Camille Claudel 1915
(Bruno Dumont, 2013, 95 min, France, in French with English subtitles, Color, Blu-Ray)

-- Introduced by Prof. Helen Solterer (Romance Studies)!

Juliette Binoche gives a mesmerizing performance as the brilliant sculptress, protégé of Auguste Rodin (and later his mistress), and sister of the Christian/mystic poet Paul Claudel. By 1915, Camille Claudel was confined to a remote, church-run asylum for the mentally ill near Avignon. Bruno Dumont's rigorous, hypnotic portrait suggests that Camille's intense creativity and bohemian mores were on an inevitable, tragic collision course with her conventional Christian family and the expectations of early 20th century French society. Camille's paranoia (she believed Rodin was plotting against her) and occasional violent outbursts complicated her situation. Dumont populates his film with real asylum patients, giving the film a disturbingly realistic dimension that adds to its poignancy.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: The Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI) and the Department of Romance Studies. Made possible by the FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy.