Film Screening: Rouge + Q&A with Adrian Locke and Jonathan Romney
Wednesday 6 May 2020 6.30 - 8pm
The Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Royal Academy of Arts
£15, £9
Léon Spilliaert
In partnership with
As part of the 'Léon Spilliaert' exhibition programme, we present a special screening of 'Rouge', followed by a Q&A with Senior Curator Adrian Locke and film critic Jonathan Romney.
Due to the ongoing circumstances surrounding coronavirus, we regret to inform you that we have made the difficult decision to cancel all events advertised for 2020 at this moment. If you have purchased tickets to an event, please contact us on 0207 300 8090 or tickets@royalacademy.org.uk and include your order number to arrange a refund. We aim to reply within 5 working days.
A troubled filmmaker obsessed with the idea of monstrosity seeks to find a painting that will condense the essence of his film by crystallising the power and beauty of monsters. Directed by French filmmaker Antoine Barraud and starring maverick auteur and composer Bertrand Bonello, Rouge follows Bonello’s filmmaker accompanied by art historian Celia (Jeanne Balibar) as they explore galleries and museums across Paris. In their quest for a painting that defines monstrousness, they discuss works by Joan Miró, Gustave Moreau, and Francis Bacon.
Forming part of the RA programme of events surrounding the Léon Spilliaert exhibition, this art house film challenges ideas of representation and how art is seen, arriving at a place where unease and distortion not only derive from the final painting, but from the obsessive, compulsive way the protagonist (and the spectator) engages with it.
Jonathan Romney is a critic, writer and film-maker based in London. He writes a weekly online column for Film Comment, contributes regularly to The Observer, Sight & Sound, Screen Daily and others, is a Visiting Lecturer at the National Film and Television School, and is programme advisor on French cinema for the BFI London Film Festival. His books include Atom Egoyan (BFI) and a collection of criticism, Short Orders. (Serpents Tail).
Adrian Locke joined the Royal Academy of Arts in 2001 having completed a PhD at the University of Essex. Since then he has worked on a wide variety of exhibitions, including Aztecs (2002), Anish Kapoor (2009) and Ai Weiwei (2015).
Director: Antoine Barraud
Running time: 60 minutes
Language: English
Release: 2015
Organised in partnership with curated streaming service MUBI.