ARTEMISIA
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films/Zoe Director: Agnes Merlet Writer: Agnes Merlet Cast: Valentina Cervi, Michel Serrault, Miki Manojlovic, Yahn Tregoulet, Dominique Reymond
If you've ever visited the Offices Gallery in Florence, Italy, you doubtless saw the most dramatic painting in the hall, "Judith Beheading Holofemis," inspired by a biblical story. You don't have to look closely at it to guess that it's the work of a woman painter. Two women are standing over the bearded, defeated general Holofemis, one holding a sword at his neck, the other helping to hold him down to a bed. It almost looks like a rape scene initiated by the women, and perhaps its passionate painter wanted to give the work a double meaning. Any art student worth his or her palette would be impatient to know more about the painter, and any generalist with a broad education would be enthusiastic about hearing the story. If you were accompanied in the gallery by a decent guide with the appropriate background and an ardor for teaching his tourists and students, your curiosity would be at a fever pitch.
Luckily, there is now a film about the painter, and what an artist she was...in fact she was for all practical purposes the first woman painter in art history--just as Aphra Behn is today considered (for the same practical purposes) to be the first woman playwright. Why? Both Behn and the subject of the movie, Artemisia Gentileschi, were paid for what they did. Essentially, Artemisia was the first woman painter we know who was commissioned for her work. Agnes Merlet's "Artemisia" is a French production featuring in the starring roles an Italian, Valentina Cervi, whom you might have recognized for her role in "Portrait of a Lady;" a Frenchman, Michel Serrault, who should need no introduction and would be known even by the general audience who saw him in "The Birdcage;" and a Serb, Miki Manojlovic, who played a starring role in Emil Kusturica's "Underground." All speak French fluently in the film.
You don't have to be an artist or student of painting to know that there's an intimate connection between passion and creativity. Often the passion is of a sexual nature. We observe that the great Florentine painter of the Seventeenth Century, Agostino Tassi (Miki Manojlovic), was a frequent guest at bordellos, and modern audience will accept the fact that Artemisia (Valentina Cervi) is herself inspired in her own work by her intimate relationship with Agostino. But in the year 1610, the idea that a 17-year-old woman would have an interest in drawing the nude male body or would cavort with a man not her husband was anathema; positively sinful. Artemisia had such interests--not that this preoccupation prevented her from acceptance in the prestigious Academy in which her father, Orazio Gentileschi (Michel Serrault) and Agostino are members. She was a woman and painting was simply not considered the proper occupation for the fair sex, even if she were concerned only with landscapes.
"Artemesia," then, is based on the true story of the world's first recognized woman artist, written by its director, who was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Orleans. Using her imagination to fill in the blanks where the actual facts are a matter of conjecture, she displays for us a colorful account. There is one major disappointment: it exhibits the subject's works only superficially, preferring to concentrate on the romance between Artemisia and her teacher, Agostino, as if Ms. Merlet felt that the movie would thereby appeal to a larger audience. For better or worse (depending on the viewer's predilections), she avoids the gauzy look of the Merchant- Ivory films, portraying her characters with almost matter-of- fact realism. Perhaps Ms. Merlet wants to impress us with the truthfulness of the account, fearing that a gossamer look would have us believe the story was simply the product of an energetic imagination.
Merlet takes us first to a scene in Rome where an ensemble of painters are belting out a flurry of drawings and paintings of saints and angels, all inspired by a Papal commission. Orazio seems to have been the most successful of the group, and has taught her daughter Artemisia all that he knows. But now a younger man, Agostino, is gaining favor, particularly with the nobility, for exploiting innovations in the field, particularly with the use of light and shade to enhance the stories portrayed on the canvasses. While Artemisia is refused admission to the Academy purely on gender grounds, her father convinces the great Agostino to take her on as a pupil. Artemisia, who has shown a healthy desire to paint the nude male body and who has used a fisherman, Fulvio (Yahn Tregouet) as a model, is enthusiastic. When Artemisia and Agostino's relationship evolve to more than that of a student and pupil, her father is incensed and accuses the young man of rape. A trial ensues. Given the subordinate position of women throughout most of civilization, it is no wonder that this tribunal is one of the first in history ever to consider such a charge.
A film of this nature runs the risk of being considered a woman's movie and, in fact, at a recent critics's screening, over 3/4 of the audience were women. Given the feminist emphasis of the film, such an constituency is more likely than one composed of painters. To ghettoize this--or any other film--based on genre or accent would be to do it a disservice, and "Artemisia" deserves to be seen by film buffs of both genders. "Artemisia" is well-acted, with an imposing soundtrack of both baroque and contemporary music, which avoids pontification and any form of didactic narration. Merely a second feature of a gifted director, "Artemisia" will hopefully encourage Ms. Merlet to tackle similar films of prominent women who have made historic firsts but who even today are known only by others in similar fields of endeavor. Not Rated. Running time: 96 minutes. (C) Harvey Karten 1998
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