Few victims of the Holocaust have left behind such a systematic and memorable record of their lives as Charlotte Salomon, a native of Berlin who died at Auschwitz at age 26. As if anticipating such an early end, she has spent much of the past two years painting around a thousand gouache composing the biography. The illustrated autobiography “Life? Or Theatre?” who happily survived the war. Now on permanent display in a museum in Amsterdam, they have produced a number of works in other media, including operas, theatrical plays, ballets, the novel, the 1981 Dutch drama feature, and numerous documentaries.
“Charlotte” is likely to introduce Salomon’s story to a larger audience thanks to its appeal to anime fans, as well as the seduction of voice stars led by Keira Knightley. (Marion Cotillard will star in an upcoming French-language version.) Viewers who responded to recent “Flee” awards will find strong, fact-based narrative style in animated form some similar rewards in this collaboration between directors Eric Warin (“Leap!”) and Tahir Rana (“Angry Birds: Summer Madness”).
What might sound familiar if sad drama in live action form capitalizes on this relative newness of presentation, which lends a certain cosmopolitan character, as well as the increased viewer reach of Salomon’s story. But the pedestrian animation here also makes Charlotte a little depressing: the movie seems to draw little from the bolder, more distinct visual style of its subject. Good Deed Entertainment will begin opening the multinational co-production on US and Canadian screens starting April 22.
The narrative is framed by Charlotte Knightley commissioning a bag of her paintings to her friend Dr. Morides (Henry Czerny, who performs many small roles), knowing that they are no longer safe in their possession. Then Eric Rutherford and David Bezmozgis’ screenplay set back eight years to 1935, when a teenage Charlotte was attending a concert with her parents being invaded by Nazi thugs shouting, “Get out the Jews!” They are terrified, but not particularly surprised; Our heroine had already left school a few years ago, in protest of Hitler’s embrace and anti-Semitism. With her father (Eddie Marsan) a surgeon, the family was able to continue her education at home.
As an aspiring artist, she is soon thrilled to gain admission to the local art academy, although the gesture of tolerance toward a Jewish applicant is already a risky move that is unlikely to last for long. Meanwhile, she romantically focuses on a voice teacher (Mark Strong) who teaches her stepmother to classical singer (Helen McCrory), though the stolen May/December relationship is also short-lived.
While things are steadily deteriorating for the Jews in Germany, my father is arrested and sent to camp for a few months, returning in shabby health. With exit visas now scarce, her parents insist that Charlotte leave for southern France, arguing that her grandparents are old and weak enough to seek her help. But the political climate only exacerbated Grossbaba (Jim Broadbent), who often directs his irritating and stubborn bad temper at his granddaughter, while Grossama (Brenda Blythein) sank into a deep depression. A bright spot is their welcome in the fold of the wealthy American Hôtel Moore (Sophie Okonedo), whose rural estate here provides sanctuary to many refugees, and a nurturing of Charlotte’s art. It also provides another stray, Alexander Nagler (Sam Claflin), whom Charlotte falls in love with. But by mid-1943, there was not enough refuge in Vichy France for two foreign Jews.
“Charlotte” unfolds in a straightforward, engaging manner, and her partially assumed autobiography (“Life? Or theatre?” some matters are discreetly left to the imagination) progresses through the scenes and dialogue—Salomon, by all accounts, wasn’t much of a talker. Inevitably, there is a terrible sense of needless loss, and the horror of Nazi persecution is compounded by our heroine’s realization that mental illness and suicide have passed through her family’s bloodline.
However, moving this story around can hardly help but the movie rarely seems as inspiring as one might hope, given the source material. Salomon’s paintings (a minority of which were first published in 1963 in Charlotte: Diaries in Pictures, using her interpretive texts) are expressive depictions of a seemingly undeveloped but powerful craft in colour, emotion, and unusual composition, often depicting multiple events or locations in one frame. It’s lively and creative in ways that the competent but rather cute linear animations and beautiful backgrounds here don’t. Especially considering that some of the film’s producers also took part in “Loving Vincent,” which meticulously translated Van Gogh’s aesthetic, Charlotte’s visual dogma is a disappointment.
Moreover, Knightley’s playful tone, bright style and cut make Charlotte sympathetic, but do not put too much weight on a young woman whose strong-willed and sometimes desperate mood provoke a family conflict in real life. Ideally, there might also have been a more subtle vocal component than Michelino Bisceglia’s traditional big orchestral music.
However, this remains a great story, even if told in a less-than-great movie. There were some shocking turns in Charlotte Salomon’s life even before he was shipped to Auschwitz and killed instantly there, while she was five months pregnant. No doubt he will continue to provide drama for her story, perhaps some of them are better than ‘Charlotte’. But for many, this will include an introduction, which is powerful enough to serve as an honorable introduction.
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