“Bonnard, Pierre and Marthe” (2024) by Martin Provost with Cécile de France, Vincent Macaigne, Stacy Martin, Anouk Grinberg, André Marcon, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet is a magnificent biopic as well as a moving love story.

Pierre Bonnard would not be the painter that everyone knows without the enigmatic Marthe who alone occupies almost a third of his work. This is, over the course of half a century, the life of the “painter of happiness”, from the Parisian bourgeoisie, and his relationship with his muse who came from the people. From the moment they met, in 1893, it was love at first sight that lasted until 1942, mixing love, creations, jealousy, deception, reconciliation and marriage.

This is an excellent feature film where everything rings true. There is a good nature in these characters, in the dialogues which simply show the life of this couple from the time of the nabis until Marthe’s madness and death. Cécile de France is breathtaking and Vincent Macaigne is very credible. Visually it is very successful: the director of photography, Guillaume Schiffman, excels and thanks to the computer-generated images we can admire three overall shots of the Parisian skyline as well as two of Rome. Martin Provost offers us a very beautiful film

Le Cinéma