Dir: Phil Grabsky | David Bickerstaff | Doc | 85′
Phil Grabsky directs in this documentary exploring the life, art and legacy of the “father of modern art”, Paul Cézanne.
Based on his extensive correspondence with painters including Émile Zola and Camille Pissarro, plus interviews with curators, experts and the artist’s great-grandson Philippe Cézanne
The film uses the exhibition Cézanne Portraits, on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, as a launching off point to uncover the story of the man credited with bridging the gap between Impressionism and Cubism and heralding in a new generation of artistic tradition. This “once in a lifetime” exhibition was first mounted in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and was also shown in the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, featuring fifty of Cézanne’s portraits from collections around the world.
Cézanne – Portraits of Life also travels to Paris, where Cézanne mixed in the emerging circle of Impressionists, and to his childhood and family home in Aix-en-Provence, giving viewers an unprecedented insight into one of history’s most significant yet, until now, lesser-known artists.
Impossible to appreciate 20th century art without understanding the significance and genius of Paul Cézanne. The immersive documentary includes interviews with curators and experts from the National Portrait Gallery London, MoMA New York, National Gallery of Art Washington, and Musée d’Orsay Paris, and correspondence from the artist himself, and takes audiences beyond the exhibition to the places Cézanne lived and worked and sheds light on an artist who is perhaps the least known of all the Impressionists. MT
Back by popular demand | IN CINEMAS FROM 29 NOVEMBER 2022
