Camille hopes that her younger brother Paul Claudel will liberate her from the institution where she’s resided for two years. Director Bruno Dumont’s observations of the suffering woman lack melodramatic flourishes but are long on sensitivity. The character of the exceptional sculptor, Auguste Rodin’s former lover and his artistic competitor, whose family had her committed, became one of Juliette Binoche’s biggest roles.
Winter 1915. With only occasional outbursts of defiance, Camille has resigned herself to the boring routine of life among the other mentally ill patients – a label she refuses to accept. She pins all her hopes on the arrival of her brother, with whom she has been corresponding and who has promised to visit her. Catholic author Paul Claudel finds it hard to make the journey or to fulfill his sister’s wish to be released. The renowned sculptor – a former student and lover of August Rodin – never returned home and had to abandon her art forever. In his latest film, Bruno Dumont avoids the habit of not giving his characters names, opting instead for a real artist whose life remains shrouded in the mystery of the mental illness which led her family to place her in a sanatorium in southern France. Most of the characters in the film, which is set within the walls of a former monastery with only rare scenes taken outside in the nearby surroundings, are played by actual patients, but Camille Claudel is played by Juliette Binoche. Her outstanding performance shows that she succeeded in perfectly empathizing with the thoughts and feelings of this suffering woman and artist.
97 min / Color, DCP
Director Bruno Dumont
/ Screenplay Bruno Dumont
/ Dir. of Photography Guillaume Deffontaines
/ Editor Bruno Dumont, Basile Belkhiri
/ Producer Jean Brehat, Rachid Bouchareb, Muriel Merlin
/ Production 3B Productions
/ Cast Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent, Emmanuel Kauffman, Marion Keller, Armelle Leroy-Rolland
/ Contact GoodFellas, Film Europe s.r.o.
/ Distributor Film Europe s.r.o.
Bruno Dumont (b. 1958, Bailleul, France) is a self-taught filmmaker who worked on commercials and short promotional movies from 1986 to 1996. He first gained international attention with his feature debut The Life of Jesus (La vie de Jésus, 1997). His provocative films have earned him a place among other contemporary French filmmakers whose distinctive, naturalist style, disturbing subject matter, and breaking of taboos have caused significant controversy. Nearly all of his films, presented at Karlovy Vary, have won prestigious awards (most frequently at Cannes): The Life of Jesus (1997), Humanity (L’humanité, 1999), Twentynine Palms (2003), Flanders (Flandres, 2006), Hadewijch (2009), and Outside Satan (Hors Satan, 2011). Camille Claudel 1915 premiered in competition at this year’s Berlinale.
GoodFellas
65 rue de Dunkerque, 75009, Paris
France
Phone: +33 143 132 164
E-mail: [email protected]
Film Europe s.r.o.
Matuškova 10, 831 01, Bratislava
Slovakia
E-mail: [email protected]
Alain de la Mata
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