Review by Suzie Toumeh
Trigger Warnings from Reviewer?
N/A
Age Recommendation from Reviewer?
Everyone
Reviewer recommends it for…
Art students, historians, and serious film-form enthusiasts.
📖 Plot Summary
A cinematic biography of artist Piet Mondrian, told not through traditional narrative but through the chronological reading of his personal letters. His evolving thoughts and struggles are visualized through meticulously framed black-and-white archival footage and a radical split-screen structure that mirrors the geometric purity and color blocks of his own revolutionary paintings.
📖 In This Review
0. The Core of the Film
Have you ever looked at a perfectly composed piece by Mondrian and wonderd about his life? Mondri(a)an tries to answer that by building a structure of his own design. We hear Mondrian's private doubts and ambitions, but we see them in bordered frames of his public work. The core tension here is between the chaotic inner life of the artist and the immaculate outer world he fought to create. The experience is one of respectful distance.
The experience is one of respectful distance.
1. The Journey
We meet Mondrian through his words, a man deeply passionate about spiritual and artistic evolution. The “call” in his life is his relentless pursuit of a universal visual language of harmony even as the war draws near. The film shows him answering this call with every fiber of his being, paring down reality to horizontal and vertical lines, primary colors, and non-colors. Where does he arrive? At the apex of his own philosophy, embodied in his final, iconic works. The journey is one of immense intellectual and artistic discipline, but the emotional cost hinted at in letters often feels locked in the adjacent frame, visible in general imagery but untouched emotionally.
The emotional cost hinted at in letters often feels locked in the adjacent frame, visible in general imagery but untouched emotionally.
2. Directing
Director Pim Zwier’s boldest choice is to make the film’s structure a reflection of Mondrian’s obsession. Every scene is divided, contained, bordered. Shots of people from the time are boxed on screen next to other similar footage, sometimes within a block of red, yellow or blue. In one moment, we hear a letter over personal worries, but the screen shows a collection of black-and-white footage from the time. It is hard to always follow everything on screen. I felt a profound ache of separation. And that’s when I understood Zwier’s difficult lesson for his audiance: he is refusing to sentimentalize the style or life of Mondrian. The film respects the artist’s work so much that he won’t violate its principles, even to give us easier emotional access. It is a film that honors the art, sometimes at the expense of the heart.
The film respects the artist’s life’s work so much that he won’t violate its principles, even to give us easier emotional access.
3. Cinematography
The visual strategy of split-screen is the film’s grammar. It constantly juxtaposes thought (voice-over) with image (archive), person and place. The sensation is of watching a mind sorting and cataloging its own experiences, forcing chaos into alignment. The editing rhythm is deliberate, patient, and repetitive. It tries to structures your view.
The editing rhythm is deliberate, patient, and repetitive.
4. Sound
The soundscape is spare: the narrator’s calm, measured voice reading the letters is the dominant force. There is minimal score to manipulate emotion. The sound mirrors the visual minimalism. What you feel is the weight of the words themselves, isolated in the black space of the frame. It demands your full attention.
What you feel is the weight of the words themselves, isolated in the black space of the frame.
5. Conclusion: What Stays After?
In a world of hyper-stimulating media, this film is a radical act of restraint. It cares deeply about artistic integrity and intellectual biography. It is a vital document for understanding how an artist’s philosophy can become their entire world, and the frame through which they see everything, even their own life. What stays with me is the silence between the voice-over and the image. Mondri(a)an taught me that sometimes, the most faithful portrait of seeking order is a beautiful box.
Mondri(a)an taught me that sometimes, the most faithful portrait of seeking order is a beautiful box.
Reviewer: Suzie Toumeh
Suzie holds two Master’s degrees: in Media Studies from Utrecht University and English Studies from the University of Szeged. She has served on two film festival juries, including the prestigious European University Film Award.💡 Want More Deep Dives on Film & Art?
📲 Follow The Curated Frame
Get updates, reviews, and more:
Comments
Post a Comment