Cinema’s arty party

>>Antarctic libraries, dissident architects
and a porcupine named Boris at the 26th
Festival international du film sur l’art

PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST:
Macaulay Culkin and Robert Wilson

by MARK SLUTSKY

The Festival international du film sur l’art may be one of this city’s most slept-on film fests. Taking place in midwinter, away from the more temperate stretch of the year when fests like the World Film Festival and Fantasia thrive, and with its arty mandate, it’s an easy event to miss out on. But miss out you should not!

Now in its 26th year, FIFA’s programming is as interesting as ever. If you think its focus on the arts sounds limiting, get a load of the wide range of subjects this year’s fest covers, from avant-garde Soviet architecture to Antarctic libraries to Baroque sculptors to Bob Marley. Most of these films will never see theatrical release in Montreal, so catch ’em while you can.

It wouldn’t be a festival of films on art without a healthy assortment of documentary portraits of various artists. FIFA’s poster this year features an image by the late great Keith Haring, subject of Christina Clausen’s The Universe of Keith Haring. The doc follows Haring from his beginnings to his eventual art-world superstardom, and features audio interviews conducted with the artist before his death in 1990.

John Wyver’s The Art of Francis Bacon examines the work of the fascinating British painter, as narrated by Derek Jacobi, who played the man in the 1998 biopic Love Is the Devil. Bacon was himself painted by the artist Lucian Freud, who’s the subject of an eponymous short doc by Hector Obalk, which focuses on the work itself: no interviews, just the paintings. While we’re on the subject of British artists, Damien Hirst: Addicted to Art takes a different approach to its subject, focusing on the U.K. art world’s enfant terrible as a collector as opposed to a creator.

Not all artists profiled in the fest are contemporary. Utamaro: A Portrait in Purple, by directors Wakana Kamo and Nobuhisa Horiuchi, looks at the 18th century Japanese portraitist, and specifically at a cache of prints recently uncovered after almost a century of neglect. Simon Schama’s Power of Art: Bernini tells the story of the Barqoue artist whose sculptures and fountains are indistinguishable with the image of Rome. Avian aficionados will surely flock (horrible pun intended) to John James Audubon: Drawn From Nature, about the American ornithological all-star. In a film that looks to be more about his legacy than the man himself, Chris Rodley’s Andy Warhol: Denied focuses on the controversy surrounding the authentication of the Pop legend’s works; this was a man, of course, who left much of the labour to others, creating a question of authorship in many cases.

marley to maysles

Not all of the arts covered in the FIFA program are strictly visual: a good percentage of the films look at music and musicians. Anthony Wall’s Bob Marley—Exodus ’77 covers a crucial year in the reggae superstar’s life, as he lived in self-imposed exile in London after an assassination attempt. A Journey of Dmitry Shostakovich also looks at a great musician outside his native land, as the film is structured around a trip the Russian composer took to the U.S. near the end of his life. The Magic of Swan Lake tells the story of the iconic ballet, as demonstrated by U.K. ballerina Darcey Bussell.

Some films focus on individual artworks. Jeanne-Claude and Christo’s immense Central Park installation The Gates, nearly 30 years in the making, is the subject of a doc by Albert Maysles and Antonio Ferrara. Guernica, Portrait of War is a history of Pablo Picasso’s masterpiece of protest and pain. Dissident Russian Constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov’s bizarre self-made home for his family—a building he would eventually be confined to, under house arrest—is the subject of Rax Rinnekangas’s The Melnikov House. Another unusual building is profiled in Library on Ice—Lutz Fritsch in the Antarctic, about the world’s most remote reading room.

A couple of special programs round out the ambitious fest. Robert Wilson: Video Portraits showcases the more than 50 short portraits created by the master theatre director, with subjects as diverse as Dita Von Teese, Isabella Rossellini, Robert Downey Jr., Macaulay Culkin and a porcupine named Boris. Diane Obomsawin, Alias Obom—Complete Works 1992-2008 is a retrospective of the internationally acclaimed Montreal artist and animator. And Ken Russell: A Life on Film is a tribute to the great, weird British director, featuring a selection of his music and art films, as well as other works.

FIFA runs from March 6–16;
for more information, see
www.artfifa.com

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