Cezanne And I(EUFF 2017)

The film traces the decade-long friendship between the impressionist artist, Paul Cézanne and the naturalist novelist, Émile Zola, two of France’s most influential cultural figures in the 19th century. Having met at the age of thirteen, the two young boys became school pals and grew up to share the same dreams, ambitions and even a mutual love of art and girls. Cézanne, who was born in a rich but conventional family, later struggled to make a living as a painter, while Zola, who came from a poor background, became successful as a novelist. In 1888, a nearly 50-yearold Cézanne confronts Zola again for his novel L’Oeuvre in which the main character, a poor failed painter, is thought to resemble Cézanne… The film represents these two cultural figures’ mysterious lives, not only underlining the artistic arguments between Zola’s writing and Cézanne’s stylishly formalistic painting, but also intimately referring to their private life and sexual experiences.