Séraphine, the new film from French director Martin Provost, and starring renowned French actress Yolande Moreau, recently swept the César awards with seven wins including Best Film, Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Music. The film opens in New York this Friday, June 5th, at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and the Angelika Film Center, and in Los Angeles, followed by a national roll out.
Based on a true story, Séraphine centers on Séraphine de Senlis (Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper whose brilliantly colorful canvases adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. German art critic and collector Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur from The Lives of Others) – the first Picasso buyer and champion of naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau – discovers her paintings while she is working for him as a maid in the beautiful countryside of Senlis near Paris. A moving and unexpected relationship develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary outsider artist. Martin Provost’s fictionalized and poignant portrait of Séraphine is a testament to creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.
UPDATE 6/4/2009
I’ve received the trailer for Séraphine. You can check it out below.