{"id":765,"date":"2018-11-06T04:38:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-06T04:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/?p=765"},"modified":"2019-06-14T18:59:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T18:59:31","slug":"http-avepsi-org-ve-site-wp-includes-images-media-document-pngthe-artist-and-the-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/http-avepsi-org-ve-site-wp-includes-images-media-document-pngthe-artist-and-the-model\/","title":{"rendered":"The Artist and The Model"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gonzalo Himiob, Venezuela http:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/document.png<\/a><\/p>\n

Director: Fernando Trueba.<\/p>\n

First release: 2012.<\/p>\n

Cast: Jean Rochefort as Marc Cros; A\u00edda Folch as Merc\u00e8; Claudia Cardinale as L\u00e9a, Cros\u2019 wife; Chua \u2028Lampreave as the elderly maid, Mar\u00eda.<\/p>\n

Written by: Fernando Trueba and Jean-Claude Carri\u00e8re. Photography by Daniel Vilar. Art Direction: Pilar Revuelta<\/p>\n

This French language film with English subtitles takes place in 1943 as World War II is ending and the context is the countryside home of a well-known sculptor and his wife. Some scenes take place in the nearby village where German soldiers and French locals cohabit in a mix of interactions, sharing space and food surrounded by daily town life, seemingly unscathed by the war. The rages of conflict and battle are at a distance and evidence of the occupation is only apparent through the presence of the uniformed Germans marching through the peaceful village.<\/p>\n

In this environment, the elderly, retired sculptor Marc Cros lives with his wife L\u00e9a and an equally aged maidservant Mar\u00eda in peaceful but empty circumstances. One day while on a shopping trip to the town marketplace, L\u00e9a and the servant discover a young Spanish girl who had been sleeping in a doorway and was\u2028 bathing in the town fountain; she is dirty and ragged with scratches and \u2028bruises. L\u00e9a, with wide-eyed intelligence and sense of purpose, decides to \u2028engage her as the sculptor\u2019s new model.<\/p>\n

The couple offers money, food, housing in exchange for modelling. To her surprise, the Young woman finds that she must pose nude, but she agrees to the bargain and settles into a work routine with the artist. What is also exposed early on is that Cros has, in many ways, given up on his creative endeavours and perhaps on life itself; the dust-covered studio has been shut for years. His wife has brought in this young woman as means to enliven her husband and help him to find his connection to beauty and the artistic process.<\/p>\n

Through the interaction between artist and model, life begins to flourish. The old man will recover his drive for love and the young girl will acquire \u2028\u00a0knowledge; at the same time, the sculptor\u2019s wife will find herself in the modewith memories of earlier times in their youth when she was his primary \u2028subject. L\u00e9a actually provides her husband with new life by bringing into the \u2028foreground a regenerating anima who inspires his work.<\/p>\n

As the movie unfolds, the viewer begins to appreciate Merc\u00e8 (mercy?) both as a kind of soul guide for Marc Cros\u2019 renaissance and also for refugees escaping from Franco\u2019s dictatorship traveling from Spain into France; she knows her way through the forests. Although young and, in many aspects, innocent and uncultivated, Merc\u00e8 is capable of intuitively sensing what is needed in a variety of complex situations. On one hand, Merc\u00e8 is the psychopomp for Marc Cros; on the other hand, the artist introduces the young woman\u00a0into the mysteries, magic and beauty of art. In one of the most moving scenes he shows her a Rembrandt drawing and exhorts her to see, really see a \u2018masterpiece of art\u2019. The picture reveals a young child taking its first steps. Is he encouraging her to make the first small steps towards developing an aesthetic sensibility? As the film proceeds, viewers are pulled into the multifaceted motions and complexes that are constellated and eventually possess the artist and his model.<\/p>\n

This is a rich and powerful film and there is a great deal that could be discussed. However, I will limit my reflections in this final section of the review and focus on three main issues through the lens of my own method for reading images or, put in another way, my method for exploring the language of images.<\/p>\n

First, as with dream analysis, I ask who is the autor? Who creates the images in this particular film? I suggest that the generator of the images is \u2028Fenando Trueba (b.1955), a gifted Spanish director (Academy Award for Best Foreign Film Director in 1994 for Belle Epoque, Silver Shell for Best Director at the San Sebastian International Film Festival for this film, among many other nominations and awards). He created the film and dedicated it to his brother, a sculptor who died in a car accident. We might, therefore, imagine that the film was part of his grieving process and a way to recover and \u2028restructure memories of his brother. The act of producing a film about creating \u2028art means to restore life may have been his own attempt at healing.<\/p>\n

Second, at the cultural level, the film unfolds during terrible times, when catastrophe and devastation are part of everyday life. Even though the village is a peaceful place, the presence of German soldiers is evident and ominous, and the plight of young Merc\u00e8 -who is on her own without friends and family and who smuggles others from Spain into a relatively safe France justifies her need of employment and dependence on Marc and L\u00e9a Cros.<\/p>\n

Tragedy in such times calls for compensation in the drive for hope, love and \u2028new growth.<\/p>\n

Third, at the archetypal level, we witness the eternal process of the fundamental human need for relationship guided by Eros. The Artist and The Model is a life-giving film. It recreates a long tradition of stories involving artists, their models and love of the creative process that resonates with My Fair Lady, Pygmalion and many other tales, actual and mythical. Psychotherapy, like the transformative process between the artist and model in this film, has the potential for transformation guided by the constellation of Eros, the primal god \u2028of connection. Toward the end of the film, it becomes clear that there has been a deep recognition of one another as the artist strokes her side and she responds \u2028by exploring his face with her hands; both are gestures of love, curiosity and recognition, personal and simultaneously archetypal. Also, at the archetypal level, the inspiring anima is present and moves through the ageing L\u00e9a to Merc\u00e8 and into the sculpture that is larger than life and seemingly represents the eternal beauty of the feminine.<\/p>\n

Last but not least, is the presence of the old servant, a kind of humorous figure who moves the scenes along, as well as clarifies and acts as a guide for the process. She is a representation of Hermes in the guise of mediator or \u2028facilitator by not getting directly involved or participating in the conflict. We \u2028\u00a0can observe that all of the characters, as with dream interpretation, are part \u00a0of the drama and belong to the structure of the entire tale. And, central to the structure of Fernando Trueba\u2019s film are the three aspects of the anima evident \u2028\u00a0in the maiden, the mother\/wife, and the crone; all three work together to enliven the artist and the creative process through love.<\/p>\n

Finally, I offer the following four amplifications for reflection:<\/p>\n

Marc Cros will, in an amazing dialogue, say that he can prove the existence of God by two singular facts: the body of a woman and olive oil. He is speaking of the anima as guide for the development of individuation through beauty and the senses. He also offers his own intriguing creation story to the young Eve who sits before him eating an apple.<\/p>\n

Olive oil is the gift of Athena to Athens and is a path, historically, for transformation of nomadic societies into sedentary cultures. Is Cros suggesting to the nomadic Merc\u00e8 that putting down roots may be ultimately of value for her?<\/p>\n

The death of Cros is not a tragedy, as it is the final event of a life whose processes are complete. Cros has achieved his goals and his death is the culmination of life. Cros dies in a magical and amazing landscape, just as Merc\u00e8 goes on the road to beginning her own independent adventures. The black and white format takes viewers back to earlier days of this genre, maybe to recall a sense of originality and authenticity; this choice is effective in conveying a deep sense of nostalgia and the sense that death and creativity are inevitable partners.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gonzalo Himiob, Venezuela http:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/document.png Director: Fernando Trueba. First release: 2012. Cast: Jean Rochefort as Marc Cros; A\u00edda Folch as Merc\u00e8; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avepsi.org.ve\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}