Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine (2008)
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 17
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 8/10
Critic Reviews: 10
Fresh: 10 | Rotten: 0
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 83
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Movie Info
Born in 1911, sculptor Louise Bourgeois has been a major figure in contemporary American art since the early '60s, having earned an international reputation for her abstract pieces that embrace the appetites of human sexuality and the emotional dynamics of youth in a rich variety of ways. Filmmakers Marion Cajori and Amei Wallach offer an intriguing look at Bourgeois, her art, and her working methods in the documentary Louise Bourgeois: The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine. Active and
Jun 25, 2008 Wide
Jun 23, 2009
Zeitgeist Films
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All Critics (18) | Top Critics (11) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (2)
An investment that has paid off by producing an unexpectedly lyrical and poetic portrait.
The film stands alone as a remarkable achievement, as intimate a portrayal of a living artist as one could ask for. And a likeable one at that.
Remembrances by aides and relatives plus antique photos and close-ups of her work -- including her iconic giant spiders -- round out the loving film.
Filmmakers Marion Cajori (who died in 2006) and Amei Wallach are smart enough to grant us just the right amount of access to the great artist's full range of emotions.
This uncommonly elegant and evocative portrait of Louise Bourgeois reveals much about the haunting and haunted master while leaving intact the thing you cannot explain.
The artist's festering recollections of her girlhood mesh with guided first-person tours of her sculptures, creating a privileged look into a psyche rendered solid.
Marion Cajori makes a brave attempt to grapple with a subject who resists explanation; while she may not always succeed, the journey is frequently illuminating.
Despite Bourgeois's on-camera effusiveness, this film suffers a little from curtailing much background information; but fans of Bourgeois as a personality will find a lot to like here.
One sonorous waltz through an enchanted domain.
Louise Bourgeois is absorbing, largely because of Bourgeois' striking art, prickly personality, and assured intensity.
Frequently roving around and taking awe at Bourgeois's massive artwork, the filmmakers may understand the artist as a woman and a living creature but they often treat her as if she herself were a museum piece.
Art world iconoclast, feminist icon, cranky old Frenchwoman with a sharp tongue and a gothic family history: Artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois is all these things and more.
For the sophisticated viewer, it is like looking at Bourgeois' work in the company of a good friend.
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June 30, 2008:
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Foreign Titles
- The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine (DE)
- The Spider, the Mistress and the Tangerine (UK)










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