February 6 - Klimt

Today’s movie is a biography with a scene that happens today – February 6. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

KLIMT                    

On February 5, 1918 [2:00 to 5:22] Egon Schiele comes to see the dying Gustav Klimt in the hospital. Klimt starts thinking back on his life. He is an artist who is deeply involved in the philosophical debate about the theory of art. Klimt is so avant-garde, he is not happy to win a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for his art. He meets Lea de Castro and begins a sexual relationship with her, watched by Duke Octavo and her double. His paintings are not as well received in his hometown of Vienna. He throws himself into a decadent lifestyle and soon has a fourteen illegitimate children by Jewish mothers and syphilis. He steals his own painting back from a museum. Klimt meets Egon Schiele. Klimt’s hallucinations become more and more disjointed as he slowly dies on February 6, 1918 [1:27:06 to 1:33:20].

A very mixed up film. Beautiful and innovative cinematography, but even if you know Klimt’s story you could not figure it out from this film or what message you’re supposed to take away. A mysterious movie, rather like Klimt’s art. 

The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of Gustav Klimt’s Masterpiece Portrait of

Adele Bloch-Bauer by Anne-Marie O’Conner (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2012) at

page 64 gives the date of Klimet’s death

Producers - Matthew Justice, Arno Ortmair, Dieter Pochlatko and Andreas Schmid

Director - Raúl Ruiz

Screenplay - Gilbert Adair, Raúl Ruiz and Herbert Vesely

Runtime – 2 hours 11 minutes(director’s cut), 1 hour 36 minutes (theatrical release)

Released – March 3, 2006      

Starring –

John Malkovich as Klimt

Veronica Ferres as Midi

Stephen Dillane as Secretary

Saffron Burrows as Lea de Castro

Sandra Ceccarelli as Serena Lederer

Nikolai Kinski as Egon Schiele

Aglaia Szyszkowitz as Mizzi

Joachim Bibmeier as Hugo Moritz

Ernst Stötzner as Minister Hartl

Paul Hilton as Duke Octave

Annemarie Düringer as Klimt's Mother

Irina Wanka as Berta Zuckerkandl