ItalianoLeibniz - Chronicle of a Lost Painting
19 October 16:30
Sala Petrassi
Pub Acc
Festa del cinema
Synopsis
In 1704, out of devotion to the illustrious thinker Leibniz, Queen Charlotte commissions of Prussia a portrait of him by a female artist, Aaltje Van De Meer. The philosopher’s encounters with the painter unfold as a dramatic quest to understand the essence of art, the mysteries of love, and the truth within the picture.
COMMENTARY
The ninety-year-old master filmmaker Edgar Reitz wields an ironically reconstructed 18th century to reflect on the relationship between fixed images and time’s inevitable passing. And to seek out the source of that maelstrom of images in which we are immersed today.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
By focusing on just a few characters, one room, and the creation of the painting, we were able to bring Leibniz to life. With him, we learned that there is no truth in images, except in art. Art resides in that mysterious in-between realm between thinking and doing, and knowing and not knowing—a realm into which our Dutch painter Aaltje leads us. She astonishes Leibniz with her claim: “What I don’t know, I can paint.”
Director
Edgar Reitz
German director, producer and author Edgar Reitz was born in 1932 in Morbach. He studied literature, journalism and drama in Munich. In the 1950s, he worked as a cameraman and a documentarian, directing his first feature, Table for Love, in 1967. From 1981 to 2013, he made his Heimat Trilogy, one of the longest film narratives in the history of cinema, and was hailed as a master contemporary filmmaker. He has received numerous awards, including the Silver Lion at Venice and in 2006 the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.