Expat Cinema: Munch

Expat Cinema: Munch

Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken - Norway - 2023 - 105 minuten - taal: Norwegian, Swedish, German, English, Danish - ondertiteling: English

Focus Expat Cinema: every Wednesday at 19:00 foreign language films with English subtitles.

Idiosyncratic portrait of artist Edvard Munch, focusing on the emotional world of the painter of The Scream. Opening film of IFFR 2023.

Edvard Munch was one of the most important artists in the period between the 19th and 20th centuries. His motif Skrik (The Scream), repeated in several techniques, became part of the 20th-century world subconsciousness – an image of fear and loneliness most people probably know, even if they have no idea who created it.

Munch presents an intimate and nuanced portrait of Edvard Munch. Misunderstood by his peers, rejected by the art establishment, wracked with grief over the loss of his younger sister and tortured by addiction. This film takes the viewers through four important chapters of Munch’s life: the story of his first love; the controversy around one of his early exhibitions in Berlin; Munch’s admission to a psychiatric clinic, where he is forced to make the biggest decision of his life; and then finally, the artist’s battle at the end of his life to save his works from the Nazis. Each section has a different filmmaking style and was written by a different screenwriter. Munch is also played by four different actors.

In general, Munch is more a kaleidoscope than the usual artist biopic – an essay on the many meanings of one man’s life and art for his own time, but also the future.

Expat Cinema: Munch - Focus Filmtheater Arnhem