| Camille Claudel 1915 | |
| Director: | Bruno Dumont |
| Producer: | Rachid Bouchareb Jean Brehat Muriel Merlin |
| Starring: | Juliette Binoche |
| Music: | Johann Sebastian Bach |
| Cinematography: | Guillaume Deffontaines |
| Editing: | Bruno Dumont Basile Belkhiri |
| Distributor: | Wild Bunch |
| Runtime: | 97 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
Camille Claudel 1915 is a 2013 French biographical film written and directed by Bruno Dumont. The film premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[1]
At the end of her career the sculptor Camille Claudel seems to suffer with mental issues. She destroys her own statues and utters repeatedly that her former lover Auguste Rodin intended to make her life miserable. Consequently, her younger brother Paul sends her to an asylum on the outskirts of Avignon. Claudel tries to convince her doctor she is perfectly sane, while living among patients who obviously are not. She is desperate to see her brother again, hoping he might eventually support her plea.
Camille Claudel, 1915 has an approval rating of 80% on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 46 reviews, and an average rating of 7.2/10. The website consensus reads: "Camille Claudel, 1915 isn't an easy watch, but Juliette Binoche's excellent performance makes it worth the effort."[2] Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[3]
According to Cine Vue's Patrick Gamble the filmmaker Bruno Dumont has delivered an "incredibly compassionate and humble observation of a tortured artist".[4] Variety's Guy Lodge described the film as a "moving account of a brief period in the later life of the troubled sculptress" and appreciated Juliette Binoche's impersonation of Camille Claudel as nothing less than "mesmerising".[5] Screen Internationals Jonathan Romney ranked this film as "an amplification and indeed a deepening" of Dumont's hitherto existing accomplishments and artistic impact.[6] Eric Kohn of IndieWire stated the film had a "concision" which displayed "an exactitude worthy of Robert Bresson".[7] Analysing the film in depth for The Hollywood Reporter, Jordan Mintzer summed up the film in his "bottom line": "An unsettling portrait of the artist as a mad woman, anchored by a riveting lead performance".[8]