FIFA 2016: Picasso, Making of the Icon

Picasso, naissance d'une icône
The Making of the Icon

Film by Hopi Lebel 

France | French | subtitled English | 2015 | 54 min

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

This film brings to life Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) who is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and stage designer who spent most of his life in France. He is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, and also for the wide variety of styles that he helped to develop and explore.

Among Picasso’s  most famous works are Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), and Guernica (1937) which  portrays the Bombing of the Basque town Guernica by the German and Italian air forces at the request of the Spanish nationalist government during the Spanish Civil War. Both masterpieces are discussed in the film.

The film exams the artist’s life, presents many photographs and video clips of his public appearances and from his private life, and attempts to uncover how Picasso conquered the imagination of people not only with his art but also with his personality and self-promotion. Yet no replicable formula of his success was uncovered. He was a very unique man. No one could replicate his success by following his example in attempting to achieve fame and artistic recognition as Picasso did. And this comes out loud and clear in the film.

Official Synopses:

“Picasso is a towering figure in contemporary art and in contemporary mindsets, not only because of his boundless creativity, but because of his innate talent for communication. His need to nurture his own public image became evident and essential to him very early on. Intercut with previously unreleased archival material and interviews with specialists and those who knew him, this film sheds new light on how the most famous painter in the world was able to mould his own legend and become the universal embodiment of the creative genius.”

Hopi Lebel

After studies in art history and philosophy, Hopi Lebel became a writer-director. All of his films have been shown on French television.

Filmography | Helsinki (2000) ; Goa (2001) ; Francis Picabia (2002), 21e FIFA ; Vuillard (2003), 22e FIFA ; Avec Vincent Lindon (2002) ;  Qui a tué dada ? (2005), 24e FIFA ; Clint Eastwood (2007), 26e FIFA, coréal. Michael Wilson ; Édouard Manet, une inquiétante étrangeté (2011), 30e FIFA.

Production Team:

Screenplay Stéphane Guéguan, Hopi Lebel

Cinematography Denis Gaubert
Editing Marine Benveniste
Music Manuel Peskine
Participation Olivier Widmaier Picasso, Jeff Koons, Maya Widmaier Picasso, Diana Widmaier Picasso, John Richardson, Guy Scarpetta, Didier Ottinger, Glenn D. Lowry, Nathalie Heinich, Philippe Dagen, Émilie Bouvard, Stéphane Guéguan
Artists Pablo Picasso, Olivier Widmaier-Picasso, Jeff Koons, Maya Widmaier Picasso, Diana Widmaier Picasso, John Richardson, Guy Scarpetta, Didier Ottinger, Glenn D. Lowry, Nathalie Heinich, Philippe Dagen, Émilie Bouvard, Stéphane Guéguan
Producer Sylvie Cazin
Production INA, Welcome, RMN-Grand Palais
Distribution INA

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

Film Screenings:

Friday March 18 | 5:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings  

Sunday March 20 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER

FIFA 2016: El Greco

El Greco: An Artist's Odyssey

Film by David Hammer

United States | English | 2014 | 30 min

CANADIAN PREMIERE

The film presents a life of El Greco and shows many of his painting. It discusses his artistic path and difficulties to secure a place with the art patrons of the time. Despite being only 30 minutes long, the film succeeds in drawing a compelling portrait of El Greco as a man and an artist with a very individual perception and sensibility of how to paint.

El Greco was born with a name Doménikos Theotokópoulos (1541 – 1614). He was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. He is best known for his painting with elongated figures some of the in tortuous poses, as well as his specific coloration. El Greco is characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school or art movement.

His nickname "El Greco" refers both to his Greek origin and Spanish citizenship. However, he signed his panting with his full birth name in Greek letters, often adding the word "Cretan" since he was born in Crete, which was at the time part of the Republic of Venice.

At the age of 26, he travelled to Venice, which was then the center of Post-Byzantine art. In 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and painted a series of commissioned works. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death, and produced his best-known paintings.

El Greco's unique dramatic style was not recognized by his contemporaries as of great value. After his death, he fell into an oblivion which lasted for over three centuries. He finally found appreciation in the 20th century, due to his expressionistic style. Now, he is regarded as a precursor of both Expressionism and Cubism. His personality and works were a source of inspiration for poets and writers, among them Rainer Maria Rilke and Nikos Kazantzakis.

Official Synopses:

“Bornin Crete, El Greco (1541-1614) began his career as a painter of icons for Byzantine churches. Moving to Italy and then to Spain, his work combined lessons learned from the glories of Byzantium with the ravishing colour of Venetian art and the elegant artificialities of Roman mannerism. In Toledo, he created a series of works in a visionary style charged with emotion and drama. Although his work puzzled many contemporaries, later artists such as Picasso considered him a prophet of modernism. This film coincided with the exhibition El Greco in the National Gallery of Art and Washington-Area Collections: A 400th Anniversary Celebration.”

David Hammer

Born in Washington, David Hammer received an M.A. in directing from Columbia University in New York. He has worked in film and television for more than 20 years. In 2010, he joined the production unit of the National Gallery of Art.

Filmography | First Movie (1993) ; Becky and Pete (1999) ; Three-Quarters of the World (1999) ; Magic and Loss (2002) ; Pigeon Cove (2003) ; To Remember Him (2005) ; George Bellows (2012), 31e FIFA.

Production Team:

Screenplay Carroll Moore
Cinematography Patrick Duval, Richard Numeroff
Editing Barbara Burst
Narration Adrien Brody
Artists El Greco
Producer Carroll Moore, Susan Arensberg
Production National Gallery of Art
Distribution National Gallery of Art

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

Film Screenings:

Sunday March 13 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 
  

Sunday March 20 | 10:30 AM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER

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

FIFA 2016: Alberto Giacometti

Alberto Giacometti, Sculptor of the Gaze

Film by Charles De Lartigue

France | English | subtitled French | 2016 | 52 min

WORLD PREMIERE

At an auction in London in 2010, Alberto Giacometti's sculpture Walking Man was sold for 68 million pounds, which represents 104 million dollars. This was a world record, the largest sum of money ever paid for a single sculpture.

In order to better understand this phenomenal event, and the tremendous power that Giacometti's works have on art lovers, the film guides the spectator through the artist's life, and also through his artistic journey and creative processes. There are many photographs shown from his life, as well as short filmed interviews in which Giacometti comments on how he works. His artistic thoughts and ideas, expressed both on and off camera, are also revealed.

The film brings Giacometti to life, exposing his way of seeing people and the world around him. It brings into focus how individual is his creative journey, how unique are his perceptions which he moulds into his sculptures or portrays in his drawings and painting, thus showing to the world what he sees. 

Official Synopses:

"A journey into the life and works of Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966), who revolutionized 20th century sculpture. It is Giacometti himself who guides us with his gravelly voice and true Italian flair. His first experiments with reduction, around the age of 18, set the path for research that he would pursue for the rest of his life. Along the way, he flirted with the various currents of the time—Cubism, Negro art, Abstraction and Surrealism—before defining his own vision, which beginning in 1946 came to full fruition."

Charles De Lartigue

A writer, director and producer, Charles de Lartigue studied law and art history before turning to filmmaking.
Filmography | Les peintres et la Provence (1995-1996), série ; Yachting, a 150 year tradition? ; From Flandres to Europe ; Euralille ; La Turbine tertiaire ; Aurélie Nemours, le silence de la peinture ; Gottfried Honegger, l’art concret ; America’s Cup, The Quest for Excellence.

Production Team:

Screenplay Charles De Lartigue
Cinematography Olivier Mauguy, Volker Noack
Sound Jean-Claude Leita
Editing Arthur Guibert, Nina Lucia
Music Ian Freebairn-Smith
Narration Ian Freebairn-Smith
Participation Alberto Giacometti
Artists Alberto Giacometti
Producer Charles De Lartigue
Production ANGLE LLC
Distribution ANGLE LLC


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

Film Screenings:

Saturday March 12 | 3:00 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings

Friday March 18 | 7:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER

FIFA 2016: Galleria Borghese

Museo Italia – Galleria Borghese

Film by Mimma Nocelli

Italy | Italian | subtitled English | 2015 | 50 min | documentary

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

The film introduces to the viewers the magnificent Villa Borghese, the ancestral house of the noble Roman family Borghese. The Villa, along with its entire art collection, and together with all the grounds and gardens, was sold to the State of Italy in 1901 by the Borghese heirs for 3.6 million liras. This was indeed a very generous transaction on the part of the Borghese family, especially when one considers that at the same time Baron Rothschild was offering to buy only one of many paintings housed in the Villa for 4 million liras.

The Villa was commissioned by Scipione Borghese (1577-1633), who was a Cardinal and a nephew of Pope Paul V. It was intended to be a summer residence at the edge of Rome, and also a a party villa. It was build by the architect Flaminio Ponzio, but Cardinal Scipione Borghese developed sketches for it by himself.

Cardinal Scipione Borghese was patron of arts. He was an avid art collector with a great taste, vast art knowledge, and he housed all his art acquisitions at his lavish Villa Borghese. Cardinal Scipione Borghese was also the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the sculptor Bernini. The works of these two artists are shown and discussed at length in the film.

The camera shots are almost never still. The camera moves from the gardens inside the Villa, and then from one room to the next, exposing the interior splendour of the Villa and the works of art inside it. The shooting angle is moving constantly, showing the works of art from various perspectives, and zooming in on various details in a rapid succession. 

Official Synopses:

"The most beautiful private collection in the world” is how Canova described Cardinal Scipione Borghese’s collection at the turn of the 17th century. A nephew of Pope Paul V, Scipione built the Villa Borghese in a large park just outside the walls of Rome to house this exceptional collection, which ranged from ancient works to contemporary pieces by such masters as Caravaggio and Bernini. Thus arose the modern concept of the collector: curious, refined in taste, quick to identify quality and the spirit of the time."

Mimma Nocelli

After studying architecture in Rome, Mimma Nocellia began directing programs, concert recordings, music videos and documentaries for Italian television.

Filmography | Viva Africa, série, 15 épisodes ; Amerindia, série, 15 épisoes ; Poiesis, série, 5 épisodes ; Tutti in scena ; Donne al bibio ; Une notte con Zeus.

Production Team:

Screenplay Antonio Paolucci
Artists Scipione Borghese, Le Caravage, Le Bernin
Producer Pasquale D'Alessandro
Production RAI 5

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

Film Screenings:

Saturday March 12 | 12:30 PM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings.

Friday March 18 | 10:30 AM | Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal - Auditorium Maxwell-Cummings 

FILM TRAILER

EARLY WINTER - PREMIÈRES NEIGES

DIRECTED BY MICHAEL ROWE

2015 / AUSTRALIA, QUÉBEC/CANADA | 96 minutes

Original version in English, Subtitled in French

DIRECTOR: Michael Rowe

SCREENPLAY: Michael Rowe

CAST: Suzanne  Clément, Paul Doucet, Micheline Lanctôt, Lise Martin

                

This film was the winner of the Jury Prize Venice Days (Giornate degli Autori), following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2015. The film was also screened in North American premiere at the 44th Festival of New Cinema in Montreal in October 2015 as well as at the festivals of Rouyn-Noranda, Melbourne, Brisbane, Halifax and Kerala. The film was released in France on January 6 and it will screen in Australia in March. It will be screened in Montreal starting January 29, 2015.

David, in his fourties, is leading a routine life with his wife Maya and their two children. To fill his wife of the latest gadgets, he works alone day and night as a janitor in a nursing home. But then he begins to suspect that Maya  is unfaithful, his whole life that is put to test, the past threatens to overtake the present.

Film's Official Synopsis

"David, 45, lives in Montreal with his wife, Maya, a housewife of Russian extraction who only speaks English, and their two young sons. Working the night shift in a nursing home, David copes as best he can with his miserable life by scouring thrift shops in search of things to repair, and by taking antidepressants. His past haunts him, and invades the present brutally when he learns that Maya is planning to attend a design fair where she will surely see Alexander, her lover from six years ago. With this final instalment in his painful trilogy about solitude, preceded by Leap Year (Camera d’or and Louve d’or, 2010) and The Well, Mexican filmmaker Michael Rowe has made a family drama (co-produced in Canada) of impressive rigour, using minimalist, patient and empathetic sequence shots to observe the slow disintegration of a couple folded in on itself, under bright yet gloomy and often stifling lighting designed by Nicolas Canniccioni. Suzanne Clément plays Maya with strikingly icy charisma, while Paul Doucet impresses with his portrayal of a once rock-solid man cracking up before our eyes."

 Film Trailer

Fatima - film

FATIMA

  

     Directior :  Philippe Faucon

     Actors : Zita Hanrot, Soria Zeroual, Kenza Noah Aïche

     Genre : Drame

     Script : Philippe Faucon

     Music : Robert-Marcel Lepage

     Country : France, Canada

     Released : 2015

     Duration: 89 min.

     Language : Arabic, French

    Festival : Festival de Cannes 2015

The film version I watched had no English subtitles.

This film is based on the writings by Fatima Elayoubi: Prière à la lune and Enfin, je peux marcher seule. The themes in those two works are loosely adopted for the film.
  

The film is about difficulty of the immigration, about the place allotted to the female immigrants from North Africa who are not well educated and who do not speak French even after a considerable time living in France, and the difficulty of raising children alone in a new culture in which the children are very quickly immersed.

Fatima lives on her own with two daughters whom she has to support, the 15 year old Souad, a teenager in revolt, and 18 year old Nesrine, who is starting a medical school. Fatima speaks French poorly and is constantly preoccupied with raising her daughters and the frustration by the daily interactions with them. They are her pride and joy, but they are also a constant source of worry. To ensure the best possible future for them, she works long hours as a cleaning woman. One day, she takes a fall on the stairs. On leave, Fatima begins to write to her daughters in Arabic what she has never been able to express to them in French.

The film is basically about the strength of Fatima's character and the difficulty of integrating into a new society.

FILM'S TRAILER