Film 11: Monet&Manet / Marlow

I chose Monet and Manet because I have been a Monet fan since childhood, and I found Manet to be shockingly similar in an almost erie fashion. This film, instead of detailing the artists lives to explain their paintings, Marlow simply explained the paintings. 

My favorite creation of Monet's is Impression, Sunrise. It is actually the painting that named the Impressionist movement. It is a painting of the Le Havre harbor in France, or at least Monet's impression of it. 

My favorite creation of Manet's is The Luncheon on the Grass. It is a scene in the woods, two fully dressed men and one fully nude women causally eating a picnic lunch. In the background, another women bathing. 

These two paintings are vastly different. While both are considered landscapes, Monet's is largely out of focus, a more whimsical version of what it really was. Manet's on the other hand is rather realistic, nudity aside. Both are the artists impression of what is really occurring.

The storytelling approaches in the films assigned this week were much different than those we have been subjected to in previous weeks. Instead of approaching the artists and paintings with dramatic lighting and reenactments, and historical evidence, Marlow simply gave us the bare minimum amount of information necessary to understand the paintings. I find it difficult to state one storyteller as my favorite. They all have qualities that I both like and dislike. 

Discussion Question:

How do you feel about impressionist art? Would you consider yourself more of a realist or an impressionist?