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The Impressionists
RRP: £16.99
Our Price: £5.95 (subject to change)
Beautifully photographed
Review date: 2006-12-15 Rating: 8 out of 10
Painting is often a slow, silent and private activity so a film essentially about painters is unlikely to be full of action and indeed this isn't. It concentrates instead in its 3 one-hour episodes (told mostly in flashback by an aged Monet) on the relationships and interaction between Monet, Renoir, Degas, Bazille, Manet and Cézanne.
It's beautifully photographed, just beautifully. With the utmost care the director manages, not only to capture the intense colour of the scenes and scenery but also through great technical skill, and patient staging of the shot, to pass the viewer from what the painter is seeing in real life to a finished work that has come down to us. One moment you are shown the dramatic crashing of waves against the cliffs at Etretat and in the next, the final painting from precisely the same perspective. Very clever stuff and much appreciated by this viewer.
While the relationships of the painters above are explored, at times in some detail, for me a very big question remains; where on earth is Pissarro? Credited by many as "The Father of Impressionism", instrumental not only in inventing the impressionist style of painting (though the word comes from an insulting remark made by a critic, Louis Leroy on seeing Monet's "Impression, Sunrise") but also in getting his colleagues' works exhibited and acting as mentor/patriarch to the group especially Cézanne, alongside whom he painted many times. There must be a good reason he was completely and strangely left out (a copyright problem with the Pissarro estate perhaps?) but no reason is given in the film unless I missed it. I wish too a little more had been done on the life of Renoir. However these are only quibbles. This is a colourful and very rewarding mini-series.
(Just a word of warning about the rating of 4 above. This is how I personally found the film; I love art history and enjoyed very much the clever bringing to life of these names from the Impressionist world. Perhaps a more neutral viewer understandably might find the whole thing a little bit slow and uneventful.)
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Reviews
Excellent!
Review date: 2006-11-15 Rating: 8 out of 10
Three one-hour episodes tell the story of the Impressionists, mainly in the form of flash-backs as an ageing Monet gives an interview to a young journalist. Their struggle for recognition is well told, the atmosphere of late Nineteenth-Century France well created.
Two things stand out - the linking of the artists' work in specific scenes with individual well-known paintings, and the way the differing personalities of the artists is revealed. They may have all been called "Impressionists" but they were not a generic group, they were individuals, with their own lives, strengths, and faults.
This is a must-have for - well, for just about anyone interested in art.
A cracker!
Review date: 2006-09-20 Rating: 10 out of 10
A BBC costume drama at its absolute best especially if you have an interest in Art!
Centring on men in a costume drama is unusual but this is based around the lives of the 'Impressionist Painters' Monet, Manet, Renoir, Bazille, Cezanne, Degas etc. it is therefore set in France in the late 1880's and continues well into the 20th Century. It shows the struggles of the Impressionists as they grew to fame and uses letters and other historical documents to build the 'story'. The actors are highly competent and believable - a merry bunch of generally good looking men who you can tell became a 'family'.
What is absolutely stunning, innovative, and very clever about this DVD is the way that the story stops from time to time when the artists are painting a scene, the director then superimposes over the 'view' the original painting. The amount of location research that must have gone into the making of this DVD blows my mind.
An excellent DVD that would make a great present. I would highly recommend it to anyone with even the slightest interest in impressionist art - it is truly inspirational!
beautifully filmed
Review date: 2006-09-14 Rating: 10 out of 10
This dramatisation of the life of the Impressionists, as told through the eyes of an aged Monet, is truly beuatiful. It tells of Manet, Degas, Renoir and Monet, and later Cezanne, meeting and wanting to draw what they saw in nature. Filmed to show the viewer the beauty of the world around us all and why these young men felt so compelled to paint it in this way, it has you looking up the opening times of The National Gallery so as you can get to see the paintings for yourself. You are drawn into their world by the sensitive way in which the painters are depicted. It is amazing that it has taken so long to put this story on to our screens. Beautiful.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Richard Armitage
Amanda Root
Julian Glover
Creators:
Julian Glover (Primary Contributor)
Richard Armitage (Primary Contributor)
Recording label: Acorn Media
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
EAN: 5036193094859
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2006-09-04
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Running time: 170 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2006
Language: English (Original Language)