HORIZON - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Revelatory Gudni Doc *****TIFF 2015 TOP PICK*****

Horizon (2015)
Dir. Bergur Bernburg, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Starring: Georg Gudni, Viggo Mortensen

Review By Greg Klymkiw

With his painterly eye for humanity and landscape, it seems fitting that Iceland's very own John Ford, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson (Children of Nature, Cold Fever, Devil's Island) has co-directed Horizon, a revelatory documentary portrait of the late, great painter Georg Gudni. Like Ford's beloved Monument Valley, Iceland's landscape has provided a stunning backdrop for Fridriksson's extraordinary canon and I can think of no better filmmaker to bring cinematic mastery to the subject of his old friend Georg Gudni.

Working with what feels like a lifetime's worth of footage of Gudni at work and in interviews, all shot by co-director Bergur Bernburg in collaboration with journalist Bill Rathje, Fridriksson has fashioned an indelible portrait of an artist who singlehandedly brought respectability back to landscape painting - a form often derided by Western art critics and practitioners in recent decades.

Gudni, however, saw something else in the landscapes around him - he was, after all, living in the land of the Askja calderas amidst the mighty, roiling volcanoes of the Dyngjufjöll mountains - an environment so topographically barren (though heartbreakingly beautiful) that it served as a training ground for the Apollo astronauts prior to their moon missions. Iceland is, in spite of its mountainous terrain, a land where the horizon seems infinite and Gudni's eye viewed layers upon layers of ever-so subtle shifts in both land and air.

If Heaven was on Earth, Gudni's remarkable paintings captured it again and again.

The superb footage of Gudni is expertly woven with interviews from a variety of artists, critics and academic historians, but perhaps most fascinating are the sequences with actor Viggo Mortensen, a dear friend, patron and publisher of Gudni's work. All these other voices lend support to Gudni's own words and actions, but Mortensen's observations might be the most moving and passionate of them all.

The other valuable element of Horizon is the jaw-droppingly stunning cinematography which matches the locations and even perspectives of Gudni's art. With the eye of a painter, Fridriksson and his collaborators take us into territory where the landscapes, the horizon, the remarkable light of Iceland weaves its magic before of our very eyes and melds into Gudni's paintings with the flow, force and fiery beauty of lava itself.

Yes, John Ford had Monument Valley, but Gudni and Fridriksson have Iceland - the backdrop of dreamers, poets and visual artists of all stripes - and thankfully, we have this film to make us all familiar with the work of one of the great artists of all time, to capture his genius and beauty forever.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: **** 4-Stars

Horizon receives its World Premiere in the TIFF Docs program at TIFF 2015. For dates, times and tix, visit the TIFF website HERE.

ART AND CRAFT - Review By Greg Klymkiw - HOT DOCS 2014 - Philanthropic Art Forgeries yield a HOT DOCS MUST-SEE

Is this Willy Loman?
Nope. It's art philanthropist Mark Landis.
In the parlance of The Blues Brothers,
he's "on a mission from God." 

Art and Craft (2014) ****
Dir. Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman
Co-Dir/Editor: Mark Becker

Review By Greg Klymkiw

For thirty years, Mark Landis travelled the highways and byways of the United States of America in his big, old red cadillac, donating priceless works of art to innumerable prestigious galleries. In return, he asked for nothing. He wanted neither recognition nor money. Hell, he didn't even want tax breaks. All Landis wanted was to give. And damn, he gave! He gave, in the Red Cross parlance, ever-so generously. Curators, administrators and various art mavens were happy to accept his donations and mount the works of art in their galleries. Everything from Picasso to Matisse to Charles Courtney Curran graced their walls. The list, it seems, goes on and on.

And on. And on. And on. But here's the rub.

The Good Father prepares...

Mark Landis never donated the work as Mark Landis. He used a variety of aliases, replete with elaborate backstories and costumes. His most dynamic pseudonym was that of a solemn, black-robed Father Arthur Scott (replete with a pin of the Jesuit Order).

And if it's a rub, you're looking for, here's the MEGA-rub: Every single work of art he donated was a forgery of the highest order.

And if that's not rub-a-dub-dub-rub-enough for you, Mark Landis was the forger.

So, here's the question:

If you forge great works of art to the point where even the experts are bamboozled and you donate the works pseudonymously with no financial remuneration or even credit, does this make you a criminal? Or better yet, are you any less an artist because of it? Well, let's just say the movie doesn't go out of its way to answer these queries directly, but I suspect most viewers will have no problem drawing their own conclusions.

American Impressionist makes for fine forgery.

Art and Craft is the stuff movies (and by extension, dreams) are made of. Filmmakers Cullman, Grausman and Becker have fashioned a thoroughly engaging portrait of an artist as an old man, but not just any garden variety artist. Landis is a sweet, committed, meticulous and gentle craftsman of the highest order. In fact, he's no mere copy cat, he is an artist - reproducing with astonishing detail work that touches and moves, not only himself, but millions. Furthermore, he might well be the ultimate performance artist insofar as his entire life seems like a veritable work of art and certainly, his "cons" in costume are also art of the highest order.

Like any great story, though, there is always an antagonist and much of the film details the cat and mouse game between Landis and Matthew Leininger, a former Cincinnati art registrar who caught on to the wily, old forger. He became so obsessed with tracking him down and exposing the fraud that he eventually lost his job and continued his dogged detective work as a stay-at-home Dad. This was, for me, one of the more interesting elements of the tale - not just for its dramatic conflict, but because it presents a portrait of the two sides of that coin known as the art world.

Landis always comes across as a genuinely brilliant and creative force. Leininger, on the other hand, seems typical of the administrative side of the art world: a petty stickler who plays strictly by the rules and in so doing, displays the kind of frustrating, unimaginative Kafkaesque paper pushing that makes the art world a much lesser place than it could be. That said, Leininger scores a few points for being such a persnickety schlub that his compulsion comes close to destroying his own career via this dogged pursuit.

Landis, of course, is nothing less than a delight - a kind of Willy Loman of art forgery and philanthropy. Wisely, the film fleshes out his life and provides ample information about his strange, lonely childhood, his complicated but loving relationships with his parents and his struggles with mental illness. No fascinating stone is left unturned in the film and the whole experience is never less than enthralling.

Art and Craft proves once again that truth is stranger than fiction, but that a good story is never enough to make a good film, but that it must be a story well told. The filmmakers acquit themselves to this pursuit more than admirably. The movie is as compelling as it is inspiring and happily, it offers some genuine surprises along the way which go straight for the heart and deliver moments as deeply moving as a lot of the art that clearly touches the soul of its protagonist, artist Mark Landis.

Art and Craft is playing at Toronto's Hot Docs 2014. For ticket info, visit the festival website HERE.

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY - DVD/Blu-Ray Review By Greg Klymkiw - Artist as Activist - One of last year's biggest hits at Hot Docs International Festival of Documentary Cinema is now available on DVD via Mongrel Media.

Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry (2012) ***1/2
Dir. Alison Klayman
Starring Ai WeiWei

Review By Greg Klymkiw

To have four days, four weeks or even four months of someone's life to capture personal and public moments for a documentary film can seem an imposition of slight to major proportions, no matter who the person is and however they might benefit from it. Then again, the more time a filmmaker spends with their subject, this surely demonstrates a considerable degree of faith, commitment and genuine interest in said subject and within that context, imposition of any sort usually takes a backseat.

Director Alison Klayman spent a period of four years to generate this intelligently structured portrait of Chinese artist Ai WeiWei and thanks to this commitment from both filmmaker and subject, the film is a fine window into the life of an artist celebrated worldwide.

And here's the good news - it's not earnest.

Documentaries on artists - more often than not - are plagued with a formal "quality" that renders them as little more than informational (or educational) tools, yet fraught with a fake enthusiasm and often dull narration in a British accent. (How's that for a generalization?)

Happily, Klayman's film gives us information, education, storytelling with a real filmmaking voice, one HELL of a story and a subject the camera absolutely loves. We see Ai WeiWei's method of working, creating, preparing, collaborating and mounting some of the most stunning works of art that one might never have a chance to see - save for on film.

Ai WeiWei himself is a delight - brilliant, funny and an impish rascal. "Charm" is his middle name and it's all genuine. He works it on everyone who populates the film (save for some idiot bureaucrats and cops) and he clearly is working it on the filmmaker and us.

Klayman provides public and private moments - the latter are especially revealing, poignant and often funny.

Most importantly, what happens to Ai WeiWei over the four years is the stuff that all artists in repressive regimes face and we get a first-hand account of how frustrating, paranoia-stricken and even dangerous it can be. The struggle is the story's engine - Ai WeiWei as a human being and his art are the layers. One of the more astounding activities he engages in is the utilization of social media to document his plight with the authorities all over the world. Capturing computer and iPhone action is never any easy feat, but Klayman wends it so seamlessly into the narrative that it's always a vital part of the tale.

Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry is a document for our time and will remain so until the sort of repression people suffer all over the world is wiped out. In this sense, the picture's universal.

"Ai WeiWei: Never Sorry" is available on Blu-Ray/DVD via Mongrel Media.