Munch
Idiosyncratic portrait of artist Edvard Munch, focusing on the emotional world of the painter of The Scream. Opening film of IFFR earlier this year.
MUNCH present an intimate and nuanced portrait of Edvard Munch. Misunderstood by his peers, rejected by the art establishment, wracked with grief over the loss of his younger sister and tortured by addiction. This film takes the viewers through four important chapters of Munch’s life: the story of his first love; the controversy around one of his early exhibitions in Berlin; Munch’s admission to a psychiatric clinic, where he is forced to make the biggest decision of his life; and then finally, the artist’s battle at the end of his life to save his works from the Nazis. Each section has a different filmmaking style and was written by a different screenwriter. Munch is also played by four different actors.
In general, MUNCH is more a kaleidoscope than the usual artist biopic – an essay on the many meanings of one man’s life and art for his own time, but also the future.