The new season of The Great Art at the Movies begins with Klimt's The Kiss

On January 30 and 31, 2024, the docufilm The Kiss of Klimt, directed by Ali Ray, arrives in Italian cinemas.This opens the new season of Nexo Digital’s La Grande Arte al Cinema. The docufilm aims to investigate the history, sensuality, dazzling materials and mysteries of one of the most evocative, best-known and most reproduced paintings in the world.

Painted around 1908, five years after the artist’s visit to Ravenna and his thunderbolt for Byzantine mosaics, the work is considered one of Klimt’s undisputed masterpieces. The Kiss is one of his masterpieces from his Golden Age, characterized by the use on the canvas of very thin natural gold leaf.

The film, accompanied by music by Asa Bennett, delves into the details of the painting’s gold, which give the compositions warm light and depth, of Klimt’s decorative designs, symbolism and eroticism. Why did this work by the master of the Viennese Secession become so famous? A close study of the painting will take viewers through the streets of turn-of-the-century Vienna.

“This golden, shimmering image of an embracing couple remains one of the most popular ever,” explained director Ali Ray. “It is mentioned in films, featured on T-shirts, calendars and tote bags. However, when a work like The Kiss becomes so familiar, we stop ’seeing’ it. I wanted this film to remedy the problem. As one of the interviewees says, ’The Kiss could only have been painted when it was painted, exactly in that place and exactly by that artist.’ Turn-of-the-century Vienna was a glorious and fascinating city, but with a dark and intriguing side: in the course of the film we will discover that this golden painting echoes precisely all these contradictions.”

Klimt’s Kiss is produced by Phil Grabsky with Exhibition on Screen.

Great Art at the Movies is an original and exclusive project of Nexo Digital. A list of theaters can be viewed at nexodigital.co.uk .

For 2024, La Grande Arte al Cinema is exclusively distributed in Italy by Nexo Digital with media partners Radio Capital, Sky Arte, MYmovies.it and in collaboration with Abbonamento Musei.

The new season of The Great Art at the Movies begins with Klimt's The Kiss

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