Charlotte | Little White Lies

Char­lotte

08 Dec 2022

Words by Lydia Figes

Directed by Éric Warin, and Tahir Rana

Starring Keira Knightley, Raoul Bhaneja, and Sam Claflin

Animated characters, a man and a woman, in an emotional interaction. Warm tones of orange and blue predominate.
Animated characters, a man and a woman, in an emotional interaction. Warm tones of orange and blue predominate.
3

Anticipation.

Knightley and Jim Broadbent amongst other notable cast members suggest this film will be worthwhile.

2

Enjoyment.

A conventional cinematic telling of a very unconventional story.

3

In Retrospect.

An imperfect yet compelling overview of Charlotte’s life.

The artist Char­lotte Salomon, who died in the Holo­caust, receives a long-over­due biog­ra­phy through this inven­tive ani­mat­ed film.

Only by doing some­thing mad can I hope to stay sane” are words ascribed to Char­lotte Salomon, the Ger­man-Jew­ish painter who fol­lowed in the steps of the Ger­man Expres­sion­ists, only to have her work dis­missed as degen­er­ate’ under the Nazi régime. Star­ring Keira Knight­ley as the voice of Salomon (she was also Exec­u­tive Pro­duc­er), the fea­ture traces the tur­bu­lent and trag­ic life of the painter as she cre­ates her most famous body of work, Life? Or The­atre?, in the months before her death.

Begin­ning in Berlin in 1933, the artist’s native city, Char­lotte, as both a woman and a Jew, strug­gles to find recog­ni­tion as an artist. As polit­i­cal ten­sions and anti­semitism esca­late – cul­mi­nat­ing in the vio­lence of Kristall­nacht in 1938 – we jump to the south of France, where in real life, Char­lotte and her fam­i­ly found refuge in Nice. Against a back­drop of fore­bod­ing, Char­lotte paints com­pul­sive­ly, cre­at­ing a poet­ic auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal series that illus­trates the tur­moil of her inner world and exter­nal reality.

Made by the stu­dio who cre­at­ed Lov­ing Vin­cent, the film was direct­ed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, who bring the tragedy of Charlotte’s life into sharp focus. Julia Rosen­berg, the pro­duc­er of the film orig­i­nal­ly dis­cov­ered the sto­ry of Salomon aged 13, when she was gift­ed the book form of Life? Or The­atre? This graph­ic nov­el of sorts would pre­serve the lega­cy of Char­lotte, who is now – due to her his­toric sta­tus – sim­ply known by her first name in France.

In 2011, Rosen­berg decid­ed that if Salomon felt the urgency to cap­ture her life in paint – then an ani­mat­ed bio­graph­i­cal dra­ma would be a fit­ting cin­e­mat­ic homage to her life. Indeed, the style of ani­ma­tion loose­ly imi­tates the work of the real artist, who typ­i­cal­ly cre­at­ed expres­sive and whim­si­cal gouach­es. Depart­ing from real­ism and adher­ing to mod­ern approach­es to paint­ing, she deployed vivid and often unnat­ur­al hues of colour, with strong out­lines that offer a dis­tinc­tive naivety. Nev­er­the­less, Char­lotte tack­led heavy sub­jects mat­ters – both auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal, his­tor­i­cal and polit­i­cal – with unin­hib­it­ed originality.

As the film por­trays, Charlotte’s desire to paint becomes a ther­a­peu­tic purg­ing of her trau­ma – the com­pli­cat­ed back­sto­ry involv­ing her own fam­i­ly and men­tal ill­ness – as well as a trep­i­da­tion for what is to come. A gen­er­al feel­ing of malaise, or the lurk­ing pres­ence of death per­me­ates the film, at times hin­der­ing it from becom­ing an enjoy­able watch. Yet whether a sto­ry involv­ing the incon­ceiv­able real­i­ty of the Holo­caust should ever be easy to watch is per­haps a moral ques­tion for film­mak­ers. In Octo­ber of 1943, Char­lotte would be deport­ed to Auschwitz, where she died age 26, five months pregnant.

While the film ambi­tious­ly and com­pas­sion­ate­ly artic­u­lates Charlotte’s har­row­ing sto­ry, the plot is hin­dered by the fact that the film grap­ples with a myr­i­ad of com­plex themes: romance, men­tal ill­ness, the Holo­caust and the life of a strug­gling female painter, as well as the polit­i­cal cli­mate of the Sec­ond World War. Told in a lit­er­al and lin­ear fash­ion, the style of ani­ma­tion and nar­ra­tive pac­ing unfor­tu­nate­ly means that the film – with excep­tion of the final scenes – some­times los­es poignan­cy in its attempts to express the unfath­omable tragedy of Charlotte’s life.

Lit­tle White Lies is com­mit­ted to cham­pi­oning great movies and the tal­ent­ed peo­ple who make them.

By becom­ing a mem­ber you can sup­port our inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism and receive exclu­sive essays, prints, month­ly film rec­om­men­da­tions and more.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.