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Edvard Munch - cranefly - 04-08-2006
Edvard Munch (1974 -- Swedish with English subtitles)
This movie receives a D+ from 29 viewers on the Yahoo movies site (movies.yahoo.com).
In many ways, that sums up Munch’s life.
The movie was being shown at Stanford as part of a Munch exhibit (which we have yet to see). A lady took the lectern, introduced the movie, then said, “Enjoy. It’s three hours long,” evoking a collective gasp. Few of us had any idea.
It’s a brilliantly grim movie, spattered with shots of the Munch family standing around watching a member cough up big globs of blood while a doctor tends as best he can. TB was everywhere at that time. Adults worked 16-hour days. Children worked something like 11 (interestingly, the max allowed by law for convicts). Edvard meets a free-thinker who preaches complete honesty in all one says and does while also promoting sexual freedom. He begins taking art in his own direction, though this is a slow process taking many years. He gets involved with a married woman, gets dumped, and takes it very badly. Later on he has other affairs and relationships, but they never amount to much.
Over the years, he makes several “breakthroughs,” as the narrator calls them. What this means is that he paints pictures totally condemned by critics and public alike. The phrases often repeated are, “Only an insane person could have painted this,” or, “This person has no artistic talent whatsoever.” But the intelligentsia takes a liking to him and gives him enough support to so he can lurch along. Edvard turns increasingly inward, seems incapable of human contact, and eventually develops agoraphobia.
The movie persists in repeated flashbacks of unpleasant family circumstances (in particular, a sister coughing up gobs of blood), and traumatic endings to relationships. And also there is a steady updating of grim deaths among family and friends.
With his coughing, his alcohol intake, and his smoking, Edvard becomes ever more sickly. It actually comes as a surprise that he lives to be 80 (the last 15 years are skimmed over at movie's end). There are periods spent in asylums and-- Well, to make a long movie a touch shorter, let me just say that he dies.
The director found actors who looked astonishingly like the real people. The young man playing Edvard was a dead ringer -- based on self-portraits. He was a pretty boy. In lots of shots, there is narration while people just sit around eating or working or whatever. And sometimes the actor will just turn and look into the camera. When this first happened, I thought it would break the spell. Instead, it intensified it. There’s something about Edvard working hard on a painting, then pausing to give you a vacant look, that is horrifically haunting. Brilliant mood-setting all around.
The movie requires patience, by the way. You need to be in a passive and receptive mood, and without a full bladder. I was fine throughout and thought it was powerful. Could it have been shortened? Oh, sure. Most songs could be shortened, but if the mood is what you’re after, let it linger a while. This movie lingers. We all thought it played shorter than 3 hours, by the way.
One small quibble. I thought the happy ending was a touch forced.
--cranefly
I didn't see it - Dr. Ivor Yeti - 04-11-2006
But the poster sucked!