Music Box Films grabbed Martin Provost’s Séraphine before it swept the French equivalent to the Oscars with a total of seven Cesars (Yolande Moreau won her second Best Actress award and the film won for Best Picture). In anticipation of the film’s release in theaters this coming Friday (June 5th), we’ve received an exclusive clip featuring the unique pairing between German actor Ulrich Tukur and of course, Moreau in the role of timid and genius Séraphine. Will this stay the course as last summer’s successful art-house theater run as Music Box Films’ Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne)? It doesn’t seem impossible as it has been drumming up buzz since TIFF of last year.
This is based on the true story, of Séraphine de Senlis (Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper whose brilliantly colorful canvases adorn some of the most famous galleries in the world. German art critic and collector Wilhelm Uhde (Tukur) – the first Picasso buyer and champion of naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau – discovers her paintings while she is working for him as a maid in the beautiful countryside of Senlis near Paris. A moving and unexpected relationship develops between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary outsider artist.
Note: when Moreau won for Best Actress – she claimed that she got the role by chance – she bumped into the director in the super market.
