Hilma

Hilma af Klint (Tora Hallström, Lena Olin) was born in 1862 Sweden. She becomes an artist in a male-dominated world. She and her fellow female artists are dismissed. They form a collective which seeks communion with the spirits. Her art would mostly be ignored during her lifetime until it is rediscovered in modern era.

This is a functional standard biopic. I wish the artistic process could be presented better. The lesbian romances are kept mostly under the covers. Hilma herself is rather frustrating. Maybe she had a mental illness but the movie is not that illuminating. I really like those initial giant canvases, but I don't care that much about the black and white swans. Some of the later stuff looks like 70's mod style and that's interesting for when she is rediscovered. The most compelling scene is actually the end. Finally, I may prefer to have an aged Tora instead of substitute Lena Olin. Lena is a great actress, but it could be interesting to keep the same actress. Like Hilma herself, this movie needs some aggressive self drive.

Unafraid, very much ahead of her time, frail yet enthusiastic, mystical and devoted: this is how Hilma af Klint is portrayed in this Lasse Hallström film. I would know nothing about her if a poster in the Stockholm Museum of Modern Art had not caught my eye and if I had not come across, by sheer accident, the screening of this colourful film. Now the poster is proudly dominating my living room and I know more of this talented woman who got recognition much after her death in the middle of the 20th century.

Most of Hallström's pictures are very warm, this one especially, bearing in mind his wife and daughter are both starring, both Hilma, which makes it a very dear, very special tribute to this gem of his beautiful Sweden.

In the film Hilma is told her art was not understood thus unwanted. However, my living room, and needless to say, many people's desire for innovation and imagination, would never be satisfied, if her brilliant work had remained locked in the box, which it was until it was opened and the magic came to light.

...I just finished looking. It's a beautiful beautiful movie. It helps if you're spiritual and "get it" so to speak. What an extraordinary and interesting woman Hilda was. Wish I had known her. I'm happy I watched this movie cause it made me so happy seeing all the paintings I didn't know of. To know how she painted and to see her visions on the canvas gives me soul comfort. It's like "thank you for being on that path and put it out there for us with a brush and amazing colours!" I wish I could draw and paint and be in a creative group like Hilma and her amazingly talented friends. Thank you for this beautiful movie!

The film tells the story of the Swedish pioneer of abstract art, who worked before Kandinsky. She then fell into complete obscurity, only to be rediscovered decades after her death.

However, it's not a classic biography. Those expecting a "she was born, she studied, she created this, and that" film may not be satisfied.

The film is poetic, slow-paced, and impressionistic. Spiritual séances and individual conversations with spirits were of great importance to the main character. We repeatedly observe Hilma in a state that 21st-century people would typically interpret as a personality disorder. In Hilma's time, it would probably have been called artistic hypersensitivity.

Many personal threads are only in the background and are not developed. We don't learn why her brother dislikes Hilma so much that he doesn't even let her into the house. The plot very subtly suggests the love between Hilma and the nurse, but it's done so subtly, as if it were a taboo subject (perhaps some family prejudice during the filming?).

In summary, the film presents a very interesting character of an artist who is completely unknown to the general public, but does so in a way that feels hermetic. It's a very interesting film for those who enjoy personal dramas and art history. However, I don't think it will appeal to a wider audience.

Before Kandinsky and Mondrian supposedly invented abstract painting there was an unknown Swedish artist, Hilma Klint, who began paining huge abstract works in the late 19th century. Hilma by Swedish director Lasse Hallström is a marvelous tribute to this amazing woman. Curious about the deeper mysteries of life from a young age, the film explores how she was drawn to the metaphysical world of spiritualism and embraced the works of Theosophy founder Helena Blavatsky, and particularly Anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner. These studies infused her paintings which were realized in a conservative, patriarchal time when only men were considered serious artists. Beautifully shot and superbly acted by Tora Hallström as the young Hilma and her real life mother, Lina Olin, as the older artist, the film is an essential introduction to a woman who only achieved fame after her death.