Customer Reviews

The Life and Art of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

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This film is a great way to experience the artist's life and work. It does a great job of placing Kirchner in the context of the early 20th century. I just finished watching it and was very satisfied with my purchase.

The narrator speaks in German and there are English subtitles. The film-maker uses actors to re-create the artist's experiences from Chemnitz to Dresden to Berlin and finally to Switzerland. He makes use of interviews with people who knew him. Of course, there are also images of his work. I was a little disappointed about how the film ended. I think it was too abrupt and did not fully explain or describe the circumstances of Kirchner's suicide. However, the recreations of the night life in Berlin is interesting and covered well.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was among the most exciting of the young artists to greet the 20th Century with what came to be known as German Expressionist Art. In concert with a number of others, influenced by such modernists as the Post-Impressionists and Fauvists, as well as the German tradition of woodcuts, they became the chroniclers of the exciting urban scene in Pre-World War One Europe, Berlin, in particular, as well as the less urbanized areas in which they played and worked in a kaleidoscopic intermixture of activities.
This documentary seeks to reconstruct in some fashion, an image of the settings within which Kirchner lived and worked, both in his most productive and in his wartime and post wartime stress induced debilitative state. Woven into the narrative are examples of paintings, drawings and woodcuts, which illustrate the richness of his accomplishments. Only occasionally, but to good effect, are there passive shots of an important painting "on-the-wall", so to speak.
Running 86 minutes, in color and black-white, in spoken German with English subtitles, the film constitute an excellent introduction to an Artist still being exhibited and still exciting viewers the world over. Mostly for beginners, the seasoned art fancier will find the overview a stimulus to returning to their monographs and visiting the museums, like the Neue Galerie and the Guggenheim, in which he is often displayed.

I had to buy this Dvd as soon as I saw it was available, I wasn't dissapointed in the least. Kirchner is one of my favorite artists/painters of all time and this dvd is great for any fan of his paintings and woodcuts. As an artist myself, the dvd was an inspiration to watch.


Get this dvd if you're a fan of Kirchner, art, painting, or expressions of the soul.

I knew very little about the artist prior to viewing this DVD. The script is substantial, yet not burdensome, and helped me to appreciate the works presented. Images are crisp and plentiful. It's a keeper.