Camille Claudel 1915

Juliette Binoche plays Camille Claudel—famed sculptor and one-time lover of Auguste Rodin—in Bruno Dumont's biographical film, which is inspired in part by the correspondence between Camille and her poet brother Paul. Rather than chronicle its subject's stormy life completely, Camille Claudel 1915 focuses solely on Camille's ordeal in middle age when she was committed to an asylum. Here, Camille is an anxious, angry woman, racked with paranoia (she's convinced that Rodin and his cronies are engineering her imprisonment and trying to poison her), but her greatest loss is not her freedom but rather the ability to express her artistic drive. She is lucid compared to the seriously mentally-challenged inmates and at times is disgusted by their state, but she also shows compassion when she recognizes the vulnerable human inside who is in need of help. Dumont's characters express a powerful duality; not just Camille, but also the nuns who look after the patients with tender concern. In sharp contrast to their caring is Camille's brother, Paul (Jean-Luc Vincent), whose insufferable piety makes service to God paramount at the expense of those on earth. Benefiting from Binoche's subtle and powerful performance, this is recommended. (S. Axmaker)