A Model for Matisse

Late in life, Henri Matisse (1869-1954) devoted four years to the design of a chapel for a convent of Dominican nuns at Vence, north of Cannes in extreme southeastern France. The undertaking wasn't the result of a commission, but rather derived from his friendship with one of the members of the community, Sister Jacques-Marie, who prior to her entrance into the religious life had served as night nurse after Matisse's cancer surgery and as a model for him when both lived in Nice. When Matisse took refuge in Vence during the war, the two became reacquainted, and her chance remark about the need for a chapel led the avuncular painter to seize on the idea and see it through, despite resistance from within the Order, Matisse's advancing age, and suspicions that the relationship between the artist and the nun might have been romantic. In Barbara F. Freed's charming documentary A Model for Matisse, the elderly but still feisty Sister Jacques-Marie addresses all of these subjects in interviews interwoven with stills, archival footage, and new film of the chapel—offering a fine account of the building's construction and decoration, a persuasive appreciation of its artistic merit, and a lovely testimony to an unusual friendship (at the end the elderly nun finally visits Matisse's tomb), all backed by a well-chosen selection of classical music. DVD extras include a biographical note on Freed, her introduction to the film, obituaries for Sister Jacques-Marie, and a stills gallery. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)