Subtitled Ein Singspiel, a play with music, the work comprises over 700 multi-layered gouaches, many with transparent text overlays. Considered by some to be the first graphic novel. Painted between 1940 and 1942, Life? or Theater? combines historical events and personal memories, mentioning cinema, music and theatre. It tells the story of a traumatic past and a troubled family characterized by the suicides of more than one of Salomon’s relatives, including her mother. There are also hints of sexual abuse, a possible murder she committed, and tales of unrequited love. But throughout, there is a conscious blurring of reality and fantasy, with characters presented as fictional versions of important and influential people in Salomon’s life. Numerous books, films and an opera … Painting by Salomon in Villefranche-sur-Mer, France, circa 1939. Photo: Alamy Her tragic life and legacy have inspired numerous books and films, an opera – and now an animated biopic, Charlotte, which premieres at the UK Jewish Film Festival in London today ahead of its general release. Directed by Tahir Rana and Éric Warin, Charlotte features the voices of an all-star British cast led by Keira Knightley in the title role and including Jim Broadbent, Brenda Blethyn, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Sophie Okonedo and the late Helen McCrory in her last film. . So why does Salomon continue to fascinate, decades after her death? “It’s the combination of her neglected genius and the fascinating universal nature of her struggles,” Julia Rosenberg, the film’s co-producer, tells me from her home in Toronto. Did Rosenberg receive a copy of Life? or Theater? as a bat mitzvah presented many years ago and drew Salomon’s story. “Maybe I over-identified with Charlotte and her work as an alienated teenager from a Holocaust family. But the similarities were not literal. It helped me think about the feelings I had about myself that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, the feelings I had about intergenerational trauma.” Although Rosenberg had previously only made live-action films, animation seemed necessary for this story. “Charlotte drew her life story, so I knew I had to create a drawn version of her,” she says. The film evokes the artist’s bold, expressive style, enhanced by a strong use of color: dark interior scenes and rainy Berlin streets contrast with lush southern French gardens filled with brilliant yellow light. The additional use of live recreations of Salomon’s boards is tied to “how we felt Salomon was feeling at certain times,” Rosenberg explains. Charlotte traces the life of the Berlin-born artist broadly, from her studies at the city’s prestigious art academy – curtailed by rising anti-Semitism – to her leaving Germany for exile in the south of France, where she joined her grandparents from her mother. It was here that Salomon’s grandmother committed suicide, and also where he learned that the cause of her mother’s death was not the flu, as she was always told, but suicide. Along with her grandfather, Salomon was imprisoned in the Gurs detention camp and, shortly after their release, while in hiding, she started Life? or Theater? She worked in a state of terror and depression, both as a Jew living in Nazi Europe and out of fear that she was genetically predisposed to mental illness. The work of art is an investigation, believes art historian Griselda Pollock, who wrote Charlotte Salomon and the Theater of Memory. “The work is not autobiographical,” says Pollock. “She took it upon herself to ask herself, ‘Am I living or dying?’ As Salomon’s life and art were almost inextricably linked, says the film’s co-writer David Bezmozgis, factual accuracy was important. “The only scene that we completely invented – but based on reliable assumptions – is her visit to the Degenerate Art exhibition in Berlin in 1937,” adds Rosenberg. “It is still the most popular art exhibition in the 20th century and, as she was an art student in Berlin, we assumed she would have attended.” Charlotte is undaunted by the controversy and shows Salomon poisoning her grandfather, despite official records stating that he died of a head injury after collapsing in the street. Although it’s open to debate, there is plenty of primary and secondary evidence, including a confessional letter written by Salomon that was discovered and made public in 2015, Bezmozgis explains. Bold, expressive style… a painting from life? or Theatre?, circa 1942, by Charlotte Salomon Photo: Alamy “When we started the film, there wasn’t this revelation about the poisoning,” says Rosenberg. “And then we got together with the Charlotte Salomon Foundation at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam [which holds the majority of the archive] who said it seems to be true.’ The ambiguity still leaves room for others to investigate and come to a different conclusion, Bezmozgis says. “But I had to [take a view].” Get our weekly pop culture email delivered free to your inbox every Friday Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. There is also speculation in Salomon’s work that her grandfather was a sex offender. But without sufficient evidence, the filmmakers decided not to include it. “We felt we had sufficiently established the relationship between the two of them,” says Bezmozgis. “And that even if you take away the alleged sexual abuse, there’s enough reason for her resentment to support the fact that Charlotte might do something like [poison him].” The film assumes a level of knowledge from its audience about World War II and the Holocaust, Rosenberg says, which explains the filmmakers’ decision to depict little of the atrocity Salomon would have experienced. “But I hope we can carry over the loss and the intense struggle he was going through.” Because of its sensitive content, Charlotte is primarily aimed at an adult audience, but Rosenberg says teenagers have also responded strongly to it. “Despite all the tragedy depicted, our desire is for audiences to feel the sense of hope that Charlotte had through the power of her work. And the most we can ask is that when people leave the movie, the first thing they do is Google Charlotte themselves.” Charlotte screens at the British Jewish Film Festival on November 15 and in UK cinemas from December 9 In the UK and Ireland, you can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 or email [email protected] or [email protected] In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the Lifeline crisis support service is 13 11 14. You can find other international helplines at befrienders.org.
