Media Release
Under the Influence of Claude, Vincent, Paul… and the others The impact of Impressionist painting on early French cinema
Matthias Brunner’s film installation has been created for the Fondation Beyeler on the occasion of its “Monet” exhibition. It lasts 30 minutes and is accompanied by Arvo Pärt’s Symphony No. 4.
There is virtually no film genre more closely linked with the fine arts than is the Impressionist cinema of the 1920s with French Impressionist painting. From a purely stylistic viewpoint, film pioneers and iconic directors like Abel Gance, Jean Epstein, Germaine Dulac and Louis Delluc were strongly influenced by 19th century Impressionist painting. Numerous other major artists like Man Ray, who later made a name for himself as a Surrealist, and directors like Jean Vigo and Jean Renoir, who were representatives of poetic Realism, were marked by French Impressionism in their early works. Impressionism thus became a gateway leading to later radical changes in the language of film.
Anyone who misses the colors of Impressionist painting in the cinema of those early years is more than compensated by the refined film technique, which is characterized by, for example, rapid montages, time lapses, blurring, double exposures and light reflections. Up until today, the dialog between film and painting can possibly best be grasped through the work of Jean-Luc Godard, whose films abound in quotations from painting and art history.
Of particular note are foreign directors such as Sergei Eisenstein and G.V. Aleksandrov, who made Romance sentimentale in France, as well as another Russian, Dimitri Kirsanoff, who directed the legendary Franco-Swiss co-production Rapt, based on a work by the French-speaking Swiss novelist Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, and Alberto Cavalcanti, the Brazilian director of Rien que les heures who lived in Paris. Their films – all of them French productions – are very much on a par with those made by French directors and are repeatedly associated with French Impressionist cinema.
This collage film with excerpts from 25 films by the 12 most famous directors, who caused a furore in France at the time, is a tribute to Impressionist painting and Impressionist cinema, which was later followed by “Cinéma Pur”, abstract film, as well as Surrealism and poetic Realism.
Special thanks go to:
Dr. h.c. Sam Keller Dr. Ulf Küster Prof. Dr. Gottfried Boehm Dr. Pamela Kort Christian Wirtz Heinz Spoerli Jürg Steinacher
In memory of:
Jean Epstein; Man Ray; Abel Gance; Dimitri Kirsanoff; Louis Delluc; Sergei Eisenstein; Germaine Dulac; G.V. Aleksandrov; Jean Renoir; Alberto Cavalcanti; Louis Feuillade; Jean Vigo
Further information: Elena DelCarlo, M.A. Head of Communications Tel. + 41 (0)61 645 97 21, [email protected], www.fondationbeyeler.ch Fondation Beyeler, Beyeler Museum AG, Baselstrasse 77, CH-4125 Riehen, Switzerland
Fondation Beyeler opening hours: 10 am - 6 pm daily, Wednesdays until 8 pm
Biography
This Brunner
Matthias Brunner, better known as “This” Brunner, has devoted his life to film as an art form and to the visual arts in general. In 1973 the film-lover opened the Studio Commercio, Zurich’s first Arthouse cinema. Brunner was initially active as a film critic, film producer and film curator. At the same time, he was fascinated by the fine arts, and was in contact with artists like Andy Warhol, Martin Kippenberger, Wolfgang Tillmans and many others for many years.
Brunner has been on the program committees of many film festivals such as Filmex in Los Angeles, the International Film Festival in Locarno, the Cinéma Tout Écran in Geneva, the Filmpodium Zurich and the Zurich Film Festival. For 20 years he curated the film tributes for Art Basel in Basel and in Miami Beach. Over the years, he has also served on the jury of film festivals in Venice, Locarno, Zurich, Milan, Palermo, Turin and Saarbrücken.
He is a member of both the European and the Swiss Film Academy.
Since 2012 This Brunner has focused on film installations: Magnificent Obsession – The Love Affair Between Movies & Literature is part of the collection of the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Cy Twombly Foundation, the foundation Pour l’écriture et la littérature and the Norman Foster Foundation. The installation was also shown on the Monte Verità outside Ascona and, in 2015, at the Accademia della Musica in Rome. The Music Room, a tribute to the Indian film director Satyajit Ray, was shown in 2014 at the Art Masters in St. Moritz. Die magische Bergwelt in den Filmen von Daniel Schmid was shown in 2013 in the Chesa Planta Museum in the Engadin and as part of the cultural event “Elevation 1049” in Saanen/Gstaad. The film installation Let’s Pop Again – How Hollywood Popped Before Pop Art concerns itself with the director Frank Tashlin and the actress Jayne Mansfield. A Blast from the Past was shown in 2015 at the Flux Laboratory in Zurich and in early 2016 during the Engadin Art Talks in Zuoz.
This Brunner has received the following awards: 1. The Europa Cinemas award for the Best European Arthouse Curator; the Zurich Film Award for his work with the Arthouse-Kino; appointment as an officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French Republic and most recently, in July 2016, the gold medal of honour of the Canton of Zurich for his lifetime achievement and contribution to culture.
Under the Influence of Claude, Vincent, Paul… and the others Der Einfluss der impressionistischen Malerei auf das junge französische Kino
Sous l’influence de Claude, Vincent, Paul… et les autres L’influence de la peinture impressionniste sur le jeune cinéma français
Under the Influence of Claude, Vincent, Paul… and the others The impact of Impressionist painting on early French cinema
Von / Par / By Matthias Brunner
Jean Epstein “Le Double amour“; “Six et demi onze“; “Le Tempestaire“; “La Glace à trois faces”; “Mauprat”; “La Chute de la Maison Usher”
Abel Gance “J’Accuse”; “La Fin du monde”; “La Roue”
Louis Delluc “La Femme de nulle part”; “L’Inondation”; “Le Silence”
Germaine Dulac “L’Invitation au voyage”
Germaine Dulac / Antonin Artaud “La Coquille et le clergyman”
Jean Renoir “La Fille de l’Eau”
Louis Feuillade “Le Coeur et l’argent”
Man Ray “L’Etoile de mer”; “Le Retour à la raison” (Short); “Emak Bakia” (Short)
Dimitri Kirsanoff “Rapt”
Sergej Eisenstein & G.V. Alexandroff “Romance Sentimentale”
Alberto Cavalcanti “Rien Que les Heures”
Jean Vigo “A propos de Nice” (Short); “Zéro de conduite”
Foto / Photo: Mark Niedermann, Installation view of “Under the Influence of Claude, Vincent, Paul… and the others”, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel Partners, foundations and patrons 2016 / 2017
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AMERICAN FRIENDS OF FOUNDATION BEYELER LUMA FOUNDATION ART MENTOR FOUNDATION LUCERNE L. + TH. LA ROCHE STIFTUNG AVC CHARITY FOUNDATION MAX KOHLER STIFTUNG AVINA STIFTUNG SIMONE UND PETER FORCART-STAEHELIN DR. CHRISTOPH M. MÜLLER UND SIBYLLA M. MÜLLER STEVEN A. AND ALEXANDRA M. COHEN FOUNDATION ERNST GÖHNER STIFTUNG TERRA FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN ART FONDATION COROMANDEL THE BROAD ART FOUNDATION FREUNDE DER FONDATION BEYELER WALTER A. BECHTLER-STIFTUNG GEORG UND BERTHA SCHWYZER-WINIKER-STIFTUNG WALTER HAEFNER STIFTUNG HELEN AND CHUCK SCHWAB