Movies about art generally fall into two categories. On the one hand you have meditation pieces where the protagonist struggles with his inner turmoil in order to bring his genius to the world. On the other you have the hedonistic thrill rides that are less about the art and more about how much sex the artist was having in between projects.
Seraphine takes an original turn and actually makes itself about the art itself and how it evolved from its creator’s life. A biographical account of the rise and fall of French artist Seraphine Louis, we follow her story from the discovery of her talents through to her sad decline. Yolande Moreau plays the eponymous Seraphine, a middle-aged servant with a revolutionary artistic style whose talents are stumbled upon by the master of her household.
I’m not sure whether it’s possible to “watch” Seraphine in the traditional sense. Rather, it feels more like viewing a series of pictures in a gallery. We are encouraged always to look at the entire vision rather than a specific actor or element of the action. The aesthetic quality of each shot seems almost designed to appeal on a semi-conscious level, with the actors, dialogue and even story being almost incidental. This all culminates in an extraordinary final shot that is, and I don’t use this word often, breathtaking.
In almost any other movie, I’d be criticising the cast for being underwhelming, but to do that would invalidate my previous point. The actors seem to understand that this is not really about them, and even Moreau in the central role is withdrawn, even though she glows with an inner beauty of her own. When she, as Seraphine, paints, the idea of actor and set as two separate entities seems to evaporate. In the same way that a top class musician uses their instrument as an extension of their body, Moreau simply melts into the scene, becoming part of the moving work of art on our screens.
If all of that sounds a little flowery and soft for your tastes, youre probably right. Its a challenging watch and certainly the pace wont be for everyone. Its deliberately ponderous, again bringing to mind the feeling of strolling through a gallery and it demands a lot of patience from its audience. The general feeling is that of observation rather than entertainment, a philosophy that makes for a fascinating but incredibly slow journey.
Overall Verdict: A slow and beautiful meditation thats worth spending some time with.
Reviewer: Alex Hall