CAMILLE CLAUDEL

What drives so many artists to self-destruction? One unelaborated answer is commitment to their craft. Camille Claudel offered much beauty to the world when she became the lead woman sculpture during the Belle Epoch before falling for Auguste Rodin, who molded her into a genius but couldn’t give up his philandering ways. A career was cut short by insanity, and Claudel spent the last thirty years of her life in an asylum. Ah, but what could have been we shall never know. Claudel was a woman who lived for her art, sneaking away at night to collect mud for her sculptures. But the world would see little of it. Before her commitment she destroyed almost all of her body of work.

            Bruno Nuytten’s homage begins very much like a standard movie life story of a mad genius. Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) is a dedicated to her work but faces disapproval from her family. After an initially intimidating introduction she wins the admiration of the esteemed Rodin (Gérard Depardieu) and ultimately his affection. She triumphs but at a price.

            Camille Claudel is distinguished by its fascination with sculpting, but it has no joy in the discovery of talent and little awe in art. Sculpting and love for it are arbitrary. But this is comfortably tucked under the film’s fanciful ideas about art, giving it a rich understanding and appreciation for the world of an artist if not the enthusiasm one would expect. Art has its own hierarchy, as is revealed when an agitated Rodin tells a photographer that he is no artist for he “creates nothing”.

            The true cause for celebration, though, is once more Isabelle Adjani who brings a tragically forgotten pioneer to life in a way that few people (even those closest to her) ever saw her. Adjani is a rare talent, appearing strong when playing most vulnerable. Camille Claudel wisely reminds us of her grasping performance as Adele Hugo in The Story of Adele H. with a reference to the death of Victor Hugo early in the film. In that film she played a woman also driven to stubborn insanity by the unrequited love of a cad. In Camille Claudel she realizes she has more to live for than an unworthy scoundrel, but it’s an awakening come too late and all the more tragic for it.

            Rodin recognized talent early, but while his discovery of Claudel was astute it was partially laced with envy. He sees a lot of him in her and that troubles him. They were both brought up by families scornful of art and she is now following his lead. When he accuses her of copying his Adam statue he is not so much offended as he is afraid of being duplicated. “What does she have that I don’t?” he says while staring into one of her busts.

            We first see Rodin (as does Claudel when he first visits her studio) as a feared deity of the art world, only for the film to humanize him as his love for Claudel grows. But his affection is more complicated than pure love. He feels the need to “adopt” her and takes her to a new mansion in Paris where the two can work alone and sculpt each other.

            It was, however, because of Rodin that her family became more tolerant of her passion. She remains embarrassed of their humble upbringing, though her father (Alain Cuny) understands her drive. During a nicely realized scene in the Claudels’ country estate, much is revealed about the men dominating Claudel’s life.

            In a sense, her father could have been a greater support for her than Rodin ever was if she’d only have let him be. Her life was, in fact, shaped by the actions of three men. Besides Rodin and her father, Claudel maintained a close relation with her brother Paul (Laurent Grevill), who would become a polarizing diplomat and poet. However, she followed Rodin, a choice that proved devastating.

            Rodin thinks of her as a sculpture and a clever scene cross-cuts his caressing of her face with a close-up of his hands molding clay into a bust of her face. He is molding her not only as his pupil but as another of his creations. Their relation evolves from sympathetic to admiration then fear and jealousy and ultimately possession. He displays her proudly at fancy balls and political parties as his discovery, and after their relation crumbles his greatest pain is a bruised ego. How dare she make molds based on their affair and find a new sponsor in Claude Debussy (Maxime Leroux)?

            Today, Rodin is more famous than Claudel, thanks largely to The Thinker. She is remembered mostly as how she related to him. But there is something to be said for the fact that Claudel’s best work came after her break-up with Rodin. They would later establish a working relation but old wounds still hurt. After he leaves her for good her mentally decay begins. Subsequently, a lot of her work was either confiscated by the French government or became a casualty of one of her fits of rage.

            Like many great artists, Camille Claudel’s creativity came from a disturbed place. But her case is especially tragic because she is one of the few who destroyed the very testaments to her genius. She is partially to blame for her brother’s final words about her which seems something of an epitaph, “she didn’t amount to anything”.

            Camille Claudel is a moving and personal film. A lack of consistency in stretches buffers its punch, but Isabelle Adjani makes us listen. In doing so, she does more for the memory of Camille Claudel than the tragic artist ever did for herself.