"A girl out of nowhere, sent by a dead woman." That description of its catalyst makes Renoirsound like a thriller. But this film is actually a relaxed, visually lush tribute to Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and his son Jean, who was to become one of France's most esteemed filmmakers.
The "girl out of nowhere" is aspiring actress Andree Heuschling (Christa Theret), a red-haired, orange-clad gamine who bicycles through the opening scene like a creature from another world. The women she passes as she rides are dressed mostly in black, while the men are generally in uniform and often horribly wounded. It's 1915, and wartime France is not the happiest of places.
Renoir's estate on the French Riviera is a refuge from all that. Indeed, the colorful, sun-dappled property seems like Andree's natural habitat. No wonder Renoir's wife, who has recently died, had encouraged the young woman to visit.
In a matter of minutes, the new arrival is nude and posing, as Renoir (the venerable actor Michel Bouquet) paints.
"What interests me is skin," says the artist, and of course his gaze is partly erotic. But Andree, who in real life was just 15, also represents youth and vitality to the 76-year-old painter. He's hobbled by arthritis and, it seems, by a touch of hypochondria.
The older man isn't the only injured Renoir, we'll discover; two of his three sons have been wounded in the war, and 21-year-old Jean (Vincent Rottiers) soon returns home to convalesce. He has a nasty gash in his leg, and so becomes the second patient in a chateau full of women who devoutly cater to the artist.
No comments:
Post a Comment