|
“Seraphine” is a lovingly photographed and ultimately tragic biopic from
France about the life of Seraphine Louis (nicknamed Seraphine de Senlis), a
humble outsider artist who eclipsed many of her contemporaries without any
formal training. She was a housekeeper who toiled secretly on her art, and
received scant recognition for her work.
The film is
scheduled to open at the Music Box Theatre on Friday, June 19, and it was
featured in the Gene Siskel Center’s last European Film Festival.
“Seraphine”
was directed by Martin Provost, who is virtually unknown in the US. His
acting debut in Nelly Kaplan’s erotic “Nea: A Young Emmanuelle (1976) is
fairly easy to find on video. But none of the films he directed have
achieved wide distribution in America. Seraphine“ has a greater chance to
make it here. It received extremely positive reviews, and it even received a
Cesar (the French equivalent for Oscar) for the best picture of 2009.
The
Belgian-born Yolande Moreau (of “Paris, Je T’aime" and “The Last Mistress”)
is ideally cast in the title role. She is able to convincingly capture the
wide mood swings of the emotionally unbalanced artist and the depths of her
despair.
The movie is
set in 1914, and William Uhde, (Ulrich
Tukur from “The Lives of Others)”
a famous art collector rents a
room out to the promising and unknown Seraphine. She cleans washrooms and
does housekeeping during all day, and she is also a very devout Catholic.
At one point she even says “Be ardent in your work and you will find God in
your cooking pots.” Her art making seems like it is also an act of worship
for her.
When she
isn’t praying or working, she is going out to the fields to find flowers to
make paint for her art work. Her employers and the upper class French
society often treat her with contempt, and they don’t know about her double
life. There are many parallels between this story, and the life of Henry
Darger (who was depicted in “In the Realms of the Unreal.”)
To call
Seraphine eccentric would be an understatement. She also enjoys chatting
with trees and bathes naked in the public river. She also uses real blood
from stolen meat to make her red paint.
Eventually
she achieves a small measure of success, and she finds a patron in Uhde, who
gives her money to help her survive. But memories of her lost love
resurface, and she drifts toward madness. She also strains her relationship
with the patron with her lavish spending as the film progresses toward its
downbeat ending.
"Seraphine" is
leisurely paced (which is appropriate when you consider the setting), but it
has many moments of visual brilliance, and it should win over patient
Francofiles and art film lovers. But I think I will probably remember the
fine lead performance longer than the actual film itself. Go to
www.artnet.com/artist/552668/seraphine-louis.html
to see some of
Seraphine’s paintings. |