Originally featured as part of the French Film Festival program, and now for general release comes The Stolen Painting from veteran filmmaker Pascal Bonitzer. Highly regarded as a writer, this is Bonitzer’s seventh film as director and is inspired by the 2005 discovery, in the French city of Mulhouse, of a painting by Egon Schiele.
Looted by the Nazis and thought to have been lost or destroyed, the painting becomes central to a dissection of the art market, exploring how we value art and what we value in our own lives. Though loosely based on actual events, all the characters are invented.
André (a finely calibrated performance from Alex Lutz) is an art auctioneer working for a prestigious Paris firm, who prides himself on his appearance (there is some sharp costuming from Marielle Robaut) and his savvy. However, André is having difficulty communicating with his intern Aurore (Louise Chevillotte in superb control of the brittleness behind the façade). It’s partly down to his arrogance, but also because Aurore has her own issues. And she is an inveterate liar.
It transpires that both have humble origins with destructive episodes of childhood shame and humiliation. Indeed, humiliation and the characters’ differing responses to it is one of the central themes of Bonitzer’s screenplay. The main theme, however, is the seductive and corrupting power of money.
André inhabits a world of money, made clear in an opening shot where he is negotiating with a widow for auction rights. Filmed almost as a frozen tableau, the glossy sterility of this world is subsequently contrasted with the working-class industrial city of Mulhouse, where a young worker, Martin (Arcadi Radeff) and his mother live. Unlike the pretentious art auction scene, here there is life, vibrant and funny, emphasised by a busy hand-held camera.
Martin has engaged a lawyer, Maître (Nora Hamzawi), who contacts André, asserting the existence of the Schiele. Though highly sceptical, André and his valuer, who is also his ex-wife Bertina (the wonderful Léa Drucker), travel to view the painting. Warned by Maître to avoid condescension, the unconscious giggles that erupt from André and Bertina on seeing the painting are disarming. Despite years of accumulated grime, it is clearly the missing Schiele, Wilted Sunflowers.
What follows is a film with thriller elements, some comedy, but mostly a complex and sophisticated character study. One where the rediscovery of the painting is just the background to a nuanced interrogation of the intersection of art, money, ambition, revenge, shame, and the power of decency.
Martin, who wants nothing to do with being ‘rewarded’ for accidentally owning a work of art encrusted in an evil provenance, is the moral centre of the screenplay. He consistently holds to his values. Radeff’s close-ups are mesmerising, his eyes expressing Martin’s naïveté and quiet dignity.
There are multiple plotlines, including Aurore’s relationship with her father; her connection with a man she bids against at a rare book auction; Martin’s relationship with his friends; André’s relationship with his ex-wife; and the underpinning narrative of who the ultimate beneficiaries of the painting’s sale will be. Doug Rand playing a descendant of the painting’s original owner gives great Stanley Tucci vibes.
A certain thriller element is maintained because the audience is never quite sure how all this will play out. It is hard to fully trust anyone; Bonitzer keeps shifting perspectives, and motivations are sometimes opaque, since they become clear after the event.
Not all the plotlines are fully explored, and there is a sense that the tight running time of 91 minutes has left some useful narrative development on the editing floor. But ultimately, the payoff is worth it, and a coda wraps up the lead characters’ arcs in a redemptive way.
Bonitzer has said that the painting acts as a mirror reflecting the characters’ flaws and desires. It’s an insightful analogy, and his wonderfully assured film, The Stolen Painting, certainly left me satisfied and contemplating a second viewing. Definitely recommended.
The Australian premiere season of The Stolen Painting commences 31 July at Palace Cinemas around the country.
Tickets are on sale now!
Website: https://www.palacefilms.com.au/the-stolen-painting
Socials: https://www.instagram.com/palacecinemas/
See the trailer below:
Film details:
Title: The Stolen Painting
Director: Pascal Bonitzer
Cast: Alex Lutz, Léa Drucker, Nora Hamzawi, Louise Chevillotte, Alain Chamfort, Olivier Rabourdin
Country of Origin: France
Rating: M
Duration: 91 mins
Showing at Cinemas around the country:
Sydney: Palace Central, Palace Norton Street Leichhardt, Palace Moore Park, Hayden Orpheum Cremorne
Melbourne: Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Cinema Como, Palace Pentridge, Palace Penny Lane, Palace Westgarth, Palace Regent Ballarat, The Kino, Cinema Nova
Adelaide: Palace Nova Eastend, Palace Nova Prospect
Brisbane: Palace Barracks, Palace James Street
Byron Bay: Palace Byron Bay
Canberra: Palace Electric
Perth: Palace Raine Square, Luna Leederville, The Windsor, Luna on SX
Hobart: State Cinema
