Edvard Munch (Watkins, 1974): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 2.30pm
BFI introduction:
Hailed by Ingmar Bergman as ‘a work of genius’, Watkins’ film
fragments the difficult formative years of the Norwegian painter’s life
into a vivid, intensely subjective exploration of memory, illness,
sexuality and artistic creation. Blending interviews, direct address,
documentary techniques and impressionistic montage, the film evokes both
the emotional turbulence of Munch’s work and the social and emotional
conditions that shaped it.
James Bell
Time Out review:
Peter Watkins' biography of the formative
years of the pioneer Expressionist easily vindicates its running time.
As Munch moves through his youth, quiet and alienated, we realise that
he too was eluded by any lasting intimacy: a long, abortive affair with
an older woman joins the ubiquitous ghosts of a childhood scarred by
sickness and death. In the end it's the paintings which do Munch's
talking for him, both directly and through the prefigurations and
echoes in the film's set pieces, a fuzzed, mutely anguished procession
of half-profiles and silently helpless groups with numb, naked eyes.
It's a remarkable film.
Giovanni Dadomo
Here (and above) is a clip from the film.
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