# Artemisia (1997)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

ARTEMISIA (director: Agnes Merlet; cast: Valentina Cervi (Artemisia Gentileschi), Michel Serrault (Orazio), Miki Manojlovic (Agostino Tassi), Luca Zingaretti (Cosimo), 1997-Fr./It.)

An emotionally flat but intelligently competent biopic about the first woman who received a commission to be an artist in the modern world, the 17th-century Italian Baroque painter, Artemisia Gentileschi (Cervi). Her major work was accomplished in 1612, "Judith Beheading Holophernes." She was virtually undiscovered until the 1970s, that is when the feminist movement brought her some recognition, as they discovered her work linked to the themes of women being suppressed in society. Today some of her work hangs in the Louvre and in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art; and, her above named major work hangs in the Offices Gallery in Florence, Italy.

The main thesis of the film's plot might not be true, since the love affair between the 17-year- old virgin Artemisia and the painter Agostino (Miki) might not have happened, court documents reveal only that he was charged with rape and there is no evidence of a love affair occurring between them.

Art is linked here to sexuality for the curious Artemisia, who is unhappily in a convent school, but soon to be released from that type of purgatory by her materially successful painter father Orazio (Serrault), who dotingly rescues her, by going against the grain of that period's traditional beliefs that a woman's place is in the home, by taking her to work in his studio, but following the traditions of the times he would not let her paint male nudes. She realizes that she can't get anywhere without doing what the male painters are doing, so she secretly paints a local fisherboy in the nude.

When she feels she has learned all she can from her father, she turns to a friendly rival of her father, Agostino, and implores him to take her on as a pupil. Being all charged up with passion and fervent urges, which intermingle between sex and art, she uses this energy to become more adept as an artist and falls for the Rabelaisian-like Agostino and his seduced by him, when it comes to the attention of her very protective and proper father, it leads to a clash of wills between the two adament men, and Artemisia is caught in the middle of a bad situation.

The repressive church enters the picture as the arbitrator of the dispute and settles things in its own inimical authoritative style, torturing the girl to confess that she had been raped, but getting only a confession of rape out of the beleaguered Agostino, who does this to stop them from further torturing Artemisia.

The film is beautiful to watch. Its sense of colors are breathtakingly gorgeous. The attractive Cervi is properly suited for her role, conveying a charming innocence that showed that she can be bold enough to be erotic, while she can also be driven to lustfully paint. Serrault added a strong presence to the story, and Agostino was more than adequate as the womanizer with a soft heart.

So why wasn't I thrilled with this presentation? It is because I didn't feel any passion about what was happening, it all seemed like "old hat" arguments against repression that were politically correct, but left me wondering... so, what else is new! I just wish the film had more of an edge to it.

    REVIEWED ON 11/22/98                    GRADE C

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ

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