Product Details

• Directors: Didier Baussy
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Homevision
• VHS Release Date: June 13, 2000
• Run Time: 56 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0780019822
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #373,267 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This illuminating 1989 study of Edouard Manet celebrates the French painter through a densely informative survey of Manet's work, the historical and social context of its creation, and its permanent effect on the history of art. "Before the invention of cinematography," asserts the highbrow narration, "Manet created the freeze-frame," eliminating the possibility of sentimental interpretation and capturing his subjects in "those moments of absence when the mind is elsewhere." Thus did Manet become the founder of modern art, seizing power over public taste with such then-scandalous works as Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe (a.k.a. "Luncheon on the Grass") and Olympia, and emphasizing silence to create scenes and portraits with a "strange gravity," reflecting Manet's Paris and yet isolated in a unique world of their own. A superb companion piece to Baussy-Oulianoiff's 1985 film on Picasso, Les Silences de Manet may be daunting for novice art students, but it's vastly preferable to a shallower treatment. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

Award-winning director Didier Baussy has created an engrossing, comprehensive portrait of 19th-century French painter Edouard Manet. Close-up views of the artist's works, filmed at splendid Manet exhibitions held in Paris and New York, are the highlights of this sweeping biography.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing images, December 24, 2004

By 

Alana London (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Les Silences de Manet (DVD)

I think the producer meant well but the movie was disappointing because the sharpness and contrast of the images was so excessive that it was difficult to make them out. Manet uses a lot of very vivid colors including black in his painting and some of the images especially Olympia comes out so dark it is almost all black. Too bad, I so looked forward to this movie. The information was fairly ok though. I will look at it again anyway. For good Manet images go to Rosamund Bernier Impressionists series on four videos, especially the one entitled Modern Art and Modern Manners. These videos are all available used or new on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. I hope someday someone will make a really well done retrospective on DVD of Manet's work

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Poor quality, December 24, 2004

By 

Manet (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Les Silences de Manet (DVD)

Very nice to find a DVD about the artist Manet with interesting and insightful comments and so quit disappointing the very poor quality of the images and paintings which form the very topic of the movie next to the life of the artist who made them.
All this gives a feel of a very low budget movie
this of course doesn't make it a cheap one to buy.