The Bottom Line
Today when the French Impressionists are among the best known of painters, it's inspiring to watch this DVD series to see the struggle they went through to achieve their artistic aims rather than do what the establishment and public wanted.
You'll see where they studied, what their aspirations were, how they remained consistent to their vision despite ridicule and critical damnation. How they considered natural form, artistic technique and style, and sought to produce something personal with which to communicate with the world. Their lives and determination are as inspiring as their paintings to today's painters.
- Period drama, re-enacting scenes from the lives of the French Impressionists.
- Uses Monet as the central character to guide the unfolding of events.
- Based on historical documents, letters, and interviews.
- Beautiful scenes on location, for example Monet's garden at Giverny.
- Shows paintings being created, locations, and final paintings.
- It's hard to resist watching watch the whole series from start to finish, non-stop.
- More accurate title would be "Monet and Friends", as he tells much of the story in flashback.
Description
- BBC series, produced and directed by Tim Dunn in 2006.
- Three episodes of an hour each, narrated by Monet through flashbacks as he's interviewed by a journalist at Giverny.
- The first episode includes a focus on Manet's influence, the second Degas, the third Cezanne.
- Special features on the DVD are artists' biographies, a picture gallery, and cast filmographies.
- Stars Richard Armitage as the young Monet and Julian Glover as the old Monet.
- Atars Andrew Havill as Manet, Charlie Condou as renoir, Will Keen as Cezanne, and Aden Gillet as Degas.
Guide Review - Art DVD Review: The Impressionists
Movements in art, where like-minded artists get together to produce a recognizably common body of work, don't appear out of nowhere, there's always a context that creates them. Today the Impressionists are probably the most famous, and their style of painting is still emulated by many artists. This DVD is a period drama which reconstructs how the Impressionists came together (and how often they fought among themselves), the way they lived and painted, the context in which their work seemed to revolutionary.
Meeting at the Paris atelier of Charles Gleyre, Monet, Bazille, and Renoir rejected being taught how to do art in a traditional academic manner and followed their own path to interpreting nature, light, and color. The narrative of the series, essentially Monet and friends, shows where they drew inspiration (nature, changing patterns of light, etc.) and how they battled to be true to their vision.
As a painter you'll be enthralled to hear the artists' words what they wanted to achieve, what they rebelled against, and what pushed their creativity. You get to see, and so can compare, the actual locations where they painted, along with still shots of the final paintings.
The artists whose names are so familiar to us come to life as real people. Knowing more about what went into their paintings adds a new level of appreciation. Seeing actual landscapes and models posing emphasizes how the artist's eye interprets a scene.
The series leaves you with a sense of the Impressionists as individuals, of what drive it takes to paint whatever the circumstances, and will make you question whether you've the obsession needed to be a great painter. Monet was so completely a painter ("a painter first, then a husband") that his response to his first wife's imminent death was to paint a final portrait of her.
