Camille Claudel
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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.
Movie Review: WARNING: DVD IS CUT BY 13 MINUTES!
Summary: 1 Stars
This USA butchered DVD release has 13 minutes cut from it, excluding major plot points, whole sequences, violence, nudity and characters. This is NOT a review of the film, merely this substandard, shoddy MGM release. The UNCUT version on DVD is available in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, basically everywhere in the world but here!Movie Review: a fascinating woman and artist ... broken under a world which did respectively she could not open up
Summary: 5 Stars
A life in-between mania and raging passion
This touching movie - shot in following the biography written by Reine-Marie Paris - respects Camille Claudel and her tragic life most powerfully.
Isabell Adjani who pictures an amazingly striking similarity of the original gets herself as actress brilliantly into Claudel's personality which again and again links up a paranoid disorder with a brilliant sculptor in her own right and kind on its way down to an obsessively self created social withdrawal, unavoidably for women at those time.
Absorbingly, impressively and intensely Adani dominates for nearly 3 hours this dramatic course of paranoid schizophrenia of this extraordinary lady artist, an illness which is nurtured by affective, creative and wrecking actions and "happenings" and which - in a world dominated by men - has impeded her development of a successful and harmonious sculptress.
Undoubtedly, Claudel's fascinating fine art works of "A revolt against nature: a woman genius" [Octave Mirbeau] emerged from an intensive and artistically minded, worthwhile love affair with Auguste Rodin, perfectly played by Depardieu, a relationship which supported Rodin by its discrepancy and conflict as well but which, however, finally ended for Claudel in apathy and paranoia after a life of dissipation.
This movie is really genially directed by Nuytten and shows without beating about the bush or any kind of glorification this tragically ending, close companionship, a companionship which could have guided both to a cohabitation but - paradoxically supporting their individual great artistic intentions - split them instead due to two distinctly conflictive and contrary emotions and reasons.
... a most convincing und straight forward documentation about the 1st half of the life of a highly gifted artist
Movie Review: Great story...slow moving...
Summary: 3 Stars
This movie is based on the life of Camille Claudel (1864-1943) who was a beautiful and talented French sculptor. She gets support from her Father early on in her passionate pursuit of her artistic development however he eventually climbs on the side of her despicable Mother who looks for Camille to take a more traditional path in life (wife, mother, etc).
Rodin, considered by many to be one of the world's greatest sculptors, took on Camille as a mentee and quickly learned that in many ways her talents exceeded his. Rodin, twice her age, falls in love with Claudel and she with him. Claudel presses Rodin to marry her after learning that she is pregnant however Rodin refuses to commit to her or to any woman for that matter. Claudel reluctantly walks away from him and eventually loses her mind when she sees that Rodin goes on surviving without her. She becomes convinced that Rodin and his supporters were out to steal her work and her best ideas and she eventually is institutionalized for 30 years until her death at 78 years of age.
I found the story to be engaging and the cinematography to be first rate. However this nearly 3 hour movie was a bit slow moving for me and certain parts were hard to reconcile (Claudel barely ages throughout the movie - Rodin's ability to walk away from Claudel after she is such a great inspiration and love to him - her odd relationship with her brother.)
Movie Review: Camille Claudel - a must see
Summary: 5 Stars
The story of Camille Claudel is a 'must see' for anyone interested in the role of women in the 19th century who are up against the power and status of men - matters still relevant in the 21st century - despite feminism. This movie is about family and personal relationships, patriarchial systems, how women were once labelled mentally ill (or driven to it) through the pursuit of exploring and demonstrating their creativity, talent and genius. After watching this movie the memory of Camille Claudel,her work and courage lives on and is much respected.