This film depicts Paul Gauguin’s first trip to Tahiti, his difficult life there and his first relationship with a local girl; seemingly 17 or 18 in the movie but 13 in real life.
It’s a strange film with some very strong features and the rest a bit of a flat paint by numbers type of work.
Vincent Cassel does some of his best work ever as the sensitive but challenging artist, living from hand to mouth but a fervent supporter of real art and of finding something original. I am not a great Cassel fan usually
but here he moderates his tics and delivers a subtle and profound performance of a man struggling in the world.
The second feature of this film is the photography by Pierre Cottereau, which is really quite beautiful and depicts the Tahiti islands well.
The film also gives us something of the artistic process and the creative impulse that drives top artists.
Another feature of the movie is the looks on people’s faces which often replace dialogue.
Local actors
are fine without being anything special and music is adequate.
Where the film falls down for me is in the wooden scripting and dialogue and an overall vision of what the film wants to be.
Many of the details about Gauguin are left out (he was active politically, he had syphilis) and we get a sort of slim portrait of an artist.
Then there is much more that could have been explored with the intercultural relationship.
I know that this was only a brief period of his life but he was a much more interesting man and had a very varied life, more so than what we see here.
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passionfilm 