hang on the walls, in locations familiar to us from those paintings and faces in poses familiar from his paintings, including self-portraits.
We see several scenes of a solitary Dafoe walking, even climbing over the landscape, with his easel, brushes, and paints in a pack on his back, like a metaphor of the artist’s struggles to create his art. Schnabel has Dafoe’s Van Gogh painting in the outdoors, battling wind and cold. The film has several scenes where Dafoe actually paints, partly recreating some of the artist’s less familiar works, as the director’s attempt to evoke the moment of artistic creation. It is a noble impulse but not always an effective technique. Dafoe does much better portraying Van Gogh discussing his art and why he paints.
When Dafoe as the artist speaks about his work, we get wonderful discussions or monologues on his drive to paint, about the intentions of his work, or his earlier failure as a cleric and his difficulty with people. The film gives us a sense of both the devotion he engendered in those who support him, and the public misunderstanding of both the artist as a person and his work. The film touches on his lack of financial success, and his mysterious death but avoids other well-known moments. All the familiar elements of his later life are present, but presented in a unique and unconventional manner.
This film sometimes hearkens back to Schnabel’s THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, but this one is not purely POV. Mostly we get Van Gogh’s view of events, but we also get sympathetic insights into those around him, especially his devoted brother Theo and his friend and fellow artist Gauguin. Overall, Van Gogh comes across as a sort of spiritual being, furiously cranking out masterpieces while lingering on the “eternity’s gate” of the title. At one point, the artist speculates if God meant for him to be born ahead of his time.
What a magical film this is for those who love Van Gogh’s work. Instead of presenting his mental fragility as the central aspect of the artist, the focus is on his work ethic, on his drive to paint great masterpieces, with his mental health struggles as something Van Gogh fights through in order to do what he must – which is paint. It is a stirring and sterling homage to the artist who created so many remarkable works in such a brief life.
AT ETERNITY’S GATE opens returns Friday, Jan. 25, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Willem Dafoe as Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel’s AT ETERNITY’S GATE. Photo credit: Lily Gavin
Willem Dafoe gives an amazing performance as Vincent Van Gogh is Julian Schnabel’s impressionistic biopic AT ETERNITY’S GATE. Schnabel ‘s beautifully-shot film is presented from the viewpoint of the artist, and makes a perfect companion to the earlier animated film LOVING VINCENT,which told the artist’s story told from the viewpoint of someone trying to understand him and is presented through animated oil-painted recreations of his works.
Director/co-writer Schnabel based AT ETERNITY’S GATE on Vincent Van Gogh’s letters, commonly agreed on events from his life, and rumors, but then invented or improvised scenes, to create a sense of the artist at work in his productive but troubled later life. The film suggests the life of Vincent Van Gogh rather than being a straight-forward biography, and focuses more on his art and the process of painting than on familiar events. The director describes the film as being “about what it is to be an artist.” Schnabel, a painter himself, is just the director to explore that.
It is also a more sympathetic film that most on the artist, one that avoids wallowing in the “mad genius” theme in favor of concentrating on the astonishing number of masterpiece paintings Van Gogh was able to produce despite his failing mental health. His mental health issues are shown more as the obstacle to his work than the source of it, although there is a little nod to the idea that his mental state may have helped free his perceptions from restraints.
Watching AT ETERNITY’S GATE is often like being in Van Gogh’s paintings, although less literally than in than the animated LOVING VINCENT. Using a hand held camera, Schnabel takes us through an impressionistic version of Van Gogh’s years in the south of France. The film is largely from the artist’s point of view, and is seen in a disjointed, emotional fashion that represents both his fragile mental state and his compulsion and joy in painting. The film is anything but straight-forward and seems as impressionistic as his paintings. Events are seen through the artist’s eyes, often hazy, sometimes are confusing or upsetting, occasionally even inappropriate. We are both moved by the artist’s emotional pain and comprehend the misunderstanding and even negative reaction he produced in some townspeople.
The most riveting thing about this film is Dafoe’s outstanding performance. Dafoe finds a resemblance to Van Gogh that is striking in this film, most notable in several shots recreating Van Gogh’s his self portraits, despite the actor,in his 60s, being much older than Van Gogh, who died at age 37. The film’s excellent supporting cast includes Rupert Friend as Vincent’s supportive art dealer brother Theo, Oscar Isaac as fellow artist and friend Paul Gauguin. Mathieu Amalric appears as Vincent’s friend Dr. Paul Gachet and Mads Mikkelsen plays a pivot role as a priest at an asylum, while Emmanuelle Seigner plays another friend, Madame Ginoux.
The film is filled with gorgeous photography by director of photography Benoît Delhomme, depicting the artist in the midst of creating famous works. We see scenes in rooms where famous works hang on the walls, in locations familiar to us from those paintings and faces in poses familiar from his paintings, including self-portraits.
We see several scenes of a solitary Dafoe walking, even climbing over the landscape, with his easel, brushes, and paints in a pack on his back, like a metaphor of the artist’s struggles to create his art. Schnabel has Dafoe’s Van Gogh painting in the outdoors, battling wind and cold. The film has several scenes where Dafoe actually paints, partly recreating some of the artist’s less familiar works, as the director’s attempt to evoke the moment of artistic creation. It is a noble impulse but not always an effective technique. Dafoe does much better portraying Van Gogh discussing his art and why he paints.
When Dafoe as the artist speaks about his work, we get wonderful discussions or monologues on his drive to paint, about the intentions of his work, or his earlier failure as a cleric and his difficulty with people. The film gives us a sense of both the devotion he engendered in those who support him, and the public misunderstanding of both the artist as a person and his work. The film touches on his lack of financial success, and his mysterious death but avoids other well-known moments. All the familiar elements of his later life are present, but presented in a unique and unconventional manner.
This film sometimes hearkens back to Schnabel’s THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, but this one is not purely POV. Mostly we get Van Gogh’s view of events, but we also get sympathetic insights into those around him, especially his devoted brother Theo and his friend and fellow artist Gauguin. Overall, Van Gogh comes across as a sort of spiritual being, furiously cranking out masterpieces while lingering on the “eternity’s gate” of the title. At one point, the artist speculates if God meant for him to be born ahead of his time.
What a magical film this is for those who love Van Gogh’s work. Instead of presenting his mental fragility as the central aspect of the artist, the focus is on his work ethic, on his drive to paint great masterpieces, with his mental health struggles as something Van Gogh fights through in order to do what he must – which is paint. It is a stirring and sterling homage to the artist who created so many remarkable works in such a brief life.
AT ETERNITY’S GATE opens Wednesday, Nov. 21, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
Julian (Dominic West) endures the actions of a performer named Oleg (Terry Notary), in Ruben Ostlund’s satire THE SQUARE. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures (c).
Ruben Ostlund’s satire THE SQUARE was Cannes’ Palme D’Or winner this year but this ambitious film is a decidedly unusual winner. Ostlund’s previous film, FORCE MAJEURE, explored a single morally-bad choice in a caustically comic way. THE SQUARE turns a satiric eye on modern art, contemporary society, political correctness, homelessness, sex, income inequality and more, although it often focuses on the subject of trust. THE SQUARE, partly in English and partly in Swedish with subtitles, is sly, darkly satiric and sometimes laugh-out-loud funny film, when it is not just downright disturbing. This is not a film for everyone, but it has rewards for those up for its wild ride.
The story revolves around Christian (Claes Bang), the curator at a modern art museum in Sweden. The film’s title refer to a new art installation, a simple square cut into the pavement and edged with an LED light strip, and marked with a plaque reading, “The Square is a sanctuary of trust and caring. Within it we all share equal rights and obligations.” It is a peaceful sentiment, and pretty far from what really goes on in THE SQUARE, once director Ruben Ostlund’s biting social satire gets underway.
Christian’s modern art museum is housed in a historic building adjoining the former royal palace, now also a museum. Redirecting lost tourists to the palace is a daily task for the art museum’s staff. At the film’s beginning, an old bronze equestrian statue is unceremoniously ripped from its pedestal in front of the museum, as the hundreds-year-old brick pavement next to it is sliced into for the new art installation, “The Square.”
Tradition and history don’t get much respect at this museum but money sure does. Like all museums, pleasing donors and the board are a major part of Christian’s job as curator, and drumming up media, and public, interest in the gentle message of the new art installation, by Argentinian artist and sociologist Lola Arias, may be a challenge.
A robbery in which Christian is conned and loses his smart phone and wallet kicks off the series of events that comprise the plot. One of Ostlund’s targets is the media, and its tendency to bring out the worst in people. The gentle message of the art installation has no appeal to the media, which demands “controversy.” While Christian is preoccupied with his own drama over the stolen cell phone and wallet, the PR company cooks up a plan to go viral. The others at the table are clearly uneasy but no one wants to take responsibility for saying no. When the distracted Christian does not object, the plan is launched, with bizarre results. It goes viral and gets media attention all right but not in a good way.
Ostlund underlines modern society’s growing distrust of government by the fact that no one even mentions calling the police after the robbery. Christian and his co-worker’s track his stolen cell phone themselves, and determine where the thief lives.
Christian is the stereotype of the sincere, serious modern man, capable of saying all the right things but clueless about his bubble of privilege. He knows all the right words but just can’t grasp how they relate to him. We first meet the handsome, sincere, well-spoken curator as he is being interviewed by an American journalist named Anne (Elizabeth Moss). As Anne reverently asks him about a self-contradictory statement on the museum’s website, Christian’s answer tips us off as to just how far into the realm of verbal BS this film is willing to wade – which is way into the deep end. The scene is hilarious and telling. Later, they have an equally telling and funny confrontation, in front of an art installation made up of a creaking pile of chairs.
The art world is an easy target but far from the only one in this satire. “If we took your bag and placed it here (on the museum floor), would that make it art?” Christian says, posing a question art experts have been asking since Marcel Duchamp bought a urinal at a hardware store, re-named it “Fountain,” and displayed it in an art gallery. The modern answer seems to be, it does – if you have an art degree. But Ostlund then goes after a host of aspects of modern life, in hilariously pointed fashion.
Christian is a sincere guy who tries to think globally and thinks of himself as a good person. He says all the right things, drives a Tesla, is a caring divorced father of two daughters, but his expressions of ethical/moral concern do not match his actions. He walks past the homeless people who seem to be everywhere is this Swedish city without even noticing. Occasionally, he gives them money or buys them a sandwich but that is as far has it goes.
Christian is all talk and no action, idealist in how he speaks but cynical in how he acts, reflecting many people in modern society. A caring divorced father to his two daughters, he is cool to the pleas of the boy whose trouble with his family were caused by Christian’s unthinking actions. The boy demands, then begs Christian to apologize to his family for the mistake, but while he tells the boy he’s sorry, he’s unwilling to do more. When he finally does, he blames the whole world in his rambling apology.
The film’s events are often funny if bizarre, but sometimes just disturbing. Ostlund clearly wants to disturb, to encourage people to think. Often, the film focuses on trust – who to trust, how far to trust, trust in others, trust in the system. Although there is a plot that ties everything together, individual scenes frequently play out like skits, some silly, some weird, some alarming.
The film is peppered with biting routines. The artist who created “The Square” never appears in the film but another artist, Julian (Dominic West) does. Julian is the epitome of the smug, superior stereotype of an artist. One of the film’s absurdly comic scenes has the artist speaking in a gallery Q and A with a museum staff, only to be interrupted by shouted sexual comments from a man with Tourette’s Syndrome. The audience nods tolerantly, but as the interruptions become more frequent, continuing becomes impossible. When an audience member timidly ventures to speak up, she is pounced on by others set on lecturing her on tolerance.
“We, as a museum, mustn’t be afraid to push boundaries,” Christian tells us, but pushing donors’ boundaries is another matter. Lavish parties and events with guest artists are major part of Christian’s job.
One of the film’s most unsettling scenes takes place at a black-tie gala dinner for wealthy donors, at which the entertainment is a performance called “The Animal.” After a menacing voice booms out over jungle sounds, warning the audience not to confront or challenge “the animal,” an actor named Oleg (American stuntman/motion capture actor Terry Notary, who specializes in portraying animals) emerges, bare-chested and wearing gruesome prosthetic teeth, wanders among the tables, imitating chimp-like vocalizations and “knuckle-walking” with the help of metal extensions on his hands. At first the formally-dressed attendees are amused but when one of them gets too flippant with “the animal,” violence ensues and the line between pretense and reality blurs. The scene is striking, due in part to Notary’s performance, in which the muscular but middle-aged shirtless man displays a mix of humanity and wild animal, melancholy and menace.
THE SQUARE is not really saying something new but it is making its points in a strikingly fresh, satiric way. As Charlie Chaplin noted, sometimes you can say something serious more effectively with comedy.
The strikingly beautiful animated film LOVING VINCENT is described as “the world’s first fully oil painted feature film.” That description means a group of artists hand-painted the images that fill this stunningly beautiful film. This intriguing, ambitious film goes a step further and puts animated actors into Vincent Van Gogh’s paintings, which are used as the setting to explore the artist’s life and work through a mystery tale investigating his death. The result is not only gorgeous but an appealing fact-and-fiction tale through which the film recounts the famous artist’s life and art.
Van Gogh paintings are brought to life so that the actors, rotoscoped and then painted, move around in them, an amazing and pleasing effect. LOVING VINCENT employed a team of 125 artists over six years to hand-paint in oil recreations of Van Gogh paintings and the images of the actors in this unusual film. The film’s 65,000 frames feature 125 of Van Gogh’s paintings, starting with the famous “Starry Night.” Using a title taken from a signature, “your loving Vincent,” on Van Gogh’s letters to his brother Theo, LOVING VINCENT explores the life and art of Van Gogh through a sort of detective story.
This joint British – Polish production used a cast of mostly-British actors in roles based on real people from Van Gogh’s life. Douglas Booth plays the main character Arnaud, the son of Van Gogh’s postman and friend in Arles, Joseph Roulin (Chris O’Dowd). Arnaud’s father sends him on a journey to deliver Vincent’s last letter but the young Arnaud finds himself drawn into trying to uncover the facts behind the artist’s death. On his quest, Arnaud walks through a series of Van Gogh’s famous paintings, talking to various people who knew the artist. Arnaud’s journey takes him from Arles to Paris to Auvers-sur-Oise. Among those he meets are the painter’s physician Dr. Paul Gachet (Jerome Flynn, GAME OF THRONES’ Bronn), the doctor’s daughter Marguerite (Saoirse Ronan), his housekeeper Louise (Helen McCrory), the daughter of Van Gogh’s last landlord Adeline Ravoux (Eleanor Tomlinson, Demelza on BBC’s POLDARK ), and a boatman who knew him (Aiden Turner, who plays the lead on POLDARK).
Full disclosure here: As the daughter of an artist, a painter who worked in oil, I am a soft touch for anything about Van Gogh as well as intrigued by anything like this kind of ambitious cinema project. Given that the artist is one of the most popular, the film should generate wide interest, which is well rewarded in this remarkable film. The oil painting technique creates vibrant images, and the chance to move through the famous paintings is nothing less than spectacular. Van Gogh’s vivid use of color and bold brush strokes readily lends itself to this unique animation project. The actors are animated using a rotoscope technique, which captures the movement of their features, but each actor is also made up, costumed and in character of a person painted by Van Gogh, which makes their placement in this lovely landscape feel right. Watching the semi-animated actors move through the Van Gogh’s paintings is immensely appealing, a permanent delight of this film. Most of the film is in color, but a few flashback scenes are rendered in black and white, although still reproducing the artist’s signature style. It is a wonderful immersive experience and a visually beautiful film.
If the film had nothing else, it would be worth seeing for its sheer visual beauty. But the film does have more than its lush images, with a clever story that keeps the audience involved in the film while giving a short overview of Van Gogh’s life. The mystery story is involving and the fine cast give evocative performances, so the blending of cinema art and oil painting is perfect.
This wonderful film is an ambitious undertaking but it succeeds marvelously. LOVING VINCENT is a film best seen on a big screen, to fully appreciate all it offers. LOVING VINCENT opens Friday, October 27, at Landmark Theater’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.
