Camille Claudel
Alain Cuny, who plays the father of Camille and Paul Claudel, actually met Paul Claudel. In 1944, the poet and dramatist personally chose Cuny to play Pierre de Craon in his play: The Tidings Brought to Mary.,Robert: [while looking at Camille's sculpture] How did you know there were people inside the big white rock?,The North American theatrical release was cut to 158 minutes. The Region 1 VHS and DVD releases used this cut print. The full-length 175-minute version is available on Region 2 DVDs released in Europe. The version on Blu-Ray and Amazon Prime Video is 173 minutes, just 2 minutes short of the original European release.,Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Always/Music Box/Born on the Fourth of July/Tango and Cash/Camille Claudel (1989),Spleen
Music by Claude Debussy
Lyrics by Paul Verlaine
Performed by Barbara Hendricks
(p) EMI Classics,Isabelle Adjani is stunning as the title character in this rich and passionate film. I am amazed anytime an actor or actresses changes physically in the part of a film (and without tons of make-up and special effects, either!)and Adjani does this remarkably well! We as an audience are just as stunned as Eugene Blot when he finds Camille drunk and spiraling into the depths of madness. Her appearance is nothing less than shocking.

The film as a whole is engaging with a whirlwind of emotions--rage, sadness, torment, bliss; by the time the nearly 3 hours are up, I am exhausted. Adjani and Depardieu are part of that emotional energy as they passionately go at it--sex, sculpture and anger; especially when it comes to the latter. It is almost worth it to stop reading the subtitles and listen to them rage and lash out at one another.

Adjani is powerful in so much of this film...I am amazed she didn't receive that best actress Oscar she was up for. Her torment and pain is riveting--especially in French. I am glad they did not decide to dub this film into English; hearing Adjani sob and ask "Pourquoi? Pourquoi?" would be empty with her mouthing the words "Why? why?" in English.

The film as a whole is a bit long, but overall is stunning. The sad epilogue is even sadder if you know that Claudel's remains were interred in a mass grave after her brother Paul failed to claim them from her original grave [the asylums only interred bodies in individual plots for a certain amount of time; space was at a premium.] So, the brilliant Camille Claudel's remains ended up in an unmarked grave mixed in with others who went unclaimed, as well.,