Sometimes one comes upon the most enjoyable books or movies by happenstance and other times it’s on the recommendation of a friend.
While I was in Philadelphia at the Barnes Foundation, I picked up a novel about Claude Monet called, Claude & Camille by Stephanie Cowell. Published in 2010, it’s a fascinating portrait of Monet’s early life with his wife Camille and the close friendships between him and Renoir, Pissarro, and particularly Frederic Bazille. These Impressionists (only dubbed so later on) worked against tradition and, hence, their works were unpopular and frequently did not sell.
Monet and Camille lived hand-to-mouth while he refused to take on any kind of normal job and she periodically worked to provide some limited funds. They regularly depended upon the kindness of friends, most often Bazille whose family had money. Add in Camille’s unstable temperament and Claude’s frequent absences and you have lives fraught with tension and distance. Success was slow in coming.
Cowell’s novel is historically based, but with a novelist’s license she has elaborated on the relationship between Camille and the other artists. Cowell also captures, some might say lovingly, the process of putting paint to canvas and creating color and light. One knows precisely which paintings they are without her ever giving the reader their titles.
A friend gave me a copy of a mystery she and a colleague co-authored. Set in Bethlehem, founded in 1741 and now a charming city in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, The Body in the Vat: Tales from the Tannery by Charlene Donchez Mowers and Carol A. Reifinger is light fare, short and fun. It will appeal to anyone who knows the city (lots of familiar venues from the Colonial Industrial Quarter to the Moravian Book Shop) and to others curious to learn more about Bethlehem’s Moravian heritage. Proceeds are being shared with Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites and the 275th Anniversary Committee of Moravians in Bethlehem.
Another friend recommended that we see Phoenix and we were not disappointed. This is a seriously good, serious German film about identity and betrayal and the heart. Getting out of the concentration camp after the war, damaged physically and emotionally, Nelly needs reconstructive surgery on her face. Although pressured to have a new look, she asks to look like she did before. After surgery, she sets out to find her husband who does not recognize her. Practicing with him to become herself, she embarks on a journey that is both disturbing and poignant. Who are we really? What is it that marks our unique identity? And why do we continue to trust in the face of betrayal? Dark and haunting, this is a film that lingers long after the last credit has rolled.
Header photo: Monet’s Springtime (1872) from Google art project.jpg
