Charlotte
As with Loving Vincent, Charlotte Salomon is another artist whose life and work lends itself to animation.
Charlotte and Alexander
The chief virtue of this film is that it will bring the story of Charlotte Salomon to a wider audience. That is not to say that her life is little known: look up the Wikipedia entry on her and you will find that this is not the first film to be made about her (there was one in 1981) and, in addition, she is the subject of a novel and has inspired stage works including plays and a ballet. Even so, many will be unfamiliar with this artist who, being a German Jew born in Berlin in 1917, had her life cut short when she was seized and taken to Auschwitz. That was in 1943. Indeed, I myself had no knowledge of her until I saw this film which functions on three distinct levels. It is, of course, a Holocaust tale, but it is also a portrait of a young woman asserting herself in order to become an artist and a biopic which invites its audience to discover her art and to explore it further after seeing the film.
Despite her death at the age of 26, Charlotte Salomon created a memorable and substantial work of art of an unusual kind. Widely considered to be the first graphic novel, her book entitled Life? or Theatre? incorporated well over seven hundred paintings, a poetic text and musical references (when describing this unique offering she rather oddly chose to use a musical term, a songspiel). Presented in this form, the material in it drew strongly on autobiographical elements but arguably with some room for fanciful elaboration. All of this feeds into this film which, nevertheless and even at its most dramatic personal moments, stays close to the facts.
Interesting as the film is, there are three aspects that raise questions. The first stems from the decision to make this an animated film. As also happened with the recent Japanese animation Goodbye, Don Glees!, I was reminded of how brilliantly last year’s Flee made one forget that one was looking at drawings and was aware of the extent to which the images here never achieved that despite this too being a true story. Secondly, there is the question of the voices. It would appear that Charlotte was always intended to exist in two versions, one in English and one in French. Indeed, both Keira Knightley, who voices Charlotte here, and Marion Cotillard, who took on the same duties in the French version, are among the film’s executive producers. It is certainly the case that the English voice cast is a distinguished one (see the cast list below). But the fact is that the early scenes in Charlotte dealing with her late teenage years and her time in an art academy take place in Berlin while the rest of the film is set in the south of France to which she was sent to live with her grandparents. Consequently, one is constantly aware that German and French characters are sounding very English and it makes matters worse when, as a single exception to this, one character, a helpful French doctor, is still played in English but with ze French accent. The third issue is of a different kind. Within the family story, there is a moment of exceptional drama which has been confirmed by evidence only recently found. However, the motivation for it has been played down by the filmmakers on the basis that what many believe to be the real motive has not been fully proven. Their decision may be honourable, but it renders Charlotte’s behaviour at this point questionable enough to unsettle our view of her.
On all these counts Charlotte is less satisfying than one would wish. Nevertheless, Charlotte Salomon deserves to be remembered and the film serves an admirable purpose in highlighting a life which, for all the tragedy inherent in it, was indeed one of achievement against the odds.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Voices of Keira Knightley, Sam Claflin, Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory, Sophie Okonedo, Mark Strong, Henry Czerny.
Dir Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, Pro Jérôme Dopffer, Eric Goossens, Anton Roebben and Julia Rosenberg, Screenplay Erik Rutherford and David Bezmozgis from Erik Rutherford’s story inspired by Life? Or Theatre? by Charlotte Salomon, Pro Des François Moret, Ed Roderick Deogrades and Sam Patterson, Music Michelino Bisceglia.
January Films/Balthazar Productions/Walking the Dog/Sierra Affinity/Sons of Manual-Parkland Entertainment.
92 mins. Canada/France/Belgium. 2021. US Rel: 22April 2022. UK Rel: 9 December 2022. Cert. 12.