Cézanne et moi

Cezanne and I directed and written by Danièle Thompson is a movie that should never have been. It's a pragmatic and artless movie about artists of the second half of the XIXth Century.

It is a movie without purpose, the writing is poor and disjointed, it constantly jumps between different points in time without any purpose, or structure or even memory as some scenes seem to happen two or even three times.

What you will enjoy from this movie:

• the name dropping of some of the biggest artists of modern times
• the scenery towards the end of the movie

What you won't enjoy and the movie gets wrong:

• the portrayal of every character as a completely antipathetic, there is not one likeable character in the whole movie, even those with minimal texts such as Renoir or Manet who only talk to hate in this movie.
• the movie itself is deceiving, it isn't a movie about Cezanne but about Zola
• the artistic portraying of Cezanne who, apparently drew 99% of his canvas as portrait! What a strange choice from the director.
• the complete lack of artistry through the whole movie, be it from the cinematography, the direction, the writing or even the paintings shown through the movie.

The director clearly had no clue about art so why make a film about art other than self-indulgence?

Avoid.

This film is the story a friendship of Emile Zola and Paul Cézanne with its ups and downs: the meticulous writer of novels and the temperamental painter who has destryoed a lot of paintings.

I enjoyed this films for the description of this period of France: Emilie Zola was very criticized in this life and Paul Cézanne was finally accepted at the end of his life.

After this film I had the interest to read more about Emile Zola and Paul Cézanne and about their friendship.

I enjoyed the good performances of Guillaume Gallienne, Guillaume Canet, Alice Pol, Déborah François, Pierre Yvon, Sabine Azéma, Freya Mavor and Isabelle Candelier.

I'm surprised by the critics and bad ratings of this movie. Cézanne et Moi tells the relationship between Paul Cezzane and childhood friend Émile Zola, and their clash of personalities throughout their lives. Zola, shy and a little naif. Cezzane, conflictuous, at odds with his family and upset by his initial insuccesses, tries to hurt everyone around him, friends and lovers.

The film is a character study of artists in general, and of Cezzane and Zola in particular, including their ambition and selfishness. The constant flash back and forward in time has a purpose, as each conflict has a link to something happened in the past. All the cast delivers, with a special nod to the superb Guillaume Gallienne as Cezzane. On top of everything, the cherry on the cake: beautiful cinematography and scenary of Provance.

I stopped paying attention to the film half-way through.

Although I found the aesthetics, the scenery and the music pleasant, I found the characters themselves to be unrelatable and "dry".

It didn't capture me and make me go "oh, I love this". I felt quite disconnected and out of it. Around the 80 minute mark, when I first started to space out, the film did nothing for me to regain my interest. Rather disappointed.

That being said, I've experienced worse. This film, generally, could be worse but definitely could be better, too.

Well-made biographical drama is focused on the legends' complex and explosive friendship, with fully believable performances by Canet and Gallienne, and enhanced by Jean-Marie Dreujou's remarkable camerawork, but somehow neglects to explore or even explain the protagonists' importance in art and literature history.