- Starring
- Keira Knightley, Marion Cotillard, Brenda Blethyn
- Writers
- Erik Rutherford, David Bezmozgis
- Directors
- Tahir Rana, Éric Warin
- Rating
- n/a
- Running TIme
- 92 minutes
- Release Date
- n/a
Overall Score
Rating Summary
This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.
Whether you’re a painter, film director, musician or dancer, the one commonality between all art-forms is the ability to express one’s self and tell their individual story. Art transcends time and can act as a window into the past, preserving someone’s personal history. Charlotte Salomon was a young Jewish woman who viewed life through an artistic lens and used that vision to create art that was a reflection of the world around her, capturing both the beauty and tragedy that life had in store for her. Unfortunately, the latter clouded her life, as she was a victim of the Holocaust and came from a lineage effected by severe depression that was passed on to her genetically. Salomon sensed that her life would be cut short, but like many artists, she wanted to live on through her work, so she put together a collection of paintings that told her entire life story and reflected her deepest thoughts and emotions in pivotal moments.
Charlotte, directed by Eric Warin and Tahir Rana, tells Saloman’s (Knightley) remarkable story, from when she began studying art to her final days. She lived an eventful life and the film attempts to cover every key moment. As fascinating as her story is, not every moment feels necessary to include in the film, resulting in a rushed and overstuffed experience. Clocking in at just over 90 minutes in length, it doesn’t allow the room to tell a story of this scope and magnitude.
The decision to use animation to tell Salomon’s story, as opposed to presenting it as a more traditional biopic is certainly commendable. The main issue with the film lies with the quality of the animation itself. The majority of the budget went towards the voice cast and that is unfortunately reflected in the cheap and uninspired visuals. There are moments where the film explores her thought process while creating her art and those scenes rely on textured animation to capture the style of her paintings. Those scenes were so beautiful to look at that the entire film should have maintained that style as opposed to the cut-out animation of the majority of the film.
While Charlotte has flaws from a filmmaking standpoint, it still tells a fascinating story and it’s not afraid to delve into complex territory such as the exploration of mental illness, sexual desire and the Holocaust. Knightly, voicing the English version of the film, delivers an impressive vocal performance as the titular character, giving the film texture and authenticity, despite the distracting animation.
At the end of the day, Charlotte is frustrating, as it is so close to achieving greatness. That being said, its messy execution doesn’t take away from the fact that the film tells an extremely important story and is worth seeing for that alone.
still courtesy of Elevation Pictures
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