Hans Hartung, a Passion for Painting
by Romain Goupil, France 2019, 52'
SCREENPLAY: Roman Goupil   SOUND: Sophie Chiabaut
PHOTOGRAPHY AND SHOOTING: Irina Lubtchanski   PRODUCER: Sophie Goupil
EDITING: Sandie Bompar   LANGUAGE: Vo: French; Sub: Italian

Schermo dell'Arte - Archivio Film  Presented at Lo schermo dell'arte 2020 

Hans Hartung (born Leipzig, 1904) is a leading exponent of the European Arte Informale. He experimented with abstract painting, drawing inspiration from Goya and Rembrandt, to create the expressive gesture that characterizes his work. His life was strongly affected by the World Wars; the rise of Nazism forced him to emigrate to France. He joined the Foreign Legion and was seriously wounded in combat. At war’s end, he had no money and no country, but never gave up art. He joined the Parisian art scene - the film also shows an excerpt from a short film dedicated to Hartung by a young Alain Resnais - recognition came in 1960, with the Grand Prize for painting at the Venice Biennale. The documentary’s narration is based on texts from his autobiography, together with interviews and footage shot at his house-studio near Antibes, where he lived with his wife, the painter Anna-Eva Bergman, which has become a foundation dedicated to their work.

Romain Goupil (1951) is a writer and director of films and documentaries for cinema and television. In 1982 he won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes for the documentary Mourir à trente ans, which received the César Award for Best First Feature and an Oscar nomination. In 1993, in Venice, he received the Audience Award for Lettre pour L…

Selected Filmography:
La Traversée (with Daniel Cohn-Bendit), 2018; Les Jours venus, 2014; Les Mains en l’air, 2010.

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