Directed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana
Written by Erik Rutherford and David Bezmozgis
Starring Keira Knightly, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, and Sam Claflin
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 92 minutes
In theaters April 22

by Clayton Hayes, Staff Writer

Though it’s outside of the genre fare I usually go for, I was pretty excited to check out Charlotte, an animated biopic about early 20th-century artist Charlotte Salomon. Art is one of the few topics that draws me outside of my genre safe zone (one of my earliest reviews for MovieJawn was for the art documentary Le mystère Picasso), so any art-related films that come in tend to pique my interest. This is especially true of Charlotte which, instead of being about one of the handful of (white cis male) artists with broad name recognition, is about an artist that is a Jewish woman, and I think the film deserves recognition for that alone.

The film itself was a bit of a mixed bag, however. I’m not sure how much this had to do with being outside of the film’s intended audience, those in their early-to-mid-teens, but I figure it’s worth noting. The film’s tone clearly reflects its status as a European co-production, tackling issues that might make for a hard sell to American audiences. There’s fairly frank discussions and depictions of sex and suicide, though nothing that I’d consider explicit in either case. And look, no spoilers, but it is a story about the rise of Nazi Germany and things might not turn out great for a Jewish woman living in Nazi-occupied France. Its story structure and writing seem clearly geared at younger viewers, often feeling rushed or sparse. It’s attempting to cover a lot of ground; if you’re like me, your head will be left spinning after all of the “5 weeks later” and “2 years later” time jumps. The bulk of the film transpires between 1936 and 1943 which were some pretty eventful years in Germany and France.

The reproductions of Charlotte’s work that we catch glimpses of throughout the film are gorgeous, and reproduced with vivid accuracy. For me they were the highlight of Charlotte’s visuals. I also have to applaud the film’s epilogue, which features archival footage of Charlotte’s father and stepmother speaking about their daughter and her legacy. It was hugely impactful from an emotional standpoint and really helped to ground the film in the reality that it was trying to represent. It’s clear that the film is intended to mimic Charlotte’s artistic style, but I’m not sure I really see it. Salomon’s work was pretty distinctive and I don’t feel like the design of the film lives up to it. I’m not sure many viewers, if shown this film and Charlotte’s work side-by-side, would be able to tell that one was intended to be referencing the other.

None of the performances are particularly energetic, but they fit in with the film’s subdued tone. My only complaint was with Jim Broadbent’s character, Charlotte’s Großpapa, or grandfather. I like Broadbent, I think he’s a very good actor, and it's unclear to me if the issue is Broadbent’s voice performance or the material he had to work with. Oddly for a film involving Nazis, Großpapa is the closest thing Charlotte gets to a villain. He scoffs and huffs at Charlotte throughout the film, crossing his arms and scowling at her whenever she does something he doesn’t like. It's a depiction that borders on the comedic, and it doesn’t fit with the film’s tone. Later in the film, Charlotte resorts to some pretty drastic measures to free herself from Großpapa. His grumbling had just made a swift turn to verbal abuse but, even still, her actions felt like a shocking overreaction. in letters only recently discovered, Charlotte also described instances of possible sexual abuse by her grandfather. This would’ve provided much clearer motivations for her actions. Charlotte never so much as hints at it, though.

The work that Salomon is rushing to complete through much of the film, Leben? oder Theater? (i.e., Life? or Theater?), was intended Wagnerian multi-media production called a Gesamtkunstwerk, a “total work of art,” meant to include music, performance, and visuals. Salomon designated musical accompaniment on many of her pages, and included written text on transparencies that overlaid her pictorial work in gouache. Charlotte leaves all of this out, opting instead to describe Leben? oder Theater? as a sort of proto-graphic novel. It could certainly be read that way, but the film’s depiction of the work flattens a lot of very interesting details.

The film also suffers from what seems like a common issue with stories about women; instead of focusing on Salomon’s development as an artist, Charlotte is instead a romantic drama that is primarily interested in her art as a means of showing how individualistic she is. Granted, it seems like Leben? oder Theater? itself spends a lot of time on Charlotte’s romantic relationships, but for a movie about an artist there is frustratingly little about her as an artist.

For all its missteps, Charlotte is still an interesting film. Charlotte’s story is an intriguing but challenging one to tackle in the span of a 90-minute film. It does seem like the production process for Charlotte was not an easy one, and I have to wonder how much of that had to do with the subject matter being a little-known artist who is a woman, which is s shame. These are exactly the types of stories we need more of, and I’m sure there are tons of other artists out there who aren’t white cis men that would make for incredible biopics. Charlotte isn’t perfect, but it’s a step in the right direction.