The Silence of Innocence – The Artist Gottfried Helnwein | 116 min., 2009 | A Film by Claudia Schmid

 

Synopsis

For over forty years, Gottfried Helnwein has been one of the most renowned and controversial German-speaking artists of the post-war era. The world's most prestigious museums vie for his paintings, and his exhibitions consistently draw record-breaking crowds. From his hyperrealistic depictions of tormented girls in the 1970s to his paintings and photographs of today, he shocks, fascinates, and moves audiences worldwide.

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Helnwein is an artist of clear, uncompromising statements. He confronts viewers with the dark sides of human nature—the manifestations of violence and power. His central theme is the child as a wounded and abused being. Through the fate of the child, Helnwein brings home to us the human capacity for suffering, thereby implicating the viewer as both a silent witness and an accomplice. In his self-portraits, he depicts the artist as a martyr allied with the child. His images penetrate the subconscious, awakening individual visions of horror drawn from both personal and collective history. The viewer can scarcely escape the fascination born of the fusion of photographic precision with the inner luminosity characteristic of Old Master painting.

Throughout his life, Helnwein—a politically astute artist who ceaselessly analyzes current and historical world events—has grappled with the legacy of National Socialism and the insidious mechanisms of fascism.

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For two years, Claudia Schmid followed the artist with her camera—at his castle in Ireland and his studio in Los Angeles—documenting the creation of several larger-than-life paintings and photographs. The film offers an intense glimpse into his diverse creative processes, providing access to the intellectual universe of his art and the underlying philosophy that informs his life. Through the fusion of cinematic observation and conversations on art, politics, and society, a rich portrait emerges of a radical and uncompromising free spirit of our time.