‘Charlotte’ Review: An Artist’s Short Life


In the animated biopic “Charlotte” about the German Jewish painter Charlotte Salomon, the film’s most telling moment may be its last. Concluding with an audible image of a Nazi gathering on the French Riviera, directors Éric Warin and Tahir Rana come closest to capturing Salomon’s short life, with tensions between creative and nihilistic.

Actress Keira Knightley posthumously wrote “Life? or Theatre?” is a large series of autobiographical gouaches that he painted while living in the south of France. In 1938, his family sent him from Berlin to the American philanthropist Ottilie Moore’s estate in Villefranche-sur-Mer, where his maternal grandparents had moved.

“Life? or Theatre?” -now considered an early graphic novel – consists of 769 images that are bold, disturbing and expressive.

Like his own work, the film depicts Salomon’s youth in Berlin with his doctor father and opera singer stepmother; her stepmother’s romance with voice coach Alfred Wolfsohn (a very good Mark Strong); his time at the Berlin Academy of Arts; his relationship with his grandparents; and yes, the rise of the Third Reich.

But demons approaching him in France don’t just wear brown shirts. Jim Broadbent raises his voice with a harshness that hints at his grandfather’s tyranny. What prompted Salomon to create his masterpiece was his grandfather’s vindictive account of the family’s history of mental illness and suicide.

“Charlotte” draws faithful inspiration from the artist’s life and presents the facts of her tragic death without exaggeration before the credits. Salomon was killed the day he arrived at Auschwitz. She was 26 years old and pregnant.

Finally, “Charlotte” is the mysterious “Life? Or the Theatre?” What a good tribute the movie would have been if it had drawn fervent energy from Salomon’s art as well.

charlotte
Not rated. Working time: 1 hour 32 minutes. In movie theaters.



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