Press kit monique peytral lascaux english

Monique Peytral PAINTING LASCAUX, PAINTING LIFE Directed by Constance Ryder Produced by Laurence Milon LA HUIT PRODUCTION

Paris, France

(c) JP Paireault

©JP Paireault

©JP Paireault

CONTACTS Filmmaker Constance Ryder constanceryder@gmail.com @angleneuf

Producer Laurence Milon laurence.milon@lahuit.fr

SOCIAL NETWORKS facebook.com/pages/Monique-­‐Peytral-­‐Peindre-­‐Lascaux-­‐peindre-­‐la-­‐vie/647693821998276?fref=ts h-p://monique-­‐peytral-­‐lascaux.blog4ever.com/

AIRED ON TELEVISION

PUBLIC SCREENINGS Royal Museums of Art and History (Brussels, Belgium) La Maison de l’Aquitaine (Paris, France) Rencontres du film d’archéologie (Narbonne, France) Le P’tit Festival du film d’archéologie (Rochefort, Belgium) Université de Lille 1 (France) Université de Genève (Switzerland) Cinéma Maulé Baïtha (Mauléon-Licharre, France) Cinéma Max Linder (Ribérac, France) Cinéma Le Vox (Montignac, France)

SUPPORTERS

The dream of painting Lascaux

Monique Peytral: Painting Lascaux, painting life is a portrait of a talented mural painter who copied the famous Lascaux cave from 1972 to 1983.

(c) JP Paireault

Making a life size copy of a Paleolithic cave at that time was a unique adventure. Thanks to remarkably intact archival footage and present day interviews with some of the people who made it happen, the tale is finally told.

But the story goes beyond Lascaux. Monique Peytral, at age 85, takes us to her home in Southwest France, where she guides us through a labyrinth of sensations and enchantment, from brightly colored forests to powerful rivers, surrounded by gigantic rock formations. Here is inspiration, a key to her creative life and work.

This is the woman who knows what Lascaux is about – from the inside.

Spectators have written: «... Full of finesse and sensitivity » «Pure happiness ! » « One immediately feels like Monique is a friend, thanks to the way you have portrayed her, with nuance and truth, without heaviness. » « ... full of a superb sensitivity, emotionally and visually… « The topics of the Lascaux cave, Monique’s involvement, her life, and her art, were seamlessly woven together to make for an unusually artful and moving film. »

Pedro Lima, scientific journalist: « One observes, with astonishment and admiration, the ingenious and courageous way this resolutely optimistic woman invented the basic techniques for reproducing cave art. »

© SudOuest

A cave people flock to

After its discovery in 1940 by four adolescents, Lascaux rapidly became the world's most renowned prehistoric cave. Why is that? Other Paleolithic caves discovered well before Lascaux are also quite beautiful. Why are they less well known ?

Some suggest that Lascaux benefits from an aura of mystery, that it is a place where magic and spirituality reign. Possibly modern humans are sensitive to energies they perceive within the cave walls. Indeed, it has often been referred to as a chapel.

Others more prosaically consider that the Lascaux paintings (or at least those in the Hall of the Bulls and the Axial Gallery) are so beautiful and so well-preserved that one can only marvel. What's more the animal figures were painted with a large palette of colors: twelve hues in all.

Such mastery of form and color! Such a wealth of compositions! In 1940, no other prehistoric cave was equivalent.

Whatever the reason, Lascaux’s notoriety grew rapidly, crowds flocked to the hillside, and the situation became unmanageable. Diseases appeared on the cave walls. Hence governmental authorities decided to close the doors. A copy was born, dubbed Lascaux II. It was built, sculpted, sketched and painted with boundless love by twentieth century women and men – 17,000 years after their Magdalenian ancestors.

Painting life, dancing life Monique Peytral was born in Nice in 1926; by the age of three she appeared to be destined to paint.

As a student she attended the Beaux-Art Academy, where she studied fresco painting with Professor Jean Bertholle. But she was also drawn to dance, thus she simultaneously lived the life of a painter, while studying dance with a former ballerina of the Russian ballet, Mila Cirul.

I first met Monique on a sunny day in May, in Marseille. From the the very start I was awed by her strength of character and personal charm. She’s like a goddess with red hair that nobody or nothing could ever hold back.

Her eyes never appear to be hiding something; their direction is straight and forward.

She has a voice that rolls each word out just right: heighty, forceful, measured…

But Monique, it turns out, is first and foremost a painter.

Between 1971 and 1983 she devoted herself to painting the reproduction of the Lascaux cave.

When the replica was completed she took up her personal work again, full of bright colors and mythological characters.

It’s as though she’s sitting on Mount Olympus, yet nothing about her makes you think of a stereotypical artist with an inflated ego. Au contraire, if Monique shines, it’s thanks to her tenderness, and also to her strength.

A look at her abundant œuvre leaves no room for doubt. Monique Peytral is in love with life. She holds this world of hers in protective arms, instilling energy and serenity.

About the film director

Having grown up in the United States, I discovered France at age 23, after a trip to the British Isles and a language residency in Norway. I thought I would stay two years in France, the time to learn the language, but in the end I adopted the country.

After a brief career as an English teacher in Paris, and some dabbling in English language theater, I decided to go for filmmaking, and was accepted at the Art Institute of Chicago, where I came out with an MFA. Back in France I started off as an editor, working primarily for television. I did everything from news to shorts to documentaries. I've often worked with documentary film director Frédéric Mitterrand, a writer and TV personality who's also a pretty good historian. No doubt this is the reason archival footage makes its way into my films.

Since 2005 I've written and directed three televised documentaries."Gilli and Company" is the portrait of Claude Gilli, painter and sculptor from Nice.

"Encore elles! » which was co-directed, tells about French feminism since 1970.

"Monique Peytral: Painting Lascaux, Painting Life" is my most recent documentary.

Constance Ryder

PRESS La critique de Pedro Lima http://www.hominides.com/html/documentaire/monique-peytralpeindre-lascaux-0944.php

L’artiste qui a repeint Lascaux http://www.sudouest.fr/2013/07/20/l-artiste-qui-a-repeintlascaux-1120162-4625.php

Mauléon: peindre Lascaux, peindre la vie

http://www.larepubliquedespyrenees.fr/2013/11/26/peindre-lascauxpeindre-la-vie,1166528.php

Monique Peytral évoque Lascaux

http://www.sudouest.fr/2013/12/03/monique-peytral-evoquelascaux-1247182-4273.php

La peintre de Lascaux se régale

http://www.larepubliquedespyrenees.fr/2013/05/27/la-peintre-delascaux-se-regale,1133403.php

Les anciens revisitent Lascaux

http://www.sudouest.fr/2014/10/08/les-anciens-revisitentlascaux-1696769-4433.php

Une rue en l’honneur de la peintre de Lascaux 2

http://www.sudouest.fr/2016/05/25/une-rue-en-l-honneur-de-moniquepeytral-2374522-2238.php