A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

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A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things

2024

1h 30m

Drama

Biography

Documentary

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100%

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14 Reviews

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Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a painter, a visionary, an artist. She was a unique thinker. One day in May 1949, Barns-Graham, then 36 years old and an emerging figure in the modernist St. Ives group of artists, climbed the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. She experienced an aesthetic and spiritual epiphany which rewired her brain and transformed her art. She spent the rest of her life painting it. Through a cinematic immersion into her art and life, the film explores themes of gender, neurodiversity, climate change, and the nature of creativity from youth to old age.

Tara Brady

Irish Times

Barns-Graham was sidelined by the macho, modernist art community for much of her lifetime. She kept painting into her 90s and enjoyed considerable late recognition. One suspects she would have greatly appreciated Cousins’s idiosyncratic chronicle.

Rated: 4/5

Nov 3, 2024

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Marina Ashioti

Little White Lies

As much as this is an ode to an artist neglected by the annals of mainstream art history, it’s also about another artist’s personal fixation, affinity, and desire to get as close as possible to their subject.

Rated: 3/5

Oct 22, 2024

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

Mark Cousins, an encyclopaedic cinéaste and film-maker, delivers a plate-spinning masterclass with this busy and informative documentary...

Rated: 4/5

Oct 18, 2024

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Rich Cline

Shadows on the Wall

A bit indulgent, focussing on her art with only passing notes about her private life. But the film clips, audio recordings, archival snapshots, present-day footage and a wonderful collection of her work offer a fascinating glimpse into her unique mind.

Rated: 3.5/5

Oct 29, 2024

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Alistair Harkness

Scotsman

Cousins recreates the hike in the film as part of his own abstract look at her life and work, eschewing the standard tropes of biography in favour of putting us inside her head.

Rated: 4/5

Oct 26, 2024

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Erick Estrada

Cinegarage

100% a Mark Cousins documentary. [Full review in Spanish]

Oct 25, 2024

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Mark Cousins

Director

Tilda Swinton

Actor

Tilda Swinton

Narrator

Mark Cousins

Screenwriter

Mary Bell

Producer

Adam Dawtrey

Producer

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Synopsis

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham was a painter, a visionary, an artist. She was a unique thinker. One day in May 1949, Barns-Graham, then 36 years old and an emerging figure in the modernist St. Ives group of artists, climbed the Grindelwald glacier in Switzerland. She experienced an aesthetic and spiritual epiphany which rewired her brain and transformed her art. She spent the rest of her life painting it. Through a cinematic immersion into her art and life, the film explores themes of gender, neurodiversity, climate change, and the nature of creativity from youth to old age.

Director: Mark Cousins
Producer: Mary Bell, Adam Dawtrey
Screenwriter: Mark Cousins
Production Co: BofA
Genre: Drama, Biography, Documentary
Original Language: English
Runtime: 1h 30m