Une Visite au Louvre (Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub, 2004)
I paid Une Visite au Louvre last night, via a film from Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub (2004). It consists of unmoving shots of paintings (and one sculpture, the Samothracean Victory) in the Louvre with a voiceover from an emotional actress reading the words of Paul Cézanne as rendered by Joachim Gasquet. Whew! Why does this even exist? Why are the male painter’s opinions voiced by a woman? Why does the camera not enter and rove around in the paintings, in the way to which we are now accustomed? (Tho I admit there are often too many details in this kind of thing and not enough opportunities to see the artwork as a whole – in this film it’s the other way around.) In the case of the Tintoretto it was impossible to make out the figures – the painting being so large – only the general organisation. This would have made a better book than a film.
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 20 March, 2017 | Now: 20 March, 2017