''Charlotte'' is a 2021

animated Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

film about German painter

Charlotte Salomon Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings ''Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel'' (Life? or Theater?: A ...

, directed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, from a screen story by Erik Rutherford and a screenplay by Rutherford and

David Bezmozgis David Bezmozgis ( lv, Dāvids Bezmozgis; born 1973) is a Canadian writer and filmmaker, currently the head of Humber College's School for Writers. Life and career Educational background Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to Canada with his family ...

, inspired by Salomon's autobiographical painting series, ''Life? or Theatre?''. It stars the voices of

Keira Knightley Keira Christina Righton (; née Knightley, born 26 March 1985) is an English actress. Known for her work in both independent films and blockbusters, particularly period dramas, she has received several accolades, including nominations for ...

Brenda Blethyn Brenda Blethyn (''née'' Bottle; 20 February 1946) is an English actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, and two Academy Award nominations. Blethyn ...

Jim Broadbent James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for hi ...

Sam Claflin Samuel George Claflin (born 27 June 1986) is an English actor. After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 2009, he began his acting career on television and had his first film role as Philip Swift in '' Pirates of t ...

Henry Czerny Henry Czerny ( ; born February 8, 1959) is a Canadian stage, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in the films ''The Boys of St. Vincent, Mission: Impossible, Clear and Present Danger, The Ice Storm, The Exorcism of Emily Rose,' ...

Eddie Marsan Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008). He has feature ...

Helen McCrory Helen Elizabeth McCrory (17 August 1968 – 16 April 2021) was an English actress. After studying at the Drama Centre London, she made her stage debut in ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' in 1990. Other stage roles include playing Lady Macbe ...

(in her final appearance),

Sophie Okonedo Sophie Okonedo (born 11 August 1968) is a British actress and narrator. The recipient of a Tony Award, she has been nominated for an Academy Award, three BAFTA Television Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. She began her f ...

and

Mark Strong Mark Strong (born Marco Giuseppe Salussolia; 5 August 1963), is a British actor, best known for his film roles such as Prince Septimus in '' Stardust'' (2007), Archibald in ''RocknRolla'' (2008), Lord Henry Blackwood in ''Sherlock Holmes'' (20 ...

. Knightley,

Marion Cotillard Marion Cotillard (; born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, film producer, singer, and environmentalist who is widely known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters in both European and Hollywood productions. She has received ...

, and

Xavier Dolan Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker, actor and costume designer. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2 ...

serve as executive producers. Cotillard also voiced Salomon in the French version of the film. ''Charlotte'' is an

international co-production A co-production is a joint venture between two or more different production companies for the purpose of film production, television production, video game development, and so on. In the case of an international co-production, production companies ...

between Canada, Belgium and France. The film made its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on 13 September 2021. It was released in Canada on 22 April 2022 and in France on 9 November 2022.

Plot

A young artist,

, and her family attend an opera in

1935 Events January * January 7 – Italian premier Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval conclude Franco-Italian Agreement of 1935, an agreement, in which each power agrees not to oppose the other's colonial claims. * ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. Members of the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

party interrupt her stepmother Paula's performance and attempt to expel Jewish attendees. Charlotte thinks that her maternal grandparents are correct to depart for

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, though her father

Albert Albert may refer to: Companies * Albert (supermarket), a supermarket chain in the Czech Republic * Albert Heijn, a supermarket chain in the Netherlands * Albert Market, a street market in The Gambia * Albert Productions, a record label * Alber ...

and Paula desire to remain in Germany. Charlotte paints a scene of the conductor ordering the Nazis to depart. While visiting her grandparents, Charlotte befriends an American woman, Ottilie Moore, at the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel (; la, Sacellum Sixtinum; it, Cappella Sistina ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the pope in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), the chapel takes its name ...

. Ottilie offers her home at the Cote d'Azure as refuge to the family. Despite her parents' desire that she become a seamstress, Charlotte is accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts, where she develops her

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

style. She also befriends and romances

Alfred Wolfsohn Alfred Wolfsohn (23 September 1896 – 5 February 1962) was a German singing teacher who suffered persistent auditory hallucination of screaming soldiers, whom he had witnessed dying of wounds while serving as a stretcher bearer in the trenches o ...

, Paula's vocal teacher, who comforts her after her expulsion and asks her to illustrate his wartime memoirs. The two spend the day together in

Wannsee Wannsee () is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger ''Großer Wannsee'' (Greater Wannsee, "See" means lake) and the ...

, only for Charlotte to learn that Alfred has a fiancee.

Kristallnacht () or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...

happens that evening, during which Charlotte's paintings are burned and Jewish residents are rounded up. Albert is sent to the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners ...

and returns to the family two months later. Albert and Paula obtain an exit visa for Charlotte by claiming that her grandparents are ill, and Charlotte is sent to France to live with Ottilie and her grandparents. Charlotte learns that her grandmother is increasingly mentally unwell. Charlotte falls in love with the groundskeeper Alexander Nagler, though her grandfather decides to move the three of them to

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

after he finds out. Charlotte's grandmother commits suicide, after which her grandfather admits that both Charlotte's mother and aunt killed themselves. Charlotte returns to Ottilie's home where she confides in Alexander her family's history of mental illness and her desire to paint her life. Six weeks after she begins the project, Ottilie takes the young refugees who reside with her to America. She offers for Charlotte and Alexander to join her, but Charlotte returns to Nice as her visa is dependent on staying with her increasingly abusive grandfather. She eventually poisons him by putting

Veronal Barbital (or barbitone), marketed under the brand names Veronal for the pure acid and Medinal for the sodium salt, was the first commercially available barbiturate. It was used as a sleeping aid (hypnotic) from 1903 until the mid-1950s. The chemic ...

in his dinner. Charlotte, now pregnant by Alexander, continues to paint. Alexander outs himself as a Jew in order to marry Charlotte. She gives her collection of paintings, which she has titled ''Life? Or Theatre?'' to the village doctor, Dr. Moridis, for safekeeping. Shortly after, the couple is taken away by Nazis. The epilogue informs the audience that Charlotte and Alexander were both killed in

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

. Paintings from ''Life? Or Theatre?'' are interspersed with footage of the Salomons and Ottilie.

Cast

as Grossmama *

as Grosspapa *

as Alexander Nagler *

as Dr. Moridius/Policeman #2/Security Guard *

as Albert Salomon *

Paula Salomon-Lindberg Paula Salomon-Lindberg (''née'' Levi; 21 December 1897 – 17 April 2000) was an internationally renowned German classical contralto before the Second World War. She was specialised in Lied, oratorio and cantata, but occasionally also performe ...

as Ottile Moore *

Pippa Bennett-Warner Philippa Elaine Fanti Bennett-Warner (born 23 July 1988) is a British actress. She was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award in 2010 for her performance as Cordelia in Michael Grandage's production of ''King Lear'', and long-listed for Best Actre ...

as Barbara *

Raoul Bhaneja Raoul Bhaneja is an English-Canadian actor, musician, writer and producer. Early life and studies Bhaneja was born in Manchester. His father is an Indian Sindhi and mother is Irish. A graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada and Ot ...

as Professor Koch/Brown Shirt Leader/Looter #1/SS Soldier #1 *

Julian Richings Julian Richings (born 30 August 1956)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005.''; at Ancestry.com is a British-Canadian character actor. He has appeared in over 225 films and television series. Career After touring th ...

as Dr. Kurt Singer/Policeman #1/SS Soldier #2 *

Tony Nappo Antonio Nappo is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Four Brothers'', '' Saw II'', ''Land of the Dead'', '' Bad Blood'', and '' Born to be Blue''. He also is the voice of Jimmy Falcone (McDougal) in ''Fugget About It''. Biograp ...

as Mr. Brahvi/Vatican Guard

Production

Development

Producer Julia Rosenberg fell in love with

as an artist at the age of 13 when she was first given a collection of her work, "Life? or Theatre?". While jogging one morning in 2011, Rosenberg had an idea that if Salomon drew her life story as a painting series, then she had to produce an animated dramatic film. Rosenberg then sent an email to the Charlotte Salomon Foundation, and that's how the project started. In May 2012, Rosenberg officially optioned Salomon's memoir, "Life? or Theatre?". The film was originally announced in 2016 as a project to be directed by

Bibo Bergeron Eric "Bibo" Bergeron (born July 14, 1965) is a French animator and film director. His work includes ''The Road to El Dorado'' (2000), ''Shark Tale'' (2004) and ''A Monster in Paris'' (2011). Bergeron has served as animator on films like '' Aster ...

, and written by Erik Rutherford and

Miriam Toews Miriam Toews (; born 1964) is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including ''A Complicated Kindness'' (2004), '' All My Puny Sorrows'' (2014), and '' Women Talking'' (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor ...

. The screenplay was developed over a four-year period by Erik Rutherford before

came on and joined in collaboration. The Charlotte Salomon Foundation had script approvals. An

between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, the film was produced by Canada's January Films and Sons of Manual, in co-production with Belgium's Walking the Dog, and France's Les Productions Balthazar, in association with Telefilm Canada, Trinity Media Financing, Umedia, Serendipity Point Films, Centre National du Cinéma et de l’Image Animée, Eurimages, Crave, CBC Films, Ontario Creates, Screen Flanders, Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and Flanders Audiovisual Fund. In July 2021, it was announced that the cast included

and

, with

and

Romain Duris Romain Duris (; born 28 May 1974) is a French actor. He is known for his role in Cédric Klapisch's ''Spanish Apartment'' trilogy, which consists of ''L'Auberge Espagnole'' (2002), '' Russian Dolls'' (2005), and ''Chinese Puzzle'' (2013). He also ...

set to voice a French-language version of the film. Warin and Rana directed from a screenplay by Erik Rutherford and

, with Knightley, Cotillard,

, and Nancy Grant set to executive produce, with

Elevation Pictures Elevation Pictures is a Canadian film distribution and production company founded in 2013 by Laurie May and co-led by Noah Segal. The company made its debut at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Distribution Since its debut in late 20 ...

set to distribute in Canada, Diaphana Distribution in France, and The Searchers in Belgium. The film's original version is in English. Keira Knightley was recorded before animation. Marion Cotillard (who voiced Charlotte Salomon in the French version) came on afterwards and recorded with the final film. Cotillard had previously worked with executive producers Xavier Dolan and Nancy Grant in the 2016 film ''

It's Only the End of the World ''It's Only the End of the World'' (french: Juste la fin du monde) is a 2016 drama film written, edited and directed by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Mario ...

''. Cotillard told French magazine ''

L'Obs (), previously known as (1964–2014), is a weekly French news magazine. Based in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, it is the most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation. Its current editor is Cécil ...

'' that she had never heard of Charlotte Salomon until Grant approached her for this project. Grant gave Cotillard a book of Salomon's paintings and she felt moved by the artist's work.

Release

It had its world premiere at the

on 13 September 2021. In December 2021, Good Deed Entertainment acquired North American distribution rights to the film, and gave it a limited release in the United States on 22 April 2022. The film had a limited theatrical release in Canada on 22 April 2022 by

. It was released in France on 9 November 2022 by Nour Films.

Reception

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film received a 71% approval rating, based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The website's consensus reads, "While it lacks the spark of its subject's remarkable work, ''Charlotte'' offers a worthy introduction to a remarkable -- albeit tragic -- real-life story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film received a score of 58 out of 100, based on 16 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". AlloCiné, a French cinema site, gave the film an average rating of 3.4/5, based on a survey of 13 French reviews. In December 2021, the film was named to

TIFF Tag Image File Format, abbreviated TIFF or TIF, is an image file format for storing raster graphics images, popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers. TIFF is widely supported by scanning, faxing, word processin ...

's annual year-end

Canada's Top Ten Canada's Top Ten is an annual honour, compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival and announced in December each year to identify and promote the year's best Canadian films."Canada's Top Ten awards will honour excellence in Canadian cinema" ...

list of the best Canadian films of 2021.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
Charlotte
' at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...

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