Balthus Through the Looking Glass
Encyclopedia
Balthus Through the Looking-Glass is a 1996 French
documentary film
directed by Damian Pettigrew
on the French painter Balthus
filmed at work in his studio.
The film was honored in a cycle of film classics by Jean Renoir
, Marcel Carné
, and Jean Vigo
at the Museum Ludwig
(Cologne, Germany) in September 2007.
The feature length
documentary highlights the painter's complex creative process with rare footage of the artist at work in his studio in the Swiss mountain village of Rossinière
. Conversations with Balthus
and his wife Setsuko, his daughter Harumi, his sons Stanislaus and Thadée, interviews with art critics Jean Leymarie
, Jean Clair, Pierre Rosenberg
, and James Lord
, and with French painter François Rouan (who often assisted Balthus during his tenure at the Villa Medici
), contribute to form a rich psychological portrait of a secretive and controversial artist.
Also featured are photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson
and Irving Penn
, and much unpublished material. Shot in Super 16 over a 12-month period in Switzerland, Italy, France, and the Moors of England, the film focuses on Balthus's unique vision and extraordinary lifestyle.
François Rouan: "The piss that one cherishes when it streams from the beloved... The central question of painting, and particularly in Balthus's work, is the sexual dimension. If Balthus were here, he'd light up a cigarette, yet another one, and assume a humorous air, naturally he would let me have my say, and then he'd conclude by telling me that the young women he paints are angels."
Jean Leymarie: "Angels, as Rilke noted, are terrifying. And beauty itself is terrifying."
Jean Clair: "Perhaps his greatest moments are when his cruelty explodes onto the canvas. Balthus possesses a Sadean element."
Balthus: "The quickest way to become famous during the 1930s was by causing a scandal."
Télérama
, the prominent French weekly magazine, described the film as “a beautiful portrait, vibrant, varied and, beyond the magnificent images, tender, respectful, and compelling.”
“Along with his habits and customs preserved on film,” wrote Hervé Gaumont, art critic for Libération
, "the master’s slowness is admirably rendered.”
Le Journal des Arts praised the “subtle approach, neither didactic nor pedagogical, that succeeds in capturing the painter’s intimate world.”
Art critic Florence Couturiau reviewed the film in Muséart as one “photographed with precision and magic, from Paris to Rome by way of Balthus’s Italian castle. The geometry of the compositions and the subtlety of the painter’s palette shine through each frame of film.”
Le Figaro
regretted the artist’s legendary reserve but admired "a visually stunning documentary that transforms an indiscreet visit into a poetic and analytical portrait... The film examines the cruelty and isolation of Balthus in the light of his close friendship with Artaud who, describing the painter as his double, descended into madness while his twin fled with his sanity still intact. In counterpoint, Philippe Noiret
sees in Balthus a surrogate father offering a reassuring affection."
Michel Parmentier of TéléCable Satellite applauded its intimate approach: “Near-definitive, the portrait examines the key moments of the painter’s life and, more importantly, plunges the viewer into his strange and haunting universe… Balthus reveals various secrets. The level of intimacy is such that Pettigrew’s documentary becomes an exceptional work.”
It was acclaimed in Le Nouvel Observateur
as “a successful and moving portrait.”
The French on-line dvd magazine, Dvdrama, reported that "the interviews, particularly those conducted with the artist’s sons, are filled with fascinating anecdotes. There is real pleasure in watching the film as the director of Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
skilfully marries erudition with emotion, allowing us to penetrate the painter’s austere and complex personality devoted entirely to his art."
The feature documentary is available in an international DVD edition released by Arte
Vidéo in October 2007 (NTSC / All zones format). The 2-disc anamorphically enhanced
Collectors Edition includes the 72' theatrical version together with bonus material featuring:
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
documentary film
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
directed by Damian Pettigrew
Damian Pettigrew
Damian Pettigrew is a Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, author, and multimedia artist, best known for his cinematic portraits of Balthus and Federico Fellini...
on the French painter Balthus
Balthus
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....
filmed at work in his studio.
The film was honored in a cycle of film classics by Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
, Marcel Carné
Marcel Carné
-Biography:Born in Paris, France, the son of a cabinet maker whose wife died when their son was five, Carné began his career as a film critic, becoming editor of the weekly publication, Hebdo-Films, and working for Cinémagazine and Cinémonde between 1929 and 1933. In the same period he worked in...
, and Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo
Jean Vigo was a French film director, who helped establish poetic realism in film in the 1930s and was a posthumous influence on the French New Wave of the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Biography:...
at the Museum Ludwig
Museum Ludwig
Museum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
(Cologne, Germany) in September 2007.
Synopsis
Feature length
Feature length is motion picture terminology referring to the length of a feature film. According to the rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, a feature length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes to be eligible for an Academy Award.The term may also...
documentary highlights the painter's complex creative process with rare footage of the artist at work in his studio in the Swiss mountain village of Rossinière
Rossinière
Rossinière is a municipality in the Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut district of the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.-Geography:Rossinière has an area, , of . Of this area, or 38.2% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 49.6% is forested...
. Conversations with Balthus
Balthus
Balthasar Klossowski de Rola , best known as Balthus, was an esteemed but controversial Polish-French modern artist....
and his wife Setsuko, his daughter Harumi, his sons Stanislaus and Thadée, interviews with art critics Jean Leymarie
Jean Leymarie (art historian)
Jean Leymarie was a French art historian.-Life:Born into a peasant family, he pursued his studies in Toulouse then Paris. After the Second World War, he began his museum career...
, Jean Clair, Pierre Rosenberg
Pierre Rosenberg
Pierre Max Rosenberg is a French art historian and essayist.Born in Paris, he graduated at the École du Louvre. He joined the Musée du Louvre in 1962 as an assistant, then became curator and later director of the museum. Rosenberg was elected to the Académie française on 7 December...
, and James Lord
James Lord (author)
James Lord was an American writer. He was the author of several books, including critically acclaimed biographies of the artists Alberto Giacometti and Pablo Picasso...
, and with French painter François Rouan (who often assisted Balthus during his tenure at the Villa Medici
Villa Medici
The Villa Medici is a mannerist villa and an architectural complex with a garden contiguous with the larger Borghese gardens, on the Pincian Hill next to Trinità dei Monti in Rome, Italy. The Villa Medici, founded by Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany and now property of the French...
), contribute to form a rich psychological portrait of a secretive and controversial artist.
Also featured are photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French photographer considered to be the father of modern photojournalism. He was an early adopter of 35 mm format, and the master of candid photography...
and Irving Penn
Irving Penn
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.-Early career:Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from which he was graduated in 1938. Penn's drawings were published by Harper's Bazaar and he...
, and much unpublished material. Shot in Super 16 over a 12-month period in Switzerland, Italy, France, and the Moors of England, the film focuses on Balthus's unique vision and extraordinary lifestyle.
Quotes from the film
Jean Leymarie: "Angels, as Rilke noted, are terrifying. And beauty itself is terrifying."
Jean Clair: "Perhaps his greatest moments are when his cruelty explodes onto the canvas. Balthus possesses a Sadean element."
Balthus: "The quickest way to become famous during the 1930s was by causing a scandal."
Awards
- 1996: Grand Prize - XXIst UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
International Festival of Art Films - 1996: Best Photography Prize - Lausanne International Art Film Festival
- 1996: Official Selection - 8th International VUE SUR LES DOCS Marseille
Critical reception
Télérama
Télérama is a weekly French magazine owned by Le Monde S.A. Its primary contents are television and radio listings, though the magazine also prints film, theatre, music and book reviews, as well as cover stories and feature articles of cultural interest. The name is a contraction of its earlier...
, the prominent French weekly magazine, described the film as “a beautiful portrait, vibrant, varied and, beyond the magnificent images, tender, respectful, and compelling.”
“Along with his habits and customs preserved on film,” wrote Hervé Gaumont, art critic for Libération
Libération
Libération is a French daily newspaper founded in Paris by Jean-Paul Sartre and Serge July in 1973 in the wake of the protest movements of May 1968. Originally a leftist newspaper, it has undergone a number of shifts during the 1980s and 1990s...
, "the master’s slowness is admirably rendered.”
Le Journal des Arts praised the “subtle approach, neither didactic nor pedagogical, that succeeds in capturing the painter’s intimate world.”
Art critic Florence Couturiau reviewed the film in Muséart as one “photographed with precision and magic, from Paris to Rome by way of Balthus’s Italian castle. The geometry of the compositions and the subtlety of the painter’s palette shine through each frame of film.”
Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
regretted the artist’s legendary reserve but admired "a visually stunning documentary that transforms an indiscreet visit into a poetic and analytical portrait... The film examines the cruelty and isolation of Balthus in the light of his close friendship with Artaud who, describing the painter as his double, descended into madness while his twin fled with his sanity still intact. In counterpoint, Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret
Philippe Noiret was a French film actor.-Biography:Noiret's father was in the clothes trade. Philippe was an indifferent scholar and attended several prestigious Paris schools, including the Lycée Janson de Sailly. He failed several times to pass his baccalauréat exams, so he decided to study...
sees in Balthus a surrogate father offering a reassuring affection."
Michel Parmentier of TéléCable Satellite applauded its intimate approach: “Near-definitive, the portrait examines the key moments of the painter’s life and, more importantly, plunges the viewer into his strange and haunting universe… Balthus reveals various secrets. The level of intimacy is such that Pettigrew’s documentary becomes an exceptional work.”
It was acclaimed in Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur
Le Nouvel Observateur is a weekly French newsmagazine. Based in Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation ....
as “a successful and moving portrait.”
The French on-line dvd magazine, Dvdrama, reported that "the interviews, particularly those conducted with the artist’s sons, are filled with fascinating anecdotes. There is real pleasure in watching the film as the director of Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar is a 2002 French documentary film written and directed by Damian Pettigrew.Based on Federico Fellini's last confessions filmed by Pettigrew in Rome in 1991 and 1992 , the film eschews straightforward biography to highlight the Italian director's unorthodox working...
skilfully marries erudition with emotion, allowing us to penetrate the painter’s austere and complex personality devoted entirely to his art."
DVD
Arte
Arte is a Franco-German TV network. It is a European culture channel and aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts...
Vidéo in October 2007 (NTSC / All zones format). The 2-disc anamorphically enhanced
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
Collectors Edition includes the 72' theatrical version together with bonus material featuring:
- Three Balthusian Lessons - a 24' documentary with Jean Clair, Jean Leymarie and François Rouan based on the sacred, the profane, and the Japanese Zen concept of satori;
- Tea at the Grand Chalet - a 10' document with Anna, Balthus's last adolescent model, taking afternoon tea with the painter and his wife at the Grand Chalet. In the course of their easy-going conversations, the painter's sunny mood clouds over when he considers the work on his easel as a daunting challenge.
External links
- Balthus de l'autre côté du miroir at the Internet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie DatabaseInternet Movie Database is an online database of information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media. It is one of the most popular online entertainment destinations, with over 100 million...
- de l'autre côté du miroir Le Centre de Film sur l'Art - Cahier didactique