This documentary about Paris in the early twentieth century (subtitled: Toward the Making of the Modern) offers outstanding insights into cultural life in the city at a time where it drew artists and intellectuals of all nationalities and held the place in the world that New York has today. The movie lasts two hours and the first time I watched it, it only started holding my interest at the half way point when World War I breaks out: Germans like art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler are suddenly deemed enemies of France, which frightens the Cubist painters he represented and incites many to suddenly adopt a much more traditional style, at least for a few years. From then on, the documentary was spellbinding. I wanted to watch it again and the second time, I found even the beginning about Picasso - who is not a painter I particularly care for, being staunchly on the Matisse and Braque side of that debate - because the filmmakers interview many art scholars whose expertise really sets this documentary apart, and I enjoyed those parts more once I was sure the whole movie was not going to be about Picasso and his friends.
The movie uses many photographs and (for its second half) movies of the times, which vividly capture the atmosphere in Paris when it was an international mecca for the arts. It starts with Paris in the 1900s, with a focus on Montmartre, famous for the bohemian lifestyle and the sense of community among local artists who included Pablo Picasso, Andre Derain and Georges Braque, some of whom lived at the Bateau-Lavoir (Picasso had his studio there from 1904 to 1910). The movie dwells upon the group of friends Picasso had (Andre Salmon, Guillaume Apollinaire), who were all poets except for painter Georges Braque.
Around 1910, the center of Parisian artistic life moved from Montmartre on the Right Bank of the Seine to Montparnasse on the Left Bank, with painter Marc Chagall for instance having a studio in La Ruche. Artists such as Amadeo Modigliani, Diego Rivera, Jacques Lipschitz, Ossip Zadkine assiduously frequented Montparnasse. Those artists, though, didn't identify with a specific -ism (Impressionism, Fauvism) and were disdained by the professors who prepared for the prizes at the very academic (read: traditional) oriented Salon. La Ruche had a striking effect on these young painters' work, as evidenced by many stills of their artwork shown in the movie.
We are also treated to many thoughtful interview segments by Romy Golan, a professor of 20th century European Art at CUNY Graduate Center, and Noel Riley Fitch, who wrote Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation. Riley Fitch explains the importance of the cafe as a gathering spot providing heat, food and restrooms and an opportunity for discussions on culture and politics, to circumvent French laws (at the time) against group meetings. But the most compelling testimonials for me were - through archival footage - of artists who had lived through that period, such as Jean Cocteau and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler.
The documentary spends some time on the Salon d'Automne of 1905, with its canvases by Matisse, Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck (showing my favorite painting in all of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, The Seine at Chatou.) We see Matisse's Woman with a Hat, which was on the cover of the exhibition The Steins Collect at the Metropolitan Museum, back in 2012, and took much abuse from outraged salon-goers back in 1905. Georges Braque himself discovered the vibrant colors of Fauvism in 1905 and was soon converted, selling all 6 of his Fauvist paintings at the Spring Salon. The movie then discusses Braque's discovery of Cezanne, the 1907 retrospective of Cezanne's work, which had a definite influence on Matisse's work and in fact any modern artist. There are also mentions and pictures of Gertrude Stein, who bought Matisse's Woman with a Hat and viewed her writing as a literary form of Cubism.
1907 is the year of Matisse's Blue Nude and Picasso's Demoiselles d'Avignon, although that painting won't be shown for four more years. It is also the year where art dealer Kahnweiler introduced Braque to Apollinaire and Apollinaire introduced Braque to Picasso. In 1908, Kahnweiler exhibited Braque's paintings in his gallery and the critic Louis de Vauxcelles, who had already named Impressionism and Fauvism, came up with the name Cubism to characterize his work. Only Picasso could understand Braque's work. They then went their own way and when they got back together, realized their style had evolved the same way. You can judge for yourself if you can find a copy of Braque and Picasso: Pioneering Cubism (I bought my own copy some years ago before it went out of print), which accompanied the landmark 1989 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, described in the New York Times as "the show of the decade."
42 minutes into the documentary, the focus shifts to Serge Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, which provided a meeting ground for dancers, choreographers, scene designers, painters, musicians. Diaghilev oversaw the elevation of the role of the male dancer in ballet and the creation of roles for Vaslav Nijinsky, his lover, who starred in the controversial Afternoon of a Faun. Picasso himself was linked to the Ballets Russes through the sets and costumes he designed as well as his marrying one of their dancers, Olga Khokhlova. The movie mentions the composers associated with the Ballets Russes (Prokofiev, Ravel, de Falla, Satie, Debussy), the scandal of Rite of Spring, and the falling out between Diaghilev and Nijinsky after the latter gets married, which brought Leonid Massine to the Ballets Russes instead.
Then, around 57 minutes into the movie, World War I (then called the Great War) breaks out. The footage of war trenches is impressive, and the situation gut-wrenching. Braque and Derail were called up. Many foreign artists volunteered (Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Ossip Zadkine), but Pablo Picasso did not, which prompted many accusations of cowardice toward him from his former friends. Foreigners became suspect and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's paintings were confiscated by the French government. Cubist painters were accused of being an instrument of German propaganda and foreign artists hastened to return to a more traditional style to avoid getting in trouble.
In Winter 1915, Jean Cocteau decided to involve Picasso in a project, Parade, for the Ballets Russes, with music composed by Erik Satie. (Cocteau wrote the scenario.) This led to yet another scandal. Guillaume Apollinaire, wounded at the front, attended the premiere and helped protect his friends, but died in November 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic.
The first half of the documentary ends after about one hour and five minutes, when the 1920s begin. I liked the first part enough but found the second part fascinating, and it deserves a blog post in its own right. In the meantime, I hope this short summary of the first half of the movie will incite my readers to purchase the DVD. The value of the movie isn't in the facts it relates, which are well-known to anyone who cares about Paris and 20th century modern art, but the actual pictures, movies, testimonials it provides - things that have to be seen and heard first-hand.
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