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Marc Chagall: Poet of Painting
Documentary portrait of the great French artist
Made shortly before Chagall's death in 1985, this film looks at his work through the eyes of a young English painter whose curiosity about the grand old man of French art is aroused when he finds he is living in Chagall's old studio in Paris, and who travels through France on the trail of the enigmatic artist.
Marc Chagall died at the age of 97. For nearly 80 years he painted in a unique style that captivated generations of art lovers and both fascinated and infuriated his critics.
During his own lifetime Chagall became a living legend - the grand old man of French painting. He began life far from the art salons of Paris, in a Jewish ghetto in provincial Russia. All the odds were against him becoming a painter. His family was poor and belonged to a strict religious sect, which believed it to be blasphemous to draw or paint people. And, as a Jew in Imperial Russia, Chagall needed a special permit to attend an art school in St Petersburg. But he was determined to succeed and managed to escape the restrictions of his background. He was swept up in the political and artistic maelstrom of the Russian Revolution and then moved on to Paris, at that time the artistic capital of Europe.
Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism - Chagall learned from all these movements as he rubbed shoulders with many of the great painters and poets of the 20th century - Matisse, Léger, Dufy, Delauney and Apollinaire. But he stayed very much his own man and developed a unique style that was his hallmark down the years. Having spent World War II in the USA, in 1948 he moved to the south of France, where he lived for the rest of his life. In his later years, he created a number of monumental works for public places all over the world, in paint and later in stained glass.
His themes remained the same - Russian village life, lovers in surrealistic landscapes of flowers and fantasies, stories from the Bible, the excitement and the sorrow of life itself. And his colours show that he was a Russian: they are the folk colours of Kandinsky, bright reds and yellows outlined in a thick black brush.
Marc Chagall died at the age of 97. For nearly 80 years he painted in a unique style that captivated generations of art lovers and both fascinated and infuriated his critics.
During his own lifetime Chagall became a living legend - the grand old man of French painting. He began life far from the art salons of Paris, in a Jewish ghetto in provincial Russia. All the odds were against him becoming a painter. His family was poor and belonged to a strict religious sect, which believed it to be blasphemous to draw or paint people. And, as a Jew in Imperial Russia, Chagall needed a special permit to attend an art school in St Petersburg. But he was determined to succeed and managed to escape the restrictions of his background. He was swept up in the political and artistic maelstrom of the Russian Revolution and then moved on to Paris, at that time the artistic capital of Europe.
Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism - Chagall learned from all these movements as he rubbed shoulders with many of the great painters and poets of the 20th century - Matisse, Léger, Dufy, Delauney and Apollinaire. But he stayed very much his own man and developed a unique style that was his hallmark down the years. Having spent World War II in the USA, in 1948 he moved to the south of France, where he lived for the rest of his life. In his later years, he created a number of monumental works for public places all over the world, in paint and later in stained glass.
His themes remained the same - Russian village life, lovers in surrealistic landscapes of flowers and fantasies, stories from the Bible, the excitement and the sorrow of life itself. And his colours show that he was a Russian: they are the folk colours of Kandinsky, bright reds and yellows outlined in a thick black brush.