Seraphine: Review By harveycritic

SERAPHINE

Music Box Films

Reviewed for Movieweb by Harvey Karten

Grade: B+

Directed by: Martin Provost

Written By: Marc Abdelnour, Martin Provost

Cast: Yolande Moreau, Ulrich Tukur, Anne Bennent, Genevieve Mnich, Nico Rogner, Adelaide Leroux, Serge Lariviere, Francoise Lebrun

Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 5/20/09

Opens: June 5, 2009

Chances are that many people look at the clock while they’re working at humdrum jobs, the sorts of folks who would greet one another with “TGIF” once a week. Creative people are different, or so I’m told. For example, Pablo Picasso once went so far as saying “If I could not paint, I would die.” Martin Provost’s film, “Seraphine,” deals with a woman who fits both categories: by day, she barely ekes out a living as a maid but her evenings are spent painting on wood or canvas, later insisting that her media be exactly two meters high. We in the audience get to see some of her work, which is packed with detail, has a three-dimensional look, the plants appearing to one person as insects—something dark. There’s more than a little dark streak in the title character, who would today be called a minor painter, but “minor” is not really a pejorative if you’re comparing her to the better known artists like Renoir, Cezanne, and Picasso. It is indeed possible that Seraphine would die if she could not paint. She is a religious Catholic who reports that her powerful creative impulses come from God.

Yolande Moreau anchors the fictionalized biopic in a towering performance as Seraphine Louis, later to be known as Seraphine de Senlis from the name of her small village. Moreau, a Belgian-born comedian, actress, writer and director who took a Cesar (French Oscar) for the role, performs as a simple woman, a servant in the homes of people who, if you believe the attitudes of the employers in this and other films, treat their maids like the dirt that daily acc*mulates in their homes. As filmed lovingly with ample closeups by Laurent Brunet with a set design by Thierry Francois that evokes the spirit of small-town France beginning in 1913, Seraphine Louis is on her knees a good deal of the time, whether scrubbing every last speck of dust from the wooden floors by day or painting on large canvasses at night. She is eccentric, a trait that will find her slowly descending into madness. At first she rarely talks, not responding verbally to her employer’s demands but going about the work dutifully. Her life will change radically when she meets Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a well-dressed German art critic, collector, and exhibitor, taking a break in the French village on the eve of the First World War.

Uhde, who in real life discovered Rousseau and was a friend of Picasso as well as Seraphine, is surprised to find that this simple woman can turn out near-great works of art. He becomes her mentor, ultimately suggesting that he will set up a Paris exhibition of her work. For his part, Uhde is struggling against some demons but his own makeup remains underdeveloped to allow time to explore Seraphine. Provost’s direction is deliberately muted, avoiding “Snake Pit” style evocations of madness and any but the most restrained representation of Uhde’s homosexuality. I can think of no performer other than Moreau who could master the subtleties of the painter’s character.

Deservedly, the film took seven Cesar awards for film, actress, original screenplay, music, cinematography, set and costumes. To her credit, Moreau won the Cesar as well for directing and starring in “When the Sea Rises.”

Unrated. 125 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online