iffr: klimt
The director's cut of 'Klimt', the new film by Raúl Ruiz, starring John Malkovich, had its world premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival.
As emphasized by Ruiz, the film is not a biopic, but rather "a phantasmagoria, a fresco of real and imaginary characters revolving around a single point of focus: the painter Klimt."
The entire story takes place as Klimt lies on his deathbed and looks back on his life, imagining, as Ruiz put it, "what never was but might have been." Appropriately, the mind of the artist is full of dreamlike, swirling images (with lots of broken mirrors, female bodies and falling snow), making the film really look like an Art Nouveau painting.
Ruiz: "Asked to describe this film in two words, I would say: delirium and delight."
Among the historial characters portrayed in the film are Klimt's friend Egon Schiele, filmmaker George Méliès, architect Adolf Loos, as well as a young Wittgenstein.