Latest news with #Renoir
Tokyo Weekender
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Tokyo Weekender
Renoir Director Chie Hayakawa on Turning Grief Into Art
Chie Hayakawa was in elementary school when she decided she wanted to be a filmmaker. The Tokyo native went on to study photography at the New York School of Visual Arts before releasing her breakthrough short 'Niagara,' a story about a girl who goes to live with her dementia-afflicted grandmother. It was selected in the Cinéfondation section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014. Hayakawa's debut feature, Plan 75 , came eight years later. A critically acclaimed dystopian drama about a government-sponsored euthanasia program available to all Japanese citizens 75 and older to address the country's aging society, it was awarded the Camera d'Or Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival in 2022. Her latest flick, Renoir , a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale set in Tokyo in the late 1980s about a pre-teen girl named Fuki whose father is battling terminal cancer, was recently nominated for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize at the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival. Hayakawa recently spoke to Tokyo Weekender about the film. Complete Interview with Chie Hayakawa Why did you decide to make Renoir? My previous movie, Plan 75, was an issue-driven film. I, therefore, wanted to make something different; a movie about emotions that I couldn't describe in words. I've been wanting to make a film about an 11-year-old because I was about that age when I first started to think about becoming a filmmaker. There were a lot of ideas and scenes in my mind for my future film. © Renoir – Loaded Films You mentioned Plan 75, which also deals with preemptive grief. How connected are the two films? And what was it like making such a personal movie from an emotional perspective? My personal experience of living with a father who had cancer affected my perception of death, solidarity and human dignity. So I think you have similar underlying themes in both films. For me, making Renoir was like a journey to find myself. I gained a new perspective on my childhood. What kind of films inspired you when making this film? I was inspired by movies which have a child as the protagonist, such as Shinji Somai's Moving , Victor Erice's The Spirit of the Beehive and François Truffaut's The 400 Blows, to name a few. Why did you decide on Renoir as the title? I wanted to have a title that didn't have a specific meaning. I like the contrast between a story about a little Japanese girl and a French painter. However, after showing the film at Cannes, a lot of people mentioned that the movie was like an impressionist painting. A picture starts to emerge with a lot of brush strokes and colors. Renoir has a lot of small episodes which don't look like they connect with each other, but the collections of these episodes help to give the film something special and, I hope, leave a lasting impression. © Renoir – Loaded Films The film includes a story about a pedophile who attempts to groom Fuki via phone chat chat lines. Why did you include that? Girls are constantly exposed to such dangers. Sometimes they don't understand what's going on, but have a feeling of fear or uneasiness. They also have curiosity about sexual things at that age. I wanted to depict a girl's complex feelings and bitter experience. How her dignity can be hurt by men's desires. Why did you choose the Yellow Magic Orchestra song 'Rydeen' in the movie? That was the song I danced to at a summer camp when I was a child. Also, the film is set in 1987, so I think it also embodies the positivity that Japan was feeling at that time during the bubble period. Telepathy is another theme in the film. Were you interested in that growing up? Yes, I was drawn into it. I practiced a lot when I was in my early teens. I wanted to believe it existed and that miracles were possible. © Renoir – Loaded Films Yui Suzuki was the first child to audition for the role. What impressed you about her? And what was she like to work with? I found that she has her own universe inside of her. She is a very creative artist who is brave and is very comfortable in front of the camera. I really liked her strong gaze. Once I cast her, though, I was expecting that it would be very challenging to direct a child. However, it was so easy working with Yui. I didn't really give her detailed directions. I just let her do whatever she wanted. She acted so naturally. She has real talent. What about the performances of Lily Franky and Hikari Ishida? Lily Franky reminds me of Chishu Ryu because his acting is so minimal and his presence, just standing or sitting, gives a very strong and true impression. I was impressed with Hikari Ishida's performance as she embodied a mother's frustration, desperation and weakness. How did it feel to be nominated for the Palme d'Or? I was honored and felt very encouraged as a filmmaker. But at the same time, it was very surrealistic to see my name among other legendary filmmakers. For a long time, it didn't feel real. Of course, I would love to be nominated again. My future goal, though, is just to keep making films that I can put my soul into. Renoir is showing at Shinjuku Piccadilly Cinema with English subtitles until July 17. Related Posts Chie Hayakawa's Renoir Competes for Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival 2025 Johatsu: A Haunting Documentary About Japan's 'Evaporated People' David Lynch and Japan – The Twin Peaks of a Decades-Long, Mutual Obsession
ABC News
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
NGV French Impressionism exhibition expresses rage, self-doubt and joy of artists including Monet and Manet
The Impressionists were the original rebels — rallying against the status quo of the time; painting with pastels; and capturing abstract and brightly coloured landscape scenery in their paintings, which were considered shocking in the 1860s and 1870s. Now, more than 100 works by French Impressionist painters including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, are on show at the National Gallery of Victoria — many in Australia for the first time. The exhibition's curator Katie Hanson shares five paintings to look out for. Pierre-Auguste Renoir was invited by his art dealer to host a solo show in the spring of 1883, and this painting featured in it. It sums up the last 15 years of Renoir's creative output. Renoir, the Impressionist associated with painting figures and people socialising, here paints "dappled light as it's coming through the trees, and the casual sense of people outdoors", Hanson explains. "This painting pulls on all of your senses … There are half-consumed glasses of beer, discarded matches and cigarette butts and a bouquet of flowers — all triggering your sense of smell. "Renoir brings you on this sensory journey with him. "Art historians aren't 100% in agreement with who the model is that inspired the dancer in this painting. "I believe it's a hybrid of two models — Suzanne Valadon and Aline Victorine Charigot — who became the artist's wife in due course." Hanon says this is a painting Renoir produced in a period "full of self-doubt". "He is questioning whether all this feathery brushwork and soft atmospheric painting is the right direction for him. He goes on painting trips to the south of France and Italy looking at Raphael and Botticelli, thinking, 'I need to add more firmness and resolve into my paintings for them to be serious and worthy of history.' "He is wrapped in self-doubt, yet the artwork shows so much joy and luminosity." Monet said he was "mad with rage" when he painted this field of grain near his house around 1891, Hanson says. "The weather was quickly changing and affecting his work. He is in a very black mood and disgusted with his painting — it [was] continual torture for him. "Monet scraped things down and tore up his work as he tried to get the atmosphere right. The painting is quiet and seemingly simple, but when you know of the tremendous struggle he went through, you see this in a new light." While he was painting Grainstack (Snow Effect), Monet decided to show 15 of the paintings in his grainstack (or haystack) series at the Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris in 1891. Not everyone agreed with Monet's artistic decision. His good friend Pissarro questioned the artist, believing he was motivated by commercial interests. "[Pissarro] described the exhibition as one of the terrible results of success," Hanson says. The model in this painting, Victorine Meurent, an artist in her own right, and a successful can-can dancer in the US, worked with Manet for more than a decade and appears in many of his best well-known works. "She is someone who is famous and unknown at once," Hanson says. "This captures a wonderful moment in history with new light being shined on her life. We get to know her as a real person — not just the myth and legacy as a woman posing for Manet." In the 19th century, Street Singer was a headache for some art collectors, who weren't sure if they could touch it. "To be seen eating in public was seen as gauche, and the cherries to the mouth was seen as a problem," Hanson says. It was purchased by American art collector Sarah Choate Sears and her husband Joshua for their Boston home until it was donated to the Boston fine arts museum in 1966. Hanson describes this 1865 painting of urban beach goers by Monet's great mentor, Boudin, as "exquisite". "Monet said he owed his career and success to [Boudin]. It was he who saw the caricatures Monet sketched as a teenager and thought this kid had talent [and] approached him to try painting outdoors." Boudin's attention to detail, and to the fashion of the time, is on show. "These are people going to the beach in crinoline skirts and multi-layered petticoats," Hanson says. "You notice these white structures that look like tents, but they're actually bathing machines that were popular in this time. These people would go in there to change their bathing suits, and the machine could be pulled into the water by a swimming attendant. "You could splash about without your modesty being disrupted." This painting of a poppy field near Monet's home in Giverny, France, is often reproduced. But to sit with Monet's painting in real life is to experience it in a very different way, Hanson says. "[You can see] the range of touches and blobs of paint that he turns into poppies and the longer strokes he makes to create the grass. You can instantly imagine these poppies in the breeze. "He makes you appreciate how splendid and unexpected nature is. That is part of his enduring appeal; in finding beauty in the most mundane of things. "Monet is restless in his artistic vision though, and never stopped looking for new ways to paint a favourite motif." French Impressionism is at NGV International until October 5.
Spectator
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
2711: Homework
Unclued lights give two lines of a poem, their author and a relevant location. Across 1 Magnificent place featured in dispatch papers (8) 15 Wrongdoer relinquishes first secret (5) 16 Cut some garlic (5) 17 Stomachs filled with endlessly bad, bad feelings (6) 18 Young lad bored by love before long (4) 21 Housing activity on course to increase (7,2) 22 To become stronger, senator takes time away from work (7) 26 Blue uniform accepted by a cleaner, possibly (9) 30 Advance payments – one way to eke out a living (7) 32 Misguided negotiator dismissing one ordinary form of crowd control (4,5) 34 Left in charge, do a runner (4) 35 Fantastic nectar from a Mediterranean island (6) 37 Tiny particle to attach with paste, we're told (5) 38 Old, mostly long-legged primate (5) 40 Everyone's initially taken in by celebrity's looks (6) 41 Health resort next to some French digs (6) 42 Pretentious food regularly 'poshed up' at first (8) Down 1 Line ignored by individual small chars (6) 2 Reason colonel turned up to protect soldier (5) 3 Be flipping nasty (4) 4 Proficient fighters ultimately found MMA competition pointless (4) 5 Somewhat nicer, undulating winter track (3,3) 7 Scripts primarily penned by better comedian (7) 8 Gallons freely imbibed by a non-drinker, finally (2,4,4) 9 Renoir worked with extremely grainy, pale colour (4,4) 12 Designated part of hospital managed to support it (8) 19 Tomato sauces served up with instant veg (5,4) 20 Drunk blacked out a lot (10) 24 University doctor has outbursts and feelings of resentment (8) 25 Disease causing swelling and foul scar, sadly (8) 27 Basketball play indicated by line through a circle (5-3) 29 Pin destroys parts of maps (7) 30 Scoffs starters of salted nuts and really fresh salad (6) 31 Be impressive, but not as fashionable (6) 33 Some computer installations for early development sites? (5) 35 Lawyer's job is objective, perhaps (4) 36 Say a dead oath from back in the day (4) Download a printable version here. A first prize of £30 and two runners-up prizes of £20 for the first correct solutions opened on 28 July. Please scan or photograph entries and email them (including the crossword number in the subject field) to crosswords@ or post to: Crossword 2711, The Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London SW1H 9HP.
Leader Live
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
National Gallery exhibition to shine a light on works of Renoir
The exhibition, Renoir And Love, will feature more than 50 works, and will go on display at the London gallery from October next year. Organised in partnership with the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Renoir And Love will focus on the artist's career between the mid-1860s and the mid-1880s. A National Gallery spokesman said the exhibition 'traces the evolution of the imagery of affection, seduction, conversation, male camaraderie and the sociability of the cafe and theatre, as well as merry-making, flirtation, courtship and child-rearing in Renoir's art'. Exhibition co-curator Christopher Riopelle, the Neil Westreich Curator of Post 1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, said: 'More than any of his contemporaries, Renoir was committed to chronicling love and friendship and their informal manifestations as keys to modern life. 'Whether on Parisian street corners or in sun-dappled woodlands, he understood that emotion could be as fleeting, as evanescent, as blinding, as his other great and transitory subject, sunlight itself.' The exhibition will be on display from October 3 next year until January 31 2027.
North Wales Chronicle
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- North Wales Chronicle
National Gallery exhibition to shine a light on works of Renoir
The exhibition, Renoir And Love, will feature more than 50 works, and will go on display at the London gallery from October next year. Organised in partnership with the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Renoir And Love will focus on the artist's career between the mid-1860s and the mid-1880s. A National Gallery spokesman said the exhibition 'traces the evolution of the imagery of affection, seduction, conversation, male camaraderie and the sociability of the cafe and theatre, as well as merry-making, flirtation, courtship and child-rearing in Renoir's art'. Exhibition co-curator Christopher Riopelle, the Neil Westreich Curator of Post 1800 Paintings at the National Gallery, said: 'More than any of his contemporaries, Renoir was committed to chronicling love and friendship and their informal manifestations as keys to modern life. 'Whether on Parisian street corners or in sun-dappled woodlands, he understood that emotion could be as fleeting, as evanescent, as blinding, as his other great and transitory subject, sunlight itself.' The exhibition will be on display from October 3 next year until January 31 2027.
