Seraphine: A Film

Seraphine, the film, debuted last year before the global economic turmoil became apparent; now as it arrives on American movie screens, its story of an artist whose life and career are crushed by the privations of the Great Depression is that much more poignant.
Seraphine Louis (1864-1942), from the Oise region of northern France, was orphaned at the age of seven. Cared for by relatives until she could begin to earn money as a shepherdess, it was while working as a maid in 1912 that Seraphine met Wilhem Uhde, the "discoverer" of Pablo Picasso and the Douanier Rousseau. Astounded by the self-taught artist's fully realized paintings, Uhde helped her to find an audience but with the onset of the war, the German art collector was forced to flee from France.
When Uhde returned to Senlis in 1927, he stage- managed a great success for Seraphine's work. She reveled in a new freedom in her life and in art, but her inner emotional turbulence

Without oversimplification or condescension, Seraphine allows us to understand something of the alchemy of visual perception, sensuality, and psychological dynamics at work in the life of this artist. Yolande Moreau, who won a Cesar Award (the French equivalent of the Oscar) for her performance as Seraphine, makes the film a revelation, worthy company for such films as Camille Claudel and Pollock.

The paintings speak boldly for themselves, careful observation of natural phenomena filtered through an earthy pantheistic/ Christian spirit, speaking of wild nature as surely as the ancient mythological goddess Diana could. Tendrils vibrate almost audibly, their asymmetry somehow coheres into a satisfying whole.