What remains of the artist without his art?

Niki de Saint Phalle was a model, actress, filmmaker, writer and, above all, a painter and sculptor characterized by the monumental and voluptuous materiality of her works, which made her a prominent name in the French art scene of the second half of the 20th century (at the moment, the Pompidou Centre is dedicating a joint exhibition to her). But only a fragment of this multifaceted personality transpires through Niki, the biographical film dedicated to her by Céline Sallette, which focuses on the unstable psychology of the protagonist, her relationships with different men, and the trauma caused by the abuse she suffered at the hands of her father (in one scene, the use of a split screen creates a parallel montage that culminates with the man saturnally devouring the head of the adolescent Niki).

We also see the character searching for her artistic voice, but the art never materializes on screen, perhaps due to difficulties in obtaining the rights to the works. This condemns the paintings to an inaccessible reverse shot, and what remains are the strident gestures with which the creative act is manifested; a process reflected in Charlotte Le Bon's expressive gaze. ellipsis could have resulted in an interesting staging mechanism, but it only adds strangeness to the direction of Sallette (an actress of singular magnetism, whom we have seen in films by Bertrand Bonello and Philippe Garrel), who fails to escape the traps and conventions of biopic.