Paul Klee: The Silence of the Angel (2005)
Dir:Michael Gaumnitz
Country:Switzerland

This DVD is a visual journey into the work of a major painter of the 20th century by Michael Gaumnitz, an award-winning documentarian of artists and sculptors. Like Kandinsky and Delaunay, Klee revolutionized the traditional concepts of composition and color. By listening to the heartbeat of nature, exploring the science of his time, and studying music and poetry, Klee created his own artistic language, which questioned the nature of form, line, and color. He moved beyond figural abstraction to capture the very essence of movement in his painting. Using the writings of Paul Klee, as well as the events of his life and career, Gaumnitz presents the pictorial universe of a

Rarely does one come across a biographical film of an artist with such a beautiful melding of music (piano), color (the paintings) and narrative (historical photographs, films and voice overlay). Gaumnitz's film shows Paul Klee's etchings and paintings in a biographical context with references to his musical and writing talents, his marriage and fatherhood, as well as his friendships, his professorial roles and the effect of Hitler's Germany on him and his work. Gaumnitz shows the influence of Klee's travels to Tunisia and Italy on his use of color and on the subject matter of his paintings. A wonderful segment illustrates a lesson from one of Klee's Bauhaus lectures seeking to achieve the illusion of movement through the use of a circle and a line. Klee's interests in physics and nature and his very accomplished musicianship helped shape his work as a painter. While Klee's work has always held a special appeal for me, Gaumnitz's film helped explain Klee's work and has made it even more interesting. This film is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in Paul Klee and his work. (Amazon Comment)