SERAPHINE: An interview with director, Martin Provost

French painter, Seraphine de Senlis, did not know much success while she was alive from 1864 to 1942. She would spend her days cleaning houses for very little money that would always sooner be spent on art supplies instead of food. She would paint in what is known as the naïve style, which essentially mirrored her childlike demeanor. She was a simple woman with simple needs and is now the subject of a complex film by director, Martin Provost, called simply, SERAPHINE.

Provost had originally heard of Seraphine through a colleague who thought her story would intrigue him. Her story did but her work, at first, did not. It was not until he saw her work in person that he understood the connection between the paintings and the painter. “It is a real paradox,” Provost told me when we met at the Toronto International Film Festival, where SERAPHINE was seen by North American audiences for the first time. “Her work would not ordinarily interest me but when I sat alone in a room with them, something happened to me. I could feel the person behind the paintings.” She would inspire him to be as dedicated to his work as she was to hers.


Given her mental health issues, Seraphine was an inherently marginalized voice. It is fitting then that she would be discovered by a similarly marginalized voice, that of homosexual art collector, Willhelm Uhde. She is drawn to him while he is drawn to her work. Their relationship, as portrayed in the film, is unique; a strong, passionate kinship grows between them but it is not one that could ever go the direction it feels it naturally should. “I constructed the screenplay as though they had a romantic relationship when clearly, it was not one of love or sexuality,” Provost describes. The delicacy of their relationship’s balance is achieved by striking and stark performances from leads, Yolande Moreau and Ulrich Tukor.

SERAPHINE has an unexpected universal appeal. This is a woman who slaved for days to make pennies in order to support her art, her passion. The artist’s plight, the true artist’s plight that is, no matter how clichéd it might be even today, is placing priority and emphasis on the work above all else. “We may be in a period of abundance but the essential is missing,” says Provost of our increasingly art-less world. Perhaps Seraphine’s more naïve approach is what this world now desperately needs.

Black Sheep @ the 2008 Festival Nouveau Cinema

The festival continues swimmingly. Screenings are sold out. Reactions to the films are enthusiastic. And there’s still more to come. In fact, I have three films to see today alone. Hence my having to be brief with you so I can get out there and continue devouring everything the festival has to offer … including tonight’s surprise premiere of Kevin Smith’s ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.


SERAPHINE
Little known French painter, Seraphine de Senlis, has found a fresh admirer in French director, Martin Provost. His hopes are that his admiration will spread. Provost’s third feature film sheds a light on not only an underrated painter but leaves the viewer with provocative questions about art, who can create it and what actually makes it art. And while Provost’s sensitive style makes for an insightful look at one woman’s slow descent into madness, it is Yolande Moreau’s eerily innocent performance that makes SERAPHINE so engaging. The manner in which she operates in her own naïve world and mind makes her such a sympathetic character and adds so much value to the art she creates.


TWO-LEGGED HORSE
Samira Makhmalbaf’s TWO-LEGGED HORSE is not for the casual filmgoer. It is the story of two boys, one who comes from wealth and another who lives in a hole in the ground. The boy with nothing is hired to carry around the other, as he lost his legs in an explosion. Ordinarily, your heart would go out to the young invalid but it’s pretty hard when he treats a boy who could be his friend literally like a horse. This is a movie that drags you across the jagged rocks of Iran and leaves you there to bleed. I have to say, this was not for me. While it was effective, it was also too trying. I don’t need to have things sugar coated in order to be able to enjoy them but this was so dire that I couldn’t focus on it all the way through in fear of losing it.



LE PREMIER JOUR DU RESTE DE TA VIE
French director, Remi Bezancon’s newest film has all its bases covered. It’s got an intriguing premise – a family history as told through five specific days that permanently altered the family’s dynamic. It’s got a pimped out soundtrack to catch the mood of the vast period of time it covers and the editing is equally tricked out to give the film a hip look to match the soundtrack. But does it have enough emotional depth to fill the rest of the stylized space? Mostly. Thanks to a great cast, including Montreal’s Marc-Andre Grondin (C.R.A.Z.Y.), the film is engaging and enjoyable. It only falters beneath its actual concept. Given that we are only focusing on life-changing days, they are always dramatic events. We are left with the impression that this family had very little calm in their house.

And, now I must be off to catch another film. More festival coverage to come this weekend.