Movie Talk: 'Séraphine' with Norman A. Geske

Sunday, March 14 at 4:05 p.m. following the 1:50 p.m. screening of SÉRAPHINE.  Admission to the Movie Talk is free and open to the public.  Admission for SÉRAPHINE is at regular Ross prices.  The Movie Talk series is sponsored by the Friends of the Ross.
 
SÉRAPHINE is the true story of Séraphine Louis aka Séraphine de Senlis (Yolande Moreau), a simple and profoundly devout housekeeper who in 1905 at age 41 — self-taught and with the instigation of her guardian angel — began painting brilliantly colorful canvases.

In 1912 Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), a German art critic and collector — he was one of the first collectors of Picasso and champion of naïve primitive painter Le Douanier Rousseau — discovered her paintings while she worked for him as a maid in his lodgings in Senlis outside Paris. Uhde became her patron and grouped her work with other naïve painters – the so-called “Sacred Heart Painters” — with acclaimed shows in Paris, elsewhere in Europe and eventually at New York’s MOMA. 

Director Martin Provost builds his story around the relationship between the avant-garde art dealer and the visionary cleaning lady, forging a testament to the mysteries of creativity and the resilience of one woman’s spirit.  A sleeper hit in France, SÉRAPHINE went on to a surprise win of the Best Picture and Best Actress for Yolande Moreau along with five other awards at the 2009 Cesars, the French equivalent of the Academy Awards.
 
Norman A. Geske Bio

Norman A. Geske was involved in the creation of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and served as its director until his retirement in 1983. He was instrumental in creating the Museum of Nebraska Art at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the Interstate 80 Bicentennial Sculpture Project.