The story is structured aroudn the paintings. Some of the world's most memorable art works are recreated, following the same techniques that the artists used at the time.
The series reveals how Claude Monet took just 40 minutes to paint his seminal work Impression, soleil levant ("Sunrise") in a race against time to capture the light, the painting laying the foundations for the Impressionist movement; why Manet's depiction of Olympia so outraged Parisian society; and how Cézanne's 60 paintings of one mountain, Montagne Saint-Victoire, laid the foundations for Cubism and modern art.
Julian Glover plays 80-year-old Monet, the "father of Impressionism" and narrator of the series. He undertakes a nostalgic but painful journey as he looks back on his past life in an interview with a journalist at his garden in Giverny.
As all docudramas, I feel a bit ambiguous about these depictions of "real life stories", as with biopics.
The problem with language: French artists speaking English? How "real" is this?
This is of course a recurrent problem in English speaking countries but also French speaking, Spanish speaking and other countries not interested in hearing another language than their own.
But otherwise a good production as (almost) always from BBC.
No comments:
Post a Comment