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Portrait of the Artist
(Le dos rouge)

Introduction by Jean-Michel Frodon
Directed by Antoine Barraud.
With Bertrand Bonello, Nicolas Maury, Charlotte Rampling.
France, 2014, DCP, color, 127 min.
French with English subtitles.
DCP source: Unifrance

So strange and so funny, this mysterious encounter between a director (played by filmmaker Bertrand Bonello) and an art historian (Jeanne Balibar). He intends to make a film about monstrosity in painting; with seduction and irony, she guides him towards her own monstrosity, as well as to the discovery of extraordinary canvases, some of them very famous and others not at all. Or is it his monstrosity, as a man, as an artist, as a would-be demiurge who is revealed in this elegant labyrinth of references, desire and betrayal? The second feature by multifaceted artist Antoine Barraud seems to dance with a smile into the heart of the dangerous enigmas of image making and image belief.

Part of film series

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Contemporary French Alternatives

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Rosine Mbakam, 2025 McMillan-Stewart Fellow