Camille Claudel **** (1988, Isabelle Adjani, Gérard Depardieu, Madeleine Robinson, Alain Cuny) – Classic Movie Review 8679

The doomed love affair between the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin (Gérard Depardieu) and his student assistant Camille Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) is exquisitely brought to life by two of the great names of Eighties French cinema in director Bruno Nuytten’s 1988 historical biographical drama Camille Claudel. After a while, Camille starts to sculpt for herself as well as for Rodin, and becomes his mistress. It won five César Awards in France (1989), including Best Film, Best Actress, Best Cinematography (Pierre Lhomme), Best Production Design (Bernard Vézat) and Best Costume Design (Dominique Borg).

Adjani is so moving that she won the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1989 and was Oscar nominated as Best Actress in a Leading Role. The film was Oscar and Golden Globe nominated as Best Foreign Language Film.

In his début as writer-director (after photographing the 1986 Manon des Sources and Jean de Florette), Nuytten scores best with the lavish and atmospheric recreation of 1880s Paris. The running time is pretty daunting at 175 minutes, though it does run very smoothly, and the US cutdown version released by Orion Classics runs 150 minutes.

Nuytten chooses another brilliant photographer to lens his film. It is beautifully shot by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme.

Also in the cast are Laurent Grévill as Paul Claudel, Alain Cuny as the father Louis-Prosper Claudel, Philippe Clévenot, Madeleine Robinson, Katrine Boorman, Maxime Leroux, Jean-Pierre Sentier, Roger Planchon and Danièle Lebrun.

It is written by Bruno Nuytten (scenario and dialogue) and Marilyn Goldin (scenario and dialogue), based on the book by Reine-Marie Paris.

Camille Claudel is directed by Bruno Nuytten, runs 175 minutes, is made by Les Films Christian Fechner, Lilith Films I.A., Gaumont, Antenne 2 and DD Productions, is released by Gaumont (1988) (France) and Orion Classics (1989) (US), is written by Bruno Nuytten and Marilyn Goldin, is shot by Pierre L’Homme, is produced by Isabelle Adjan and Christian Fechner, and is scored by Gabriel Yared, with Production Design by Bernard Vézat.

Pierre Lhomme (1930–2019).

Celebrated French cinematographer Pierre Lhomme died on 4 July 2019, aged 89. He won a second César Award for Best Cinematography for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) in 1991 and the 1992 BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography for Cyrano de Bergerac (1990). His last film work was on The Divorce (2003). He is also remembered for This Sweet Sickness (1977) and Deadly Circuit (1983).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8679

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