Trailer

RAINER THE PAINTER - A Portrait in Old Age

I want to see what I see with closed eyes.

In his later work Arnulf Rainer, at the age of 85, is spoken to by depictions of women's faces and answers them by painting on their visages. He does this in the hope of a successful brushstroke and day of painting, at the same time not denying the failure in what is never complete, which urges him to keep going further, to painting's possible ascension into the cosmos of beauty. He works on portraits and sits for them, frets about the hardships involved with old age, solitude and deterioration, and rides a hot-air balloon over these troubles and through the heavens. This too has something to say and expects an answer from the studio below.

The documentary essay shows Rainer the painter at work, today and 35 years ago, and also shows time at work.

"I consider him one of the truly great European painters." Markus Lüpertz

Credits

Essay Film, Austria 2014, 35 Minutes

Written and Directed by: Herbert Brödl
Photography: Herbert Brödl
Editor: Thomas Hötzeneder
Assistance: Naia Arruda
Produced by: Office Oberau Brödl

With the support of Galerie Breckner.