Exhibition on Screen: I, Claude Monet
The full title of this documentary about the French Impressionist painter could have been, I, Claude Monet, Ask You for Money. The film pieces together excerpts from Monet’s letters, from his 20s into his 80s, to recount the story of his life and works. Problem is, either Monet didn’t write much about how he came to be in each successive situation, much less about the thought process behind his work, or the director, Phil Grabsky, chose passages that are curiously unilluminating. Instead, the first-person narration is mostly pleas for cash. (The dullness is no fault of actor Henry Goodman, who does a fine job performing the epistles.)
Why isn’t Monet able to sell the paintings he churns out four at a time? He doesn’t really say. How does he get from Paris to London to the Netherlands to the Paris suburb of Argenteuil (where many of his most famous works were created)? No idea. What was his relationship with his fellow artists who came to be known as the Impressionists (a name derived from the title of one of Monet’s paintings) — other than asking them for handouts? Little information.
This isn’t a terrible idea for approaching an artist. Had this first-person approach been applied to, say, Vincent Van Gogh, who wrote eloquent, heartbreaking letters, it might have worked. But Monet’s letters seem pedestrian and without self-reflection. So as both masterpieces and lesser known paintings parade past, one after another (identified by title and date), we learn nothing new about any of them. The crisp, colorful footage of what Monet’s haunts look like today is interesting but doesn’t correspond to the voiceover.
Yes, it is possible to have too many experts in an art doc. But I, Claude Monet demonstrates that it’s also possible to have too many samples from an artist’s letters. In the realm of Monet scholarship, certainly the artist’s missives must provide insight of some sort, but it’s not clear what that might be from this documentary, which offers no scholarship to aid our understanding.
Perhaps if you’re well-versed in the biography, philosophy, and artistic evolution of Monet, this Exhibition on Screen installment could offer you some fresh angles. But unlike most of the films in this series, there’s no actual exhibition to anchor the proceedings, no curators to provide expert analysis and historical context. It’s really just a series of spectacular paintings viewed while a man complains incessantly about his life.
Grade: C-minus. Not rated, but PG equivalent. Available to rent starting Sept. 4 via fineartstheatre.com
(Photo: Exhibition on Screen)
