Award-winning director Damian Pettigrew (Fellini: I'm a Born Liar) offers this definitive portrait of Balthus, a modern artist whose work was nonetheless out of step with most modern movements. His huge canvases with their thickly applied paint feature dreamy adolescent girls in enigmatic poses, resulting in an erotically charged and oddly disorienting style. Pettigrew's documentary highlights the painter's complex creative process as he films the artist at work in his studio in the Swiss mountains. Famous friends and family members bare witness to the great artist's life in exclusive interviews, accompanied by photos by such luminaries as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Irving Penn. In French with optional English subtitles.

Damian Pettigrew---France---1996---72 mins.