King Rodin
On March 8th, 2001, early in the morning, before a small fervent and contemplative crowd, the “Bourgeois de Calais”, Rodin’s masterpiece, was pulled free from his pedestal by a huge crane and laid down on a lorry bound for Rome in order to be restored in the magnificient gardens of the Medicis Villa.
Type (Documentaire / Documentaire fiction / Série documentaire)DocumentaryGenre en anglaisArts & culture Written and directed byAlain FleischerIn coproduction with Musée Rodin, Villa Médicis, Le Fresnoy - Studio national des Arts contemporains, Musée d'OrsayIn association with CNC, Conseil général du Nord, CRRAV, DRAC Nord Pas-de-Calais, Musée de la dentelle de Calais, Région Nord-Pas-de-CalaisBroadcasted by France 3 Nord-Pas-de-Calais-PicardieDistributed by ADAV, Artline FilmsYear2002Duration52min
As the story of the statue’s journey to Rome unfolds, widely celebrated director, writer and photographer Alain Fleischer guides us throughout a spellbinding voyage into the intimacy of the aesthetic world of the greatest master of modern sculpture.
The director will focus on two major aspects of the sculptor’s work: eroticism and its expression, and the recognition of man’s tragic dimension. By showing us how Rodin worked from live models, dancers and others, he will account for the alchemy of the gestures which shaped the lifeless matter, infusing it with everlasting magic.
Alain Fleischer gives us a striking insight of the energy contained within Rodin’s revolutionary technique of modelé. His camera moves around the motionless figures, complies with their frozen movements, finds motion within stillness. As if statues were coming back to life, mimes and dancers express with their art their poetic vision of Rodin’s still world.
The camera wanders in the strange atmosphere of the Musée Rodin at nighttime, takes a stroll in the gardens of the Medicis Villa peopled with Rodin’s masterpieces, enters the secret reserves where hundreds of original moulds, plasters, studies, fragments are cautiously hidden and preserved.
Press coverage
Alain Fleischer is one of those rare interpreters of great culture who can vividly convey the power and significance of a work elevated to the status of 'classic,' often stifled by the reductive schemes of popularizers or buried under the exegesis of specialists. Such is the case with 'King Rodin,' a tribute to the genius sculptor…
Le Monde
Throughout his life, Rodin never ceased to observe, appreciate, and sculpt the beauty of the body, especially the female form. Sharing this fascination, Alain Fleischer reveals the influence this work had on mime and contemporary dance, through its daring approach to the intimacy of the nude. With a beautiful sequence in the reserves of the Meudon museum, serving as a pretext for variations on the theme of the figure, between form and formlessness, where the director's literary talent unfolds.
La Croix
To convey his vision of Rodin's work, Alain Fleischer wrote and directed 'King Rodin,' drawing on the 'Burghers of Calais,' various exhibitions, including one at the Villa Medici in Rome, and the Rodin Museum, a permanent exhibition space. An 80-minute film, meticulously crafted, of great intensity and consummate eroticism. Stunning.
Art Actuel
After an engaging biography of the sculptor, this DVD analyzes the artist's approach to the nude through a film with stunning images that constantly juxtaposes the work and the body. A DVD with perfect composition!
Télé Câble Satellite
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