FIFA 2016: Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Le fabuleux destin d'Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, peintre de Marie-Antoinette

Film by Arnaud Xainte

France | language: French | 2015 | 94 min

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun left a legacy of more than 600 portraits, 200 landscapes, and drawings. In addition to private collections, her works are displayed by major museums, such as the Russia's Hermitage Museum, London's National Gallery, and museums in continental Europe and the United States.

A child prodigy, she became a professional portrait painter at the age of 14. She was the daughter of a portraitist and fan painter Louis Vigée, who adored his daughter and started instructing her in the arts of portrait painting when she was 6 years old. Ambitious and independent, she rose above her middle class beginnings, through the Frances's high class circles, to become a private painter of Marie-Antoinette. Since no photography existed at that time, portrait painting was the only way to capture a person's likeness and preserve it for the posterity.

The film documents Vigée Le Brun's life, from her birth until her death in 1832 at the age of 86. It discloses her character, her private life, her career as a painter, and documents her 12 years in exile when she fled France after the arrest of the royal family during the French Revolution. During those exhile years, she lived and worked in Italy, Austria, and Russia, where her experience in dealing with an aristocratic clientèle proved to be useful. Later on in life, she travelled to London where she also painted portraits.

Here is an intriguing quoit from her Memoirs, "Avant la Révolution, les femmes avaient le pouvoir. La Révolution les a détrônées." Or in English, "Before the Revolution, women had power. The Revolution dethroned them."

The film also discusses other prominent women portraitists of the period, and the fact they were forgotten in the art history narrative compiled by men.

Official Synopses:

“Born into a middle-class family, Elisabeth Vigée le Brun (1755-1842) painted the most famous portraits of Marie-Antoinette. In exile during the Revolution, she returned under the Empire and took part in both the Restoration and the July Monarchy. Welcomed into all the courts of Europe, she created 650 portraits and 150 drawings, commanding the highest fees of her era. Historical reconstructions, fictional scenes and interviews with historians combine to form this rich portrait.”

Arnaud Xainte

After studies in law and finance, Arnaud Xainte studied screenwriting and filmmaking at the Sorbonne Nouvelle. He currently works as a producer, writer and director.

Filmography | Bourse, ton univers impitoyable (2011) ; Cocteau, je reste avec vous (2013) ; Cartier la petite boîte rouge (2013) ; Jésuites (2014) ; Rita Hayworth, et l'homme créa la déesse (2014), 33e FIFA.

Production Team:

Screenplay Jean-Frédéric Thibault
Cinematography Thomas Jacquet, Thomas Lallier
Sound Frédéric Dabo, Pierre Excoffier, Valentin Excoffier
Editing Stéphane Rolland
Music Hélène Blazy
Narration Stéphane Ronchewski
Artists Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Producer Laure Bernard
Production Illégitime Défense
Distribution Illégitime Défense

For more information and film scheduling, visit the Art FIFA website.

Film Screenings:

Saturday March 12 | 5:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings

Saturday March 19 | 3:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER