The Louvre Museum Moves into Making Movies

by Rosslyn Hyams

Article published on the 2009-11-06 Latest update 2009-11-08 09:39 TU

Fanny Ardant and the reindeer.
(Photo: Liao Pen Jung)

When you think of the Louvre museum in Paris, you may think immediately of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. You may think of room after room, brimming full of sculptures, or their walls adorned with a large part of the history of painting or IM Pei's glass pyramid. But the Louvre museum and former palace, has a growing number of strings to its bow.

The latest addition to the broad cultural (and gastronomic) offer is films.

The films series is the brain child of Louvre director, Henri Loyrette. He says that museums today thrive on this varied media thrust. The Louvre is no exception. It's artistically essential for this landmark of art history - albeit endowed with myriad manifestations of beauty - to embrace the moving image.

"The Louvre has always been the home of living artists, and it’s true that for several years now we’ve been working to restore their home. Because a museum is dead if it doesn’t incite creation, if all the masterpieces in the palace are not a constant and renewed source of inspiration. And therefore, how can we ignore the cinema today? "

Unsurprising then that the aesthetic in the films to which the Louvre lends it backing, is very high up the list.

The first film in a new series of films d’auteur feature films involving the Louvre as shoot location and co-producer came out in France on 4 November after being on the Cannes Film Festival’s 2009 competition list. It's Taiwan filmmaker Tsai Ming Liang's Visage in French, Lian in Chinese or Face in English. An adaptation of the story of Salomé which takes place in and around the Louvre.  The most frequently seen star in the film is Laeticia Casta, top model, actress and onetime face of the Marianne sculpture that represents France. Very fitting.

Jean-Pierre Léaud in the Louvre, in Visage.
(Photo: Liao Pen Jung)

Visage, Tsai's, takes his own Taiwan acting family Lee Kang-Sheng (catch the brief love, tense scene between him and Mathieu Amalric in the Tuileries Gardens where the sound effects steal the moment) Lu Yi-Ching and Yang Kuei-Mei and mixes them with French cinema icons Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Pierre Léaud, as well as Fanny Ardant, Nathalie Baye and Mathieu Amalric. And very importantly a reindeer, and a sparrow.

The reindeer provides moments of accessible humour in Visage while maintaining its elusiveness and animal dignity.

Drawing a parallel between the museum's role as a preserver of culture, beauty and civilisation, and the Louvre not being the least of its kind, Tsai Ming Liang rejoiced at the backing he received from the French landmark. "The fact that my film is being hung in the Louvre makes me very happy and means more to me than any prize in any film festival."

The film travels back and forth between Paris, the Louvre and Taiwan, and between a mirror of the pragmatic side of film production and the fantasy side of film making.

It has to be said, the obviously recognisable Louvre is seen only for a few minutes in the film.

The now ageing, but endearing, Jean-Pierre Léaud squeezes himself out of a grid in a costume modelled on that of a sixteenth century nobleman - heavy outsized puffy sleeves, red streaked-with-black shiney sort of leggings and all.

The grid in the skirting board just happens to be in the room where the Mona Lisa hangs. But she's not there. The face of the Louvre as it were, is absent. In between two other paintings attributed to Leondardo, which usually flank her, is another picture in a baroque guilt frame. So we could conclude that Laeticia Casta is the runaway face. Or we could conclude other things

For the director of the Louvre, Tsai ming-liang's film is the sort of international cultural bridge that makes the Louvre a place for the living, where dust balls are not allowed to collect.

"In this first opus in the series 'The Louvre Opens to Filmmakers', the Louvre is  not just a passive backdrop, it’s a creative place. And in a quite natural way, Tsai Ming Liang, one of today’s major filmmakers … brings us this very beautiful contemplation of history, of images, of format, of memory. And precisely here, of avant garde film director Francois Truffaut who passed away just 25 years ago. Tsai tells much more about the museum than a documentary could."

So when you think about the Louvre Museum, remember that there's much more to it than the unblinking face of the Mona Lisa. And many more ways to see what’s in there.