I, Claude Monet

Seen at the Rivoli Theatre, Camberwell VIC

Bea says: Cecil and I picked this out due to its time and location; we wanted to visit this cinema which is not nearby our home at all, and were fitting it in with another event we had on in that area.  I had no idea about the "Exhibition on Screen" series prior to this, and loved it.  I have to say, it was one of the most relaxing and absorbing cinema events I have been to for a long time.  The gentle music, the images of Monet's works (often repetitive, as he was known to paint the same scene many times over), fading in and out of real life footage of the scene, whilst listening to the narration of his letters, was fascinating and I could have sat there for much longer (something I actually rarely say about film, much as I enjoy the cinema).

Monet's early life was a struggle financially and for recognition, and it was interesting to listen to the tone of the letters change into his later, more well-off and established life, and watch the development of his famous garden, which I have never visited but is now definitely on my bucket list.

Highly recommended, as is anything from this series, which I shall now be following much more closely.

****

Cecil says: The film had already started when we walked in so I’m not even sure if the contemporary scene of a small ferry tug on the harbour waters (in Le Havre, I think) with a voiceover from Monet (voice of Henry Goodman) was the actual opening scene of I, Claude Monet.

But it certainly set the tone for the whole of this Exhibition on Screen genre movie, which switched between shots of Monet’s works filling the screen and contemporary footage of the places he painted.

I actually liked the way the producers faded so easily from current day footage to paintings, and it’s extraordinary in many cases how the scenes or buildings even haven’t changed that much in upto 150 years.

I had no idea in advance that this would be the whole of the film and that there would be no characters, dialogue or plot to speak of.

All the text of the voiceovers was taken from lines of Monet’s correspondence (2,500 letters apparently), so it gives little insights into different stages of the artist’s life. But it also meant that lots of things were left unanswered.

So we get the impression that this Impressionist was on the one hand overwhelmed constantly by the beauty of the natural world around him, but was also anxious and depressed a lot of the time by the penury he appeared to be living in for many years of his long life.

He writes very openly to friends and acquaintances he obviously regards as wealthier than him, asking for funds - once even for a 20 franc note, very specific that one - and intimating frequently that he would be out in the streets if funds weren’t somehow to be forthcoming.

But we never really find out what happened when he reached the edge of destitution like that or how we got himself out of each fix he was in.

Having studied 19th century French history, I was fascinated by the absence of any comment on the political context of his life (though Wikipedia suggests he was in fact quite a leftie, which means the Paris Commune of 1870 must surely have figured in his life. It actually reminded me of Flaubert whose arty character in one novel set while the 1848 revolution was raging inside Paris was lounging around the grass outside town musing on life, while the socialists battled inside the city for radical change.

It also reminded me of a film I saw some years ago called simply London, which consisted of footage of parts of London being mentioned in the (fictional?) narrative being spoken in a voiceover. These are not the sorts of films to go to for a night out, I don’t think, but I, Claude Monet kind of worked for our mood on a December Sunday, especially in such a beautiful cinema, which is a work of art itself.

I was also intrigued by the sudden appearance of Georges Clemenceau in Monet’s life. I wonder if some sort of explanatory subtitles might have helped at points like these. How many viewers - especially in a place like Australia - would even know that Clemenceau was a key political figure of his day? And how on earth did Monet come to have such connections that he can simply mention him as ‘Georges’. An early version of ‘Tony’, ‘Gordon’ and then ‘Dave’ in the UK?

***.5