The Flemish painter, humanist and diplomat Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was fortunate to be recognized during his lifetime as an artist of genius and one of the most prolific among his peers, making him a key figure of the Baroque.
Simon Schama explains the style, theme and concept of Rembrandt's late masterpieces.
In this unique, compelling film, those who knew him speak freely, some for the first time, to reveal the many mysteries of Francis Bacon.
In the heart of Paris, an entire palace has disappeared. It was the very first residence of the kings of France. Long before Versailles, long before the Louvre, the Palais de la Cité stood on the most prestigious island in Paris, the historic cradle of France, facing Notre-Dame. So majestic in the Middle Ages, this palace has become a ghost of history. Over the centuries, this architectural masterpiece has almost completely disappeared. A trio of experts will resurrect it in 3D. Using science and unprecedented excavations, they will track down the pieces of the puzzle to reconstruct it at its peak in the 14th century, and bring back to life those who inhabited it. From the Romans to the Vikings, from Saint Louis to the cursed kings, all have left clues of this 'Versailles of the Middle Ages'.
Putta (Whore) follows the story of three prostitutes living in the town of Foz do Iguaçu, on the triple border between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. The film traverses the complexities of each of the three prostitutes personal lives’–from transexuality to family and motherhood–in the context of the brothels and streets in which they work.
A Renaissance masterpiece painted by Hans Holbein the Younger, “The Ambassadors” is teeming with details and hidden messages. By deciphering the enigmas of the canvas, this documentary recounts a troubled era in which advances in knowledge were intertwined with brutal political and religious upheavals.
'Figure I' uses a feminist perspective to frame and deconstruct patriarchal techniques of control. This film asks: how was a patriarchal gaze construct-ed, and how has it come to effect biological processes? How have specific tools (like Dürer's Grid) come to shape our technological present and possible futures? Are modern Western scientif-ic/mathematic/technological/medical structures rooted in extractive patriarchal philosophies? 'Figure 1' is composed of re-drawn illustrations of allegorical art historical paintings and etchings, alongside archival footage, Obstetric photography, and rotoscoped animation.
The inner world of the great painter Max Ernst is the subject of this film. One of the principal founders of Surrealism, Max Ernst explores the nature of materials and the emotional significance of shapes to combine with his collages and netherworld canvases. The director and Ernst together use the film creatively as a medium to explain the artist's own development.
The Quays' interest in esoteric illusions finds its perfect realization in this fascinating animated lecture on the art of anamorphosis. This artistic technique, often used in the 16th- and 17th centuries, utilizes a method of visual distortion with which paintings, when viewed from different angles, mischievously revealed hidden symbols.
"Belle de jour", l’envers du fantasme
An account of the life and work of Swiss painter, sculptor, architect and designer H. R. Giger (1940-2014), tormented father of creatures as fearsome as they are fascinating, inhabitants of nightmarish biomechanical worlds.
M.C. Escher is among the most intriguing of artists. In 1956 he challenged the laws of perspective with his graphic Print Gallery and his uncompleted master-piece quickly became the most puzzling enigma of modern art. Fifty years later, can mathematician Hendrik Lenstra complete it? Should he?
Over time, Queen Marie-Antoinette, who was the most hated woman of her time, experienced a spectacular return to favor. Today, historians and curators show another character: an independent and loving woman in constant search of intimacy who knew how to keep her secrets; a woman with refined, feminine and modern taste who marked her time. At Versailles, in this sublime setting cut off from the world where she barricaded herself, Marie-Antoinette cultivated her own style and influenced, throughout Europe, the tastes of her time.
For three and a half centuries, from the same day that Diego Velázquez (1599-1660) applied his last brushstroke to the canvas, the enigma of “Las meninas, o La familia de Felipe IV” (1656) has not been deciphered. The secret story of a painting unveiled as if it was the resolution of a perfect crime.
Documentary about the Lyon sex workers who occupied the church of St. Nizier on June 3, 1975.
An account of the short life and the astonishing and provocative work of the Austrian painter Egon Schiele (1890-1918), seen through the peculiar point of view and the critic voices of the women who defined the paramount milestones of his existence: Gerti, his sister; Wally, his main model and lover; and Edith, his wife. A brief story of love, hate, betrayal and misfortune.
Oskar Kokoschka : Portraits européens
Der Schatz von Timbuktu, die Geschichte einer Rettung
Documentary on the "Chicken Ranch," a legal Nevada brothel.
Ava