Becoming Matisse(2020)

Meredith Monk(en)

Profile of choreographer, composer and performer Meredith Monk, recorded on location in her home base, New York City. Monk discusses some ideas underlying her work: her attraction to the eloquence of the human voice, and the direct communication made possible by the abstract qualities of music; her emphasis on the poetic rather than the political; her belief in the power of images; her willingness to take risks. She describes her experiences in working in different media, such as audio recordings, films, and videos, and the challenge of weaving them together.

Leonor Fini(fr)

Portrait of an Artist

The Reality of Karel Appel(nl)

Documentary about the work and the unconventional approach of the painter Karel Appel. The film shows him flinging vast amounts of paint onto the canvas, resulting in dynamic paintings showing an overful, raging, run-away world. In 1962 awarded with a Golden Bear at the Berlinale. (filmcommission.nl)

Picasso(it)

The evolution of Picasso's painting up to his “pink phase.”

Trois nuits(fr)

The film follows Bruno Hellenbosch, who makes very large wood engravings and creates a universe where old and new, the beautiful and the trivial, Dürer's shadow and a Lidl logo come together.

Alison Watt: Phantom(en)

Alison Watt became the National Gallery's Seventh Associate Artist in 2006. This art film records her two-year residency, as she created paintings inspired by masterpieces in the National Gallery. She already had a lifelong attachment to paintings in the collection, yet the prolonged contact, particularly with Saint Francis in Meditation by Francisco de Zurbarán, led her to notice new details and unexpected nuances which influenced her own art. Through a series of interviews with Watt, this art film documents the formation of this exhibition, with particular emphasis on the creative process.

Robert Motherwell and the New York School: Storming the Citadel(en)

Made shortly before Robert Motherwell’s death in 1991, is an exploration of the Abstract Expressionist movement and a portrait of one of its last survivors. Having come to New York in the early 1940s, Motherwell found himself on the battleground of American art. He and a group of painters set out to change the face of American painting. The film charts this epic battle led by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell, who endeavored to make American painting equal to painting elsewhere and, in the process, shifted the center of modern art from Paris to New York.

Cezanne: Three Colours Cezanne(en)

"Three Colours Cezanne" analyses the radical nature of Cezanne's painting, tracing its origins in the art of the nineteenth century and the work of the Old Masters while examining many of Cezanne's works in detail

Portrait of David Hockney(en)

Filmed at the time Hockney was painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy, Portrait of David Hockney is made up of a limited number of shots, observing the periphery details of his flat and studio. Each view is held so as to focus on its particular qualities and composition and, with the accompanying soundtrack of off-screen phone calls, conversations and musings, builds up a picture of Hockney’s daily life.

The Life and Death of Frida Kahlo(en)

A 1975 short documentary that focuses on the events that molded Frida Kahlo's life.

Mistr Theodorik(cs)

Horizon(en)

Oscar-nominated director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson and co-director Bergur Bernburg helm this lovely documentary portrait of influential Icelandic landscape painter Georg Gudni.

Jare vs. Cheek(fi)

TV-documentary follows Finland's most popular hip hop artist Cheek song-making and stadium gig planning. What kind of person is Jare Henrik Tiihonen, when the Cheek is taking a break?

L'Énigme Jean-Jacques Goldman(fr)

Joe Fafard, selfie(fr)

Renoir: Reviled and Revered(en)

Pierre-Auguste Renoir is known and loved for his impressionist paintings of Paris. These paintings count among the world’s favourites. Renoir, however, grew tired of this style and changed course. This film, based on the collection of 181 Renoirs at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia,– examines the direction he then took and why it provokes such extreme reactions right up to today. Some claim they are repulsed by Renoir’s later works and some claim they are seduced. What may surprise many is that among the many artists who sought Renoir’s new works out and were clearly highly influenced by them were the two giants of the 20th century – Picasso and Matisse.

Johnny made in France(fr)

For You Naked(sv)

The main character of Swedish director Sara Broos’s documentary is her godfather and close family friend Lars Lerin, one of Scandinavia’s most highly regarded modern painters. After a complicated period during which the extravagant artist pushed back waves of anxiety by overindulging in alcohol and pills (ultimately entering an abuse program), he focused on finding the love of his life. Via the internet he becomes intrigued by a young Brazilian dancer named Manoel, who flies to Sweden to see him. But due to the language barrier, age difference, and the Swedish artist’s frequent doubts, their relationship doesn’t appear very hopeful. This sensitive record of an untraditional love story takes the viewer through all the ups and downs of a relationship between two people from entirely different backgrounds for whom the tired old cliché of love moving mountains acquires absolute currency.

Equilibre(fr)

In the middle of the French Alps, some adventurers balance themselves on slacklines high above the ground.

Raffael – Ein sterblicher Gott(de)