Camille Claudel
by Bruno Nuytten
List Price:
Our Price: $9.99
You Save: $4.99 (33%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $4.98 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alain Cuny, G?rard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani, Laurent Gr?vill, Madeleine RobinsonDirector: Bruno Nuytten
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 2.35:1
Running Time: 159 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-01-23
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Camille Claudel
Movie Review: A tragic fall for a talented young artist
Summary: 4 Stars
Camille Claudel was the young talented studio assistant to Auguste Rodin who became his muse and lover at a point in his career when he was a commercial success but had become devoid of inspiration. When he refused to leave his common-law wife of many years to marry Camille, she had an abortion and then gradually sunk into paranoid schizophrenia. This is the basic story. However the subtle manner in which the story is told and the unresolved issues in the life of Claudel elevate the film into a work of art.
The film explores the artistic muse and their relationship with the artist. Camille was a muse in that her images were fresh and vibrant which inspired Rodin. She was also a willful and socially disruptive iconoclastic young women and Rodin is attracted to her outbursts of emotion. He is twice her age and becomes her lover even though he has a common-law wife that he has no intention of leaving. Their collaborations on his sculptures inspired some of his best work. Yet her father wisely knew that she was losing herself in Rodin, putting her inspiration into his products, elevating his career and not her own. It is the nature of the artist to draw from all experiences and resources around him/her for the benefit of their art. Picasso's paintings when he is in love and inspired by a woman are very different from when he is rejecting the woman and he paints her as a monster. The relationship between Rodin and Claudel somewhat reminded me of the relationship between Francis Bacon and George Dyer in the film, Love is the Devil. Once Dyer reached the point where he no longer inspired Bacon and was in fact a liability due to alcoholism and addiction and mental illness, then Bacon withdraws in much the way Rodin withdraws from Claudel as she becomes increasingly disturbed.
The film is very beautiful to watch. The scenes of Paris and the countryside around the city, as well as the museums and exhibition halls in Paris are very beautiful and grand. The acting is superb with Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu dominating every scene. Adjani has the ability to play highly disturbed women to perfection. She is in virtually every scene in the film. It is virtually impossible not to watch her when she is on the screen.
Summary of Camille Claudel
International screen star Isabelle Adjani (The Story Of Adele H., Ishtar) is the creative prodigy Camille Claudel. G?(c)rard Depardieu (Green Card, Cyrano de Bergerac) is thelegendary sculptor Rodin. This is the true story of their passionate obsession with artand with each other. Both an inspiring saga of artistic vision and the haunting portrayal of a doomed romance, Camille Claudel is a beautiful and stirring cinematic masterpiece. A historically accurate depiction of one of the most important collaborations in the history of modern art, Camille Claudel was nominated for the 1989 Academy Award?(r) for Best Foreign Language Film,and Adjani was nominated for the 1989 Oscar?(r) for Best Actress for her riveting portrayalof the beautiful young woman who sacrifices her talents to flames of passion."Miss Claudel has become a master."
"She has the talent of a man."
"She's a witch."
And so Auguste Rodin and friends neatly sum up the sad trajectory of Camille Claudel's career.
We first meet the sculptor as she digs clay with bare fingers from a frozen ditch, in the winter of 1885. By the time the film leaves her, in 1913, she's an acclaimed, if socially scorned, artist who's been committed to an asylum.
In the interim, Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) falls in love with the famous, older, womanizing Rodin (G?rard Depardieu). Claudel abandons her work to assist the creatively bankrupt Rodin, filling in as his muse, assistant, and lover. When pregnancy forces Claudel to ask him to choose between her and his longtime mistress, he won't, she leaves, and their alliance ends. This proves to be the turning point for Claudel's mental health; when her affair with Rodin ends, she begins her intimacy with insanity.
As her madness blooms, so do her long-neglected sculptures, which seem to come to life in her hands and arms. Not only a potent love story, Camille Claudel is also an account of art and its wellsprings, and this is where it excels, especially when we witness Claudel's manic genius at work, driven by the necessity to externalize her emotions in the forms of her sculptures.
In the end, the viewer wonders about the causes of Claudel's madness: was it genes, or her reaction against society's mores, or the product of Rodin's persecution? Or, as one exasperated family member terms it, was it "the madness of mud"? --Stefanie Durbin
Art House & International DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in If you want to discover G?rard Depardieu (1948 - ) - 2nd part.
Going PlacesRelease date: 2002-01-22; DVD
Best price: $46.99
StaviskyRelease date: 2002-03-12; DVD
Best price: $100.00
![Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others (Tre amici le mogli e affettuosamente le altre) (Vincent, Fran?ois, Paul et les Autres) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ] Image](/images/Vincent-Francois-Paul-and-the-Others-Tre-amici-le-mogli-e-affettuosamente-le-altre-Vincent-Fran-ois-Paul-et-les-Autres-NON-USA-FORMAT-PAL-Reg-2-Import-B000TR0ACW-X.jpg)
Vincent, Francois, Paul and the Others (Tre amici le mogli e affettuosamente le altre) (Vincent, Fran?ois, Paul et les Autres) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]DVD
Best price: $30.24
![I Love You, I Don't / Je t'aime moi non plus [Region 2] Image](/images/I-Love-You-I-Dont-Je-taime-moi-non-plus-Region-2-B000088G0U-X.jpg)
I Love You, I Don't / Je t'aime moi non plus [Region 2]DVD
Best price: $31.98
1900 (Special Collector's Edition)PARAMOUNT PICTURES; Release date: 2006-12-05; DVD
Best price: $12.97
Price in other shops:
Maitresse - Criterion CollectionRelease date: 2004-02-03; DVD
Best price: $18.99
Price in other shops:
BaroccoRelease date: 2003-03-10; DVD
Best price: $11.60
Price in other shops:
Get Out Your HandkerchiefsRelease date: 2002-01-22; DVD
Best price: $66.95
Bye Bye MonkeyRelease date: 1999-04-06; DVD
Best price: $75.89
![Traffic Jam (l'Ingorgo) Collector's Edition [Non-US Format, PAL Region 0] Image](/images/Traffic-Jam-lIngorgo-Collector-Edition-Non-US-Format-PAL-Region-0-B000JO2UJQ-X.jpg)
Traffic Jam (l'Ingorgo) Collector's Edition [Non-US Format, PAL Region 0]DVD
Similar DVD Movies
ArtemisiaRelease date: 2001-12-18; DVD
Best price: $11.67
Price in other shops:
PollockSony; Release date: 2001-07-24; DVD
Best price: $7.67
Price in other shops:
Vincent & TheoTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2005-08-23; DVD
Best price: $2.41
Price in other shops:
ModiglianiUNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP DISTRIBUTION; Release date: 2005-09-27; DVD
Best price: $5.56
Price in other shops:
Cyrano de BergeracTWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2004-02-10; DVD
Best price: $6.67
Price in other shops:
The Horseman on the RoofHorseman; Release date: 2003-06-03; DVD
Best price: $7.58
Price in other shops:
La Vie en Rose (Extended Version)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-11-13; DVD
Best price: $17.50
Price in other shops:
Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (MGM World Films)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-07-24; Published: 1987; DVD
Best price: $10.49
Price in other shops:
The Story of Adele H.TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2001-01-23; DVD
Best price: $7.50
Price in other shops:
Queen Margot (La Reine Margot)Release date: 2003-07-01; DVD
Best price: $7.06
Price in other shops: