To mark the 150th anniversary of Impressionism, the documentary 1874, The Birth of Impressionism looks back at the beginnings of this founding movement in the history of art. In parallel, the immersive experience Tonight with the Impressionists, presented at the Musée d'Orsay until August 11, invites visitors to relive the very first exhibition of these young painters. Stéphane Millière, producer at Gedeon Programmes, and Isabelle Graziadey, international distributor of the documentary at Terranoa, outline the genesis and conception of the project, as well as the 360-degree strategy for international distribution of the film and the VR experience.
Unifrance: How did this project about the birth of the Impressionist movement come about?
Stéphane Millière: The idea for this documentary came to us three years ago, with the approach of the 150th anniversary of the first Impressionist exhibition. We discovered that it had taken place in Nadar's studio, at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, and that there were no photos of the founding exhibition that would give the movement its name. We couldn't believe it. We regularly work on restoring lost heritage. We've done this for several projects that have traveled internationally, including productions about the Château de Versailles, the Vatican, and the Sagrada Familia.
We embarked on a major investigation. Nadar's studio had been destroyed in 1889. So we went in search of all the photos, land registers, and notarial deeds describing the rooms in the building, in order to reconstruct the two-storey studio piece by piece, down to the last millimetre. We managed to put together a representation of the site at the time Nadar was still there, but he left in 1871, three years before the exhibition. By reading reviews of the exhibition, we knew that the space had been re-decorated in red, and that it was lit by gas lamps, allowing it to also be open in the evening. We had the exhibition catalog, but we knew that Renoir had not hung the paintings in the order shown in the catalog. So we embarked on a second investigation: reading the 400 pieces of correspondence between the Impressionists and their friends, as well as the reviews describing the layout of the exhibition. Gradually, we were able to rehang the paintings to these indications.
How did you start working with the Musée d’Orsay?
SM: We went to see the Musée d'Orsay after just over a year and a half of research. They saw the first images of the exhibition, which we had reconstructed using computer-generated images. They found it incredible to have investigated and reconstructed the exhibition space and the way the paintings were hung! No one had done this kind of in-depth work before. It was exceptional to have won their confidence and to be able to continue the work with the two curators of the Paris 1874 - Inventing Impressionnism exhibition, Sylvie Patry and Anne Robbins. We worked together to create both the documentary and a virtual reality experience that allowed visitors to relive the exhibition. We were able to recreate it in detail, even varying the lighting to recreate the atmosphere by day or night.
We now had a partner, a venue and a scientific guarantee. We then went to Arte and they immediately came onboard.
The documentary, Musée d'Orsay exhibition, and virtual reality experience Tonight with the Impressionists. Paris 1874 form a complementary whole. How did this overall project come about?
SM: We were interested in creating a 360-degree ecosystem around a single event. This gave us much greater media impact. That's what we like to do at Gedeon Programmes, with Terranoa, our international distribution company. We had already set up a similar operation for Pompeii,which involved both an international co-production of a docu-drama and an exhibition at the Grand Palais, which then went abroad.
For the Impressionists, we are simultaneously bringing the virtual reality experience and the documentary to international markets, including the USA, Japan, and China enabling us to create an event and sell both simultaneously. The film is complementary to the virtual reality experience, as it starts from the moment of the exhibition and goes back 12 years to show us how these painters met, how we arrived at this unique concentration of talent. Other Impressionist exhibitions took place later, but this is the one and only time when all the painters were brought together: Renoir, Monet, Sisley, Pissarro, Berthe Morisot... and even Cézanne, who joined them.
Why did you choose the docufiction format? What did it allow you to do?
SM: The events depicted happened at a pivotal moment, just before the beginnings of cinema, so there were no moving images and only a few photos. We wanted to adhere closely to the letters the painters sent each other on an almost daily basis, relating their state of mind, their state of health, their financial situation, and sometimes intimate things. We also worked on the script with curators Sylvie Patry and Anne Robbins.
We didn't want to see actors reading letters, so fiction was the obvious choice. What was interesting was to get as close as possible to the painters' personalities, and also to let the fiction live through the exchanges reported in the letters.
Hugues Nancy and Julien Johan's writing process therefore focused on extracting from these letters what would give life to the characters over the twelve years that the film traces. It was a complicated choice, because docufictions can be failures. Budgets aren't always sufficient to choose actors who have the ability to sweep us up emotionally. But in this instance, they really do resemble their characters, which is striking when you see the photos. They embody the painters' personalities and idiosyncrasies, and succeed in conveying emotion.
Are you targeting a particular type of audience?
SM: Films about art aren't the easiest to distribute, even though we're talking about the world's best-known art movement. We felt that by featuring these young painters we could also reach a younger audience, and this was one of the points that appealed to international buyers. It's not a classic documentary story, but an embodied, first-person account.
In 1874, these were young men and women in their thirties. Twelve years earlier, they were young students who wanted to have fun and were suffocating in the confines of the salon culture and the bourgeoisie. This story shows the extent to which this was a movement of rebellious young men and women who fought against the times. It's a far cry from today's vision of an elderly, long-bearded Monet, who enjoyed success during his lifetime and was exhibited all over the world.
How has the film been received following its broadcast on Arte?
SM: We decided to leave the film on replay on arte.tv and on Arte's YouTube channel for the duration of the exhibition, until August 11. The response has been overwhelming, with a cumulative audience of over 1.5 million, including over 300,000 views on YouTube to date. The documentary continues to be viewed on a weekly basis, and public feedback has been extremely positive.
What specific elements in this documentary appeal to international audiences? Was it conceived with international audiences in mind from the outset?
SM: Of course, we work hand in hand with Terranoa on the international scene, and all the more so when it comes to Impressionism! We were supported not only by the CNC and the PROCIREP, but also by the Normandy Region and the Île-de-France Region, because our ambition was to convey French culture and this now iconic movement in French painting to as many people as possible.
Isabelle Graziadey: We worked exceptionally closely in advance with Stéphane to try and complete the financing, which was very ambitious. It was difficult to convince the networks to enter the pre-purchase phase, as the film is hybrid and highly atypical for the fairly standard international Arts slots, which are often limited to artist biopics. The fact that the film coincides with the anniversary of the birth of Impressionism, in April 1874, was a real asset.
But the 52-minute version, with its elegant fictional sequences set in period environments and retracing the history of the movement and its protagonists, was a convincing choice. The task of adapting the 90-minute version into a 52-minute one was long and complex: we had to find a way of combining the fiction with the more historical part, enabling a non-French audience to understand the context, while at the same time becoming attached to the characters who express themselves in French in the fictional scenes, and whom we chose to subtitle.
It was after the screening and with the international media coverage of the VR experience that the networks realized there was something special going on. It was also at MIPTV, when we had our first preview screening, that we sensed a real enthusiasm on the part of the networks, who were quite blown away by the quality of the film.
Nine sales were concluded following this preview, mainly in Europe: to RTBF, VRT, RTVE, SVT, ORF, RSI in Italian (Lugano), RTB in Portugal, TV5 Canada, as well as cinema and TV exhibition rights in Brazil. I'm awaiting further sales, especially in the United Kingdom, where the VR element will be rolled out.
The complementary nature of the VR experience and the documentary is a real asset for sales...
IG: The exhibition opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington on September 8 will be accompanied by the deployment of the VR element in three North American cities, in addition to previews of the film in Washington and New York! This "Impressionist Week" is part of our targeted marketing effort in the United States, to give the film maximum visibility in this territory, in partnership with the Ambassade de France.
Discussions are underway, and there is genuine interest in broadcasting in the U.S., from several partners within PBS, who are trying to find a slot in a fairly complex broadcasting system and limited, highly formatted Arts slots. Our contacts are convinced of the resonance such a film could have, given the renown of this movement and its artists in the United States. For it was in this country, at the turn of the century, that they gained real recognition thanks to wealthy collectors open to this avant-garde. And there isn't an American who doesn't know the name Renoir.
Media Gallery
© Gedeon Programmes_Arte France_Musee d'Orsay_Julien Johan_Hugues Nancy
© Gedeon Programmes_Arte France_Musee d'Orsay_Julien Johan_Hugues Nancy
© Gedeon Programmes_Arte France_Musee d'Orsay_Julien Johan_Hugues Nancy
© Gedeon Programmes_Arte France_Musee d'Orsay_Julien Johan_Hugues Nancy
