New Price: $140.00
Chagall
ASIN : B000055XMR
Sales Rank : 109543
Director : Kim Evans
Studio : Image Entertainment
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0014381580624
UPC : 014381580624
Release Date : December 16, 2001
Publisher : Image Entertainment
Manufacturer : Image Entertainment
Label : Image Entertainment
Running Time : 52
Description
During his own lifetime, Marc Chagall became a legend--the grand old man of French painting. Born in the Jewish ghetto in provincial Russia, he broke away from the restrictions of poverty and religious constraints to become swept up in the political and artistic maelstrom of the Russian Revolution before moving to Paris, at that time the artistic capital of Europe. Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism--Chagall learned from all of these movements and rubbed shoulders with many of the great painters and poets of the century, but he stayed very much his own man and developed a unique style which was his hallmark through the years. This important film was completed shortly before Chagall's death and is the only film made about this great artist during his lifetime.
Amazon.com
Chagall is a portrait of portraits, for it studies the art as much as the artist while it explains how Marc Chagall came to create joyous and fantastical paintings, a rarity in the early 1900s. The production's conceit is in following the journey of a young artist who sets out to find out why "the grand old man of French painting" came to paint the way he did. The camera follows him as he visits places Chagall lived and worked, views exhibits, and seemingly ponders installations of astonishing art, including a ceiling painting for the Paris Opera and stained-glass windows that appear painted with light. Stock footage of historical events is interwoven with stills and film showing Chagall at work. The pace, which can seem slow at times, is an asset, for it lingers on his paintings, allowing you to study them. In the end, the conceit works, and "the man of masks" is, at least, partly revealed. --Valerie J. Nelson
