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Camille Claudel (Widescreen)
 
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Camille Claudel (Widescreen)

Isabelle Adjani (Actor), Gérard Depardieu (Actor), Bruno Nuytten (Director) | Rated: R (Restricted) | Format: DVD
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)

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"Miss Claudel has become a master."
"She has the talent of a man."
"She's a witch."

And so Auguste Rodin and friends neatly sum up the sad trajectory of Camille Claudel's career.

We first meet the sculptor as she digs clay with bare fingers from a frozen ditch, in the winter of 1885. By the time the film leaves her, in 1913, she's an acclaimed, if socially scorned, artist who's been committed to an asylum.

In the interim, Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) falls in love with the famous, older, womanizing Rodin (Gérard Depardieu). Claudel abandons her work to assist the creatively bankrupt Rodin, filling in as his muse, assistant, and lover. When pregnancy forces Claudel to ask him to choose between her and his longtime mistress, he won't, she leaves, and their alliance ends. This proves to be the turning point for Claudel's mental health; when her affair with Rodin ends, she begins her intimacy with insanity.

As her madness blooms, so do her long-neglected sculptures, which seem to come to life in her hands and arms. Not only a potent love story, Camille Claudel is also an account of art and its wellsprings, and this is where it excels, especially when we witness Claudel's manic genius at work, driven by the necessity to externalize her emotions in the forms of her sculptures.

In the end, the viewer wonders about the causes of Claudel's madness: was it genes, or her reaction against society's mores, or the product of Rodin's persecution? Or, as one exasperated family member terms it, was it "the madness of mud"? --Stefanie Durbin

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Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars DEPARDIEU, THE ACHILLES HEEL OF "CAMILLE CLAUDEL", Mar 9 2009
By 
J. Komar - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Camille Claudel (Widescreen) (DVD)
Starting with the stellar performance of Isabelle Adjani as Camille Claudel, I found everything about this film of a high order. Everything, that is, except Depardieu's portrayal of Rodin. For me, this is the Achille's heel of "Camille Claudel." The problem may lie with the script itself, however, rather than the performer.

Those who know Depardieu's performances in "The Count of Monte Cristo," "Balzac," "Cyrano," or even "The Closet," where he plays a dimwitted homophobe, can appreciate the versatility of this fine actor and the individuality and nuance he is capable of investing a role with. But his Rodin, except for the final breakup scene with Camille, is unconvincing. One leaves the film wondering how a spineless jellyfish, a milquetoast almost twice her age, neither sinner nor saint, could possibly have aroused a self-destructive passion, any love really, in a leonine personality like Camille Claudel's.

This was a question I asked on reflection, only after I had experienced the powerful tragedy of Camille's confinement to a madhouse at the conclusion of the film. Perhaps there are no rational answers for some mysteries of the human heart. This may well be the real tragedy of Camille Claudel's life. But I doubt any thoughtful lover of the cinema would want to miss "Camille Claudel," however one rates Depardieu's performance.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Passionate, Creative and Tragic, A True Art Movie, May 18 2004
By 
V. Marshall (North Fork, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Camille Claudel (Widescreen) (DVD)
I began watching this film on a late night of insomnia....it didn't help me to sleep and that's a good thing!

Isabelle Adjani artfully plays real life French sculpturess, Camille Claudel. She displays pure emotion and passionate reactions such that she is completely believable as the tragic yet talented Claudel. Claudel becomes Auguste Rodin's assistant and eventual lover/muse. They fight and compete for fame together and seperately with Claudel always the more talented but underscored by Rodin's jealously and fierce connections to the art world. In the end Claudel succumbs to a broken and ravaged heart betrayed in many ways by her one true love, Rodin.

I recently returned from a trip to Paris and having seen first hand the sculptures created by Claudel and Rodin I am even more impressed with this tragic story of talented yet conflicted artists. To see the obvious gentleness with which Claudel can carve marble and to feel the warmth that stems from a slab of cold stone left me mesmerized by her talent. Rodin appears clumsy and inept next to her creations despite his world reknown fame. I will always wonder what a woman of her talent could have created had she been alive today and not under the influence of an egotistical maniac!

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5.0 out of 5 stars 'Camille' est magnifique!, Jan 26 2004
By 
This review is from: Camille Claudel (Widescreen) (DVD)
As a French major, this is an excellent film. The language is clear (the nudity is a little inappropriate for some ages, though). I've seen this film twice some months apart and each time it was certainly engaging.

The pace was a little frustrating near the end, but considering the topic at hand (the demise of a promising artist), it is understandable. What does make an impression are the images. Many of the scenes have almost a photographic quality - very nice cinematography. The relationship between Camille and Rodin is very full of little nuances that keep the viewer engaged, too.

This is a great film for pleasure, an art classroom or a history class. Obviously, francophiles would love it, were they to see it!

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