0:00:03.120,0:00:06.960
In the diaries,[br]which he is to write later in his life
0:00:07.040,0:00:11.600
Edvard Munch often refers[br]to himself in the third person
0:00:11.680,0:00:14.920
using the names "Brandt", "Nanssen"
0:00:15.040,0:00:17.080
or "Karlemann".
0:00:32.400,0:00:35.440
You can meet me after dinner.
0:00:42.560,0:00:46.560
Consumption is widespread[br]in Kristiania nowadays
0:00:47.800,0:00:50.680
especially amongst the poor
0:00:50.800,0:00:52.640
and in crowded areas.
0:00:53.000,0:00:55.520
How long are your working hours?
0:00:55.600,0:01:00.840
From six to six[br]with an hour's break for lunch.
0:01:02.200,0:01:06.240
- How much do you earn?[br]- Fifteen crowns a week.
0:01:13.840,0:01:15.800
The year 1884.
0:01:16.480,0:01:19.440
Kristiania, capital city of Norway
0:01:19.840,0:01:23.680
with beerhalls, cafés,[br]several Tivoli music halls
0:01:24.000,0:01:28.520
but with no opera, no ballet[br]and no academy of art.
0:01:30.600,0:01:32.400
Bless us, O Lord
0:01:32.520,0:01:34.280
and these Thy gifts
0:01:34.800,0:01:36.800
which of Thy bounty
0:01:36.920,0:01:39.840
we are about to receive. Amen.
0:01:42.520,0:01:45.720
Of Kristiania's 135,000 inhabitants
0:01:46.040,0:01:50.040
the ruling strata is[br]the middle-class, the borgerskap
0:01:50.120,0:01:53.640
conservative by politics,[br]Protestant by religion.
0:02:14.520,0:02:16.360
The Karl Johan Gate
0:02:16.440,0:02:19.960
principle thoroughfare in a city[br]whose Germanic buildings
0:02:20.039,0:02:23.560
reflect the origins[br]of its main architects.
0:02:23.640,0:02:26.359
Here, in the summer,[br]weather permitting
0:02:26.440,0:02:31.040
the Kristiania middle-class[br]gather for the daily promenade.
0:02:36.600,0:02:41.439
I work in a factory too.[br]I have to be up before five
0:02:43.000,0:02:47.040
to make breakfast[br]for my husband and children.
0:02:51.920,0:02:57.520
The promenade upon the Karl Johan[br]begins around two in the afternoon.
0:02:58.000,0:03:00.560
Music is played by a military band.
0:03:02.040,0:03:07.359
The social system supported by[br]the Kristiania middle-class exists
0:03:07.480,0:03:10.760
with a national budget[br]of 41.6 million Kroner
0:03:10.840,0:03:14.720
under a criminal code,[br]which dates from the 1840s.
0:03:15.680,0:03:19.559
It has no sickness benefit,[br]no old age insurance
0:03:19.640,0:03:24.560
state-legalised prostitution organised[br]specifically for the middle-class
0:03:24.639,0:03:30.040
and still no reform against[br]the labour of children in factories.
0:03:31.040,0:03:35.640
The promenade upon the Karl Johan[br]lasts approximately for one hour.
0:03:35.960,0:03:40.640
Upon its conclusion the men[br]retire home or to the beer-halls.
0:03:41.480,0:03:44.080
The women retire home.
0:03:46.439,0:03:49.360
Many of the poor children[br]in this city
0:03:49.440,0:03:53.680
work in factories,[br]craft shops and domestic service.
0:03:54.640,0:03:58.840
The working hours for these children[br]in this year 1884
0:03:58.919,0:04:03.480
are as long as the maximum[br]allowed under Norwegian law
0:04:03.560,0:04:07.240
for people on penal servitude[br]and hard labour
0:04:08.040,0:04:12.960
and over 1/3rd of the industrial[br]labour force in this capital city
0:04:13.440,0:04:16.840
is made up of boys and girls.
0:04:27.120,0:04:32.640
- Do the children work?[br]- Yes, they're at the factory too.
0:04:34.200,0:04:36.239
Eleven hours a day.
0:04:40.199,0:04:42.959
- Help yourself.[br]- I'm too tired.
0:04:43.040,0:04:48.760
The death of Laura Cathrine Bjølstad,[br]mother of Edvard Munch
0:04:48.839,0:04:52.920
occurred in 1868,[br]following a pulmonary haemorrhage.
0:04:53.000,0:04:55.400
Sophie has asked me
0:04:55.520,0:04:58.599
to write down[br]my last will for her.
0:04:59.080,0:05:02.920
I've called my testament[br]My Exhortations.
0:05:03.799,0:05:08.920
"My dear children.[br]I am so afraid that in heaven
0:05:08.999,0:05:14.519
"I shall miss you who are so dear[br]to my heart here on earth.
0:05:14.600,0:05:20.640
"But, trusting in the Lord,[br]I shall beg for your souls
0:05:21.079,0:05:24.040
"as long as He grants me life."
0:05:26.839,0:05:32.039
In 1845, Edvard Munch's grandfather[br]became insane
0:05:32.440,0:05:35.639
from a disease of the spinal cord.
0:05:38.000,0:05:41.080
Father walked to and fro[br]across the floor.
0:05:41.160,0:05:44.160
Then he sat down beside Mother[br]on the sofa.
0:05:46.599,0:05:50.839
They whispered to each other[br]and leaned against each other.
0:05:53.159,0:05:55.600
Karlemann looked at them
0:05:56.999,0:06:01.440
and wondered why[br]tears ran down their cheeks.
0:06:12.359,0:06:14.120
Mamma's full name
0:06:14.480,0:06:16.720
was Laura Cathrine Munch.
0:06:42.600,0:06:44.640
Mamma was very weak.
0:06:45.800,0:06:49.240
She died a year after I was born.
0:06:49.320,0:06:50.560
Isn't it nice to be
0:06:50.680,0:06:53.239
together on an evening like this?
0:07:04.479,0:07:09.839
"Death and the kingdom of death[br]were cast in the fiery sea.
0:07:10.399,0:07:14.239
"This is another death. If not written[br]in The Book of Life..."
0:07:14.320,0:07:18.759
The Munch family, following[br]the medical practice of the father
0:07:18.840,0:07:21.600
have moved from one crowded house[br]to another
0:07:21.680,0:07:24.639
in the poorer districts of Kristiania.
0:07:25.199,0:07:27.200
How long have you had it?
0:07:28.600,0:07:30.640
Three weeks.
0:07:32.000,0:07:36.640
- Is your throat sore?[br]- Yes, a little.
0:07:39.000,0:07:41.840
Open wide and I'll have a look.
0:07:54.999,0:08:00.559
The first symptoms are fatigue[br]and poor appetite,
0:08:00.999,0:08:04.839
an evening temperature[br]and a hint of a cold.
0:08:05.440,0:08:09.519
When the disease develops,[br]one's temperature rises
0:08:09.600,0:08:11.959
and the cold grows worse.
0:08:12.079,0:08:14.920
One begins to sweat at night.
0:08:14.999,0:08:20.079
Haemorrhage results[br]in more than 50% of the cases.
0:08:23.040,0:08:26.160
Edvard Munch began painting in 1879.
0:08:27.359,0:08:29.919
During the past four to five years
0:08:30.000,0:08:33.560
he has created[br]about one dozen canvases,
0:08:33.639,0:08:36.239
mostly views of the country[br]near his home
0:08:36.320,0:08:38.479
and portraits of his family.
0:08:38.559,0:08:40.759
What happens to those[br]who believe in God
0:08:40.879,0:08:44.239
if they give way to masturbation?
0:08:44.800,0:08:50.919
- The unfortunate wretches go mad.[br]- This applies to everyone.
0:08:51.000,0:08:56.519
We all have a sexual instinct.[br]Everyone masturbates to some degree.
0:08:56.600,0:08:58.840
- Women too?[br]- Women too.
0:09:06.640,0:09:10.519
Peter Andreas Munch,[br]studying to be a doctor
0:09:11.560,0:09:15.439
and Inger Munch,[br]younger sister of Edvard.
0:09:19.000,0:09:22.840
What do you do out so late[br]every night, Edvard?
0:09:23.399,0:09:28.199
You weren't home[br]until the small hours last night.
0:09:28.320,0:09:30.880
So you've been spying on me?
0:09:30.959,0:09:35.799
I hear when you come home.[br]I also know by the smell.
0:09:38.600,0:09:40.760
At this time in Kristiania
0:09:40.839,0:09:44.640
a small core of radical writers,[br]artists and students
0:09:44.719,0:09:47.800
are gathering to protest[br]the existing order.
0:09:48.119,0:09:52.440
Their spokesman, Hans Jæger,[br]writer and anarchist
0:09:52.560,0:09:57.759
who urges his followers to overthrow[br]bourgeois society with its moral code
0:09:57.839,0:10:00.559
and replace it with[br]a decentralised structure
0:10:00.639,0:10:05.760
based entirely upon the[br]human capacity for love and feeling.
0:10:10.000,0:10:13.440
All evil can be traced[br]to Christianity.
0:10:13.560,0:10:17.039
Christianity suppresses[br]man's vital desires.
0:10:18.799,0:10:21.240
What is a "respectable human being"?
0:10:21.319,0:10:26.160
One who is not out at night[br]drinking with people like that.
0:10:28.279,0:10:32.319
Be quiet, so that I may[br]speak with Edvard.
0:10:33.399,0:10:37.879
Have you told your parents[br]you don't believe in God?
0:10:37.960,0:10:41.000
I don't want to say I don't.
0:10:41.079,0:10:45.240
Why not? Can't you follow[br]your free will?
0:10:46.999,0:10:51.999
When Edvard Munch tells Jæger of[br]his repeated quarrels with his father
0:10:52.479,0:10:55.879
Jæger tells him[br]to take a pistol, go home
0:10:56.319,0:10:57.919
and shoot him dead.
0:10:58.000,0:10:59.920
Are you out drinking?
0:10:59.999,0:11:04.440
- Drinking? A glass of beer?[br]- You smell of spirits, too.
0:11:07.320,0:11:10.200
That dreadful Jæger you mix with...
0:11:10.319,0:11:12.319
he's the Antichrist incarnate.
0:11:17.839,0:11:19.479
Jæger's group
0:11:19.599,0:11:23.759
referred to by the Kristiania[br]middle-class as the Boheme
0:11:24.079,0:11:28.959
and by Georg Brandes[br]as "that wild gypsy bunch"
0:11:29.039,0:11:32.999
discuss late into the nights[br]nihilism, anarchy
0:11:33.319,0:11:35.959
the works of[br]Charles Darwin and Karl Marx
0:11:36.039,0:11:38.440
the role of Art,[br]the purpose of existence
0:11:39.119,0:11:40.920
and free love.
0:11:40.999,0:11:44.039
Nearly all the group are themselves[br]from the middle-class.
0:11:44.760,0:11:47.839
Many, in protest, are women.
0:11:57.800,0:12:01.399
If there's no evil[br]outside Christianity...
0:12:02.479,0:12:06.919
Of course there's evil but[br]it comes from moral concepts.
0:12:07.800,0:12:12.320
Today's society would[br]be happier if people
0:12:13.639,0:12:18.119
were allowed to develop[br]their lusts and desires.
0:12:18.199,0:12:22.519
- I understand you.[br]- Do you? You don't seem to.
0:12:23.399,0:12:27.840
You never do what I want.[br]You follow your own course.
0:12:29.599,0:12:31.800
You don't understand me!
0:12:32.399,0:12:35.119
Much better than you think.
0:12:35.199,0:12:36.839
No, you don't.
0:12:37.519,0:12:40.519
We never seem to understand[br]each other in this house!
0:12:42.039,0:12:44.639
In many of Munch's family studies
0:12:45.039,0:12:47.759
the faces are turned to the side.
0:12:48.439,0:12:51.639
Human contact with the eyes[br]is avoided.
0:12:53.319,0:12:58.719
I'll never be done with you,[br]since you never do what I want.
0:12:58.799,0:13:01.160
- I'm tired of this![br]- Now you be quiet!
0:13:02.199,0:13:06.279
The children missed school[br]a lot because of illness
0:13:06.399,0:13:09.759
and I tried to study[br]with them at home.
0:13:18.079,0:13:21.359
"Illness, insanity and death
0:13:21.439,0:13:25.119
"were the black angels[br]that kept watch over my cradle
0:13:25.199,0:13:27.519
"and accompanied me all my life."
0:13:27.599,0:13:30.719
We can sit by the fire[br]until the water gets hot
0:13:30.799,0:13:32.759
before you go to bed.
0:13:54.999,0:13:56.440
My sister Sophie
0:13:57.439,0:14:00.280
also died from tuberculosis.
0:14:01.359,0:14:03.719
She was 15 years of age.
0:14:03.799,0:14:08.039
"And I saw the dead[br]stand before the throne
0:14:09.399,0:14:13.479
"and books were opened.[br]The Book of Life was opened
0:14:13.799,0:14:19.039
"and the dead were judged[br]in accordance with their deeds
0:14:21.959,0:14:25.199
"and the sea gave up its dead..."
0:14:26.799,0:14:30.040
My sister Laura was very talented.
0:14:31.399,0:14:36.039
She learned languages[br]and mathematics effortlessly.
0:14:37.199,0:14:40.279
She got honours in Latin.
0:14:42.999,0:14:47.079
But she was born with a difficult[br]and nervous disposition
0:14:47.159,0:14:48.439
so she could never
0:14:48.559,0:14:50.959
make use of her education.
0:14:51.039,0:14:56.079
It's so dreary at home![br]What did you do when you were young?
0:14:56.399,0:15:01.239
That doesn't concern you.[br]At any rate I wasn't out and about.
0:15:01.319,0:15:03.679
Munch is to say later of his father:
0:15:04.839,0:15:07.559
"When anxiety did not possess him...
0:15:07.639,0:15:11.119
"he would joke and play with us[br]like a child.
0:15:12.359,0:15:17.439
"When he punished us, he could be[br]almost insane in his violence."
0:15:19.399,0:15:23.119
You get no inspiration from[br]those people. And that woman...
0:15:23.199,0:15:26.839
It would've turned out better[br]if I hadn't been scolded at home.
0:15:27.559,0:15:29.919
Edvard, I want to talk to you.
0:15:29.999,0:15:33.239
Your aunt said that a plate[br]was broken.
0:15:33.359,0:15:34.919
Was it Peter Andreas?
0:15:34.999,0:15:37.639
- No, it was Laura.[br]- No, it was Edvard.
0:15:38.200,0:15:42.079
The Bible says that you're punished![br]Onan was punished.
0:15:42.439,0:15:44.559
It also says that man
0:15:44.679,0:15:46.439
must replenish the earth.
0:15:46.519,0:15:48.799
One doesn't do that[br]by masturbating!
0:15:50.239,0:15:53.479
That was nice and warm, wasn't it?
0:15:57.039,0:15:59.479
Now we'll wash our ears.
0:16:07.599,0:16:10.079
Two brothers and three sisters
0:16:10.599,0:16:13.039
watching each other[br]grow into puberty
0:16:13.439,0:16:15.839
tended over by their aunt Karen
0:16:15.919,0:16:19.639
who, remaining unmarried,[br]has devoted her life
0:16:19.719,0:16:23.039
to raising the children[br]of her dead sister.
0:16:24.279,0:16:28.719
Half of the adults[br]in this country are women.
0:16:29.839,0:16:34.759
They are also citizens but[br]they are placed under guardianship
0:16:34.879,0:16:38.999
and are tyrannised[br]by men and by society
0:16:39.079,0:16:42.719
emotionally, legally and economically.
0:16:44.679,0:16:49.479
I must make sure that[br]there aren't too many bills at once.
0:16:50.999,0:16:55.719
In the workplaces where we're[br]admitted, industries and schools,
0:16:55.839,0:17:01.239
we get one-third of the wages[br]men get for the same work.
0:17:13.079,0:17:15.999
Using his reflection in a mirror
0:17:16.079,0:17:20.999
4 years ago Edvard Munch painted[br]the first of his self-portraits.
0:17:23.359,0:17:27.079
"These self-trials[br]from the difficult years."
0:17:35.319,0:17:37.759
What sort of work do they do?
0:17:41.799,0:17:45.639
They work at putting together[br]matchboxes.
0:17:52.359,0:17:56.399
Their fingers are burned[br]by the phosphorus.
0:18:00.479,0:18:04.359
Many of Norway's older painters[br]have now returned from Europe.
0:18:04.439,0:18:07.239
Some have set up informal academies
0:18:07.319,0:18:10.919
such as Christian Krohg, age 32
0:18:10.999,0:18:14.839
whose own canvases,[br]showing a direct concern for life
0:18:14.919,0:18:18.759
both in his own middle-class milieu[br]and in the poorer class
0:18:18.879,0:18:22.679
have already pioneered "naturalism"[br]in Norwegian art.
0:18:23.079,0:18:24.759
How much do they earn?
0:18:26.039,0:18:27.718
One crown a day.
0:18:30.039,0:18:32.319
How old are the children?
0:18:33.039,0:18:36.799
The oldest is 14.[br]The youngest girl is 12.
0:18:40.239,0:18:43.078
The most important thing in art
0:18:43.199,0:18:45.799
is its own means, like colour.
0:18:45.879,0:18:50.119
It doesn't matter what you paint.[br]You can paint horse dung.
0:18:50.199,0:18:54.719
- Then you paint for yourself?[br]- The colour must be a joy to see.
0:18:56.679,0:19:00.078
Fritz Thaulow,[br]leading Naturalist painter,
0:19:00.879,0:19:04.959
whose work reflects[br]the opposing Norwegian school of art.
0:19:05.039,0:19:08.879
Such painters as Thaulow, Gerhard Munthe[br]and Christian Skredsvig
0:19:09.639,0:19:13.359
Hans Heyerdahl, Erik Werenskiold[br]and Harriet Backer
0:19:13.719,0:19:17.479
tend to express a feeling for[br]the countryside and for people
0:19:18.359,0:19:22.359
but often from a less political[br]and more personal viewpoint.
0:19:22.479,0:19:26.039
Who wants to look at horse dung?
0:19:26.759,0:19:30.398
The paint can be[br]an aesthetic pleasure for you.
0:19:32.279,0:19:36.319
But the public need not regard it[br]as an aesthetic pleasure.
0:19:38.599,0:19:41.079
He must concentrate on art!
0:19:41.159,0:19:44.559
People must undergo[br]an experience looking at art.
0:19:46.599,0:19:50.039
But which people?[br]The bourgeoisie.
0:19:50.399,0:19:52.039
They can afford
0:19:52.399,0:19:54.359
to buy works of art.
0:19:54.719,0:19:58.759
But what about those[br]who queue for food?
0:20:03.718,0:20:08.039
For Edvard Munch[br]the artistic problem lies deeper:
0:20:08.559,0:20:14.838
somehow to express the tension[br]growing in himself and in his family.
0:20:21.838,0:20:29.879
"To Norway, giants' native land[br]Let's drink this toast of honour"
0:20:30.478,0:20:33.959
In answer to the[br]10 commandments of Christianity
0:20:34.359,0:20:38.039
the Boheme, seen here[br]singing a patriotic song
0:20:38.599,0:20:40.878
has published nine of its own.
0:20:41.639,0:20:43.679
Amongst these, the requirements
0:20:43.799,0:20:46.559
to never borrow less than 5 krone
0:20:46.638,0:20:48.838
to never wear celluloid cuffs
0:20:49.359,0:20:52.678
to never fail to make a scandal[br]in the Kristiania theatre
0:20:52.759,0:20:54.519
to never regret
0:20:54.598,0:20:56.919
to sever all family bonds
0:20:57.439,0:20:59.479
and to take one's own life.
0:21:01.799,0:21:03.798
There has been a lot of illness
0:21:03.918,0:21:05.079
and death in our family.
0:21:07.119,0:21:10.879
Mamma died of tuberculosis[br]when she was 30 years old
0:21:12.998,0:21:17.879
and Granny died of the same disease[br]when she was 36.
0:21:20.359,0:21:25.919
I have a dream of founding[br]a school for young women
0:21:26.039,0:21:28.439
who are morally confined.
0:21:29.399,0:21:31.719
Just look at the bourgeoisie
0:21:31.799,0:21:35.839
and all the middle-class girls[br]that suffer from anaemia.
0:21:38.119,0:21:42.959
It's a good cause. I mean...[br]founding a school for them
0:21:43.718,0:21:48.839
and teaching them to develop[br]their feeling for love.
0:21:49.239,0:21:52.078
They can become capable of feeling.
0:21:58.039,0:22:02.478
The Christian names of the woman[br]sitting to the right of Edvard Munch
0:22:02.559,0:22:05.679
are Andrea Fredrikke Emilie.
0:22:05.759,0:22:07.959
She is nicknamed "Millie".
0:22:08.039,0:22:10.598
Her age is 24.
0:22:11.118,0:22:14.919
For 3 years she has been married[br]to a Kristiania city doctor
0:22:14.998,0:22:17.799
who is 9 years her senior in age.
0:22:18.678,0:22:20.799
She has no children.
0:22:36.798,0:22:39.278
All the virtuous little misses
0:22:39.359,0:22:42.999
will trip down the Karl Johan.
0:22:46.439,0:22:48.878
Jæger's vision is to set up[br]a special school
0:22:48.959,0:22:52.999
for the "prim young misses"[br]of middle-class Kristiania
0:22:53.079,0:22:55.359
educate them into proud women
0:22:55.438,0:22:58.038
who might walk freely[br]down the Karl Johan
0:22:58.119,0:23:02.558
with all the world knowing[br]that they love and have lovers.
0:23:02.639,0:23:05.759
They would write[br]Boheme literature, open and frank
0:23:05.838,0:23:08.718
about their personal experiences.
0:23:12.598,0:23:16.759
Despite the somewhat bleaker reality[br]of the Karl Johan,
0:23:16.838,0:23:20.958
Hans Jæger is also planning to write[br]a highly personal account
0:23:21.039,0:23:22.799
of his own love life
0:23:22.878,0:23:27.039
with a frankness hitherto unknown[br]in Norwegian literature.
0:23:27.359,0:23:31.078
He urges Edvard Munch[br]to express himself in his work
0:23:31.559,0:23:33.838
with the same total frankness.
0:23:34.719,0:23:39.959
His father walked back and forth.[br]He kept his hands clasped.
0:23:47.519,0:23:51.359
Hans Jæger is himself[br]currently and publicly
0:23:51.439,0:23:54.239
having an affair[br]with a married woman
0:23:54.319,0:23:57.598
Oda Lassen, age 24
0:23:58.599,0:24:02.518
a painter, whose husband[br]is a wood and ice-merchant
0:24:02.599,0:24:04.599
8 years her senior.
0:24:15.439,0:24:17.679
I consider marriage
0:24:17.799,0:24:22.918
to be based on something which[br]is completely impossible for me.
0:24:24.158,0:24:31.038
One is obliged to love[br]another human being all one's life.
0:24:31.998,0:24:36.199
It seems utterly absurd.[br]No one can order me
0:24:36.278,0:24:40.319
to love someone[br]I have grown to hate.
0:24:59.239,0:25:03.199
What do you think of[br]the Bohemians' conduct?
0:25:04.599,0:25:09.038
One might characterise[br]their conduct as follows:
0:25:10.199,0:25:14.439
I consider it to be[br]extremely unprepossessing
0:25:14.518,0:25:23.479
and a distinct danger for[br]certain easily influenced souls.
0:25:25.998,0:25:30.838
I'm not talking about prostitutes[br]but human beings who can love.
0:25:33.998,0:25:39.239
The only thing they seem capable of[br]is so-called free love.
0:25:39.998,0:25:43.239
But rabbits are capable of that too.
0:25:43.359,0:25:49.478
"I love you, love you.[br]Take me, kiss me, hold me and then
0:25:50.038,0:25:54.879
"embrace me, hug me[br]so that I never breathe again.
0:25:55.199,0:25:57.958
"Your kiss is so fiery tonight.
0:25:58.079,0:26:00.478
"Fever takes you in command.
0:26:00.558,0:26:05.358
"Your tears run slowly down[br]and burn into my hand."
0:26:05.439,0:26:09.279
Sigurd Bødtker,[br]student and poet.
0:26:09.358,0:26:12.838
"Do you think that[br]I've tired of you?
0:26:12.958,0:26:16.999
"Oh no! Smile happily[br]as you did before.
0:26:17.399,0:26:19.719
"Stay with me tonight.
0:26:19.798,0:26:23.638
"Let my arm[br]curl close about your waist."
0:26:28.519,0:26:30.559
How were sexual matters
0:26:30.679,0:26:32.678
dealt with in your home?
0:26:32.759,0:26:35.958
They weren't dealt with at all.
0:26:36.078,0:26:39.199
Everything was kept secret[br]around me.
0:26:39.798,0:26:44.358
I understood nothing[br]until it was too late.
0:26:59.359,0:27:03.838
Hans Jæger has told Munch[br]that the human function of sex
0:27:04.638,0:27:08.758
is the most important[br]single process known to man.
0:27:08.839,0:27:13.598
It is a source of pleasure,[br]a wave of sweetness and warmth
0:27:13.678,0:27:17.558
through which man is elevated[br]and made less lonely.
0:27:18.039,0:27:24.039
In her testament, Mamma asked[br]us to be good
0:27:25.839,0:27:28.198
and to love Jesus.
0:27:29.198,0:27:32.038
I try to obey my lusts.
0:27:32.399,0:27:35.798
We have only one life and
0:27:35.918,0:27:40.598
we must develop our ability[br]to feel and to love.
0:27:41.079,0:27:46.598
The final passage of Jæger's book[br]details the burial of its hero:
0:27:47.919,0:27:52.918
"Then, they have all vanished[br]and Jarman lies alone again
0:27:53.438,0:27:59.398
"there in the desolate cemetery and[br]rots under his cover of flowers."
0:27:59.478,0:28:03.598
Sophie, shall we sing[br]a Christmas carol?
0:28:19.479,0:28:22.238
"And suddenly something opened
0:28:22.318,0:28:26.478
"and we could see far,[br]far into heaven
0:28:26.558,0:28:30.758
"and saw angels float,[br]quietly smiling."
0:28:45.558,0:28:52.598
Four of Granny's eight children[br]died before they were 16.
0:28:57.958,0:29:01.839
The Kristiania Bohemians say,[br]"Thou shalt
0:29:01.958,0:29:04.878
take thine own life."[br]What are your views on that?
0:29:08.358,0:29:10.398
I think it is wrong.
0:29:11.078,0:29:16.638
We don't have a right to throw away[br]the lives God has given us.
0:29:17.398,0:29:22.598
They should be used for Him[br]and our lives do have a meaning.
0:29:31.838,0:29:34.118
Tell us about his work.
0:29:36.598,0:29:39.959
Edvard Munch is a talented[br]young painter.
0:29:40.038,0:29:43.278
But he's more interested
0:29:43.399,0:29:47.438
in painting light and shadow[br]than social conditions.
0:29:49.439,0:29:54.718
In 1884 Edvard Munch paints[br]this study of a servant girl
0:29:54.798,0:29:59.558
partly dressed, seated on the edge[br]of a rumpled bed.
0:30:00.438,0:30:04.318
The sunlight dissolves[br]the colours and contours.
0:30:04.918,0:30:07.679
There is a sense of softness
0:30:07.758,0:30:09.838
what Munch is to call later
0:30:09.918,0:30:14.358
his "nervous dissolving[br]treatment of colour."
0:30:56.919,0:30:59.358
What sort of a person is he?
0:31:01.638,0:31:06.478
Very reticent, almost[br]aristocratically so
0:31:07.798,0:31:12.198
which creates a distance[br]to the other members of the group.
0:31:13.958,0:31:16.119
Amongst the colleagues[br]of Edvard Munch
0:31:16.838,0:31:18.678
are Carl Nordberg
0:31:19.918,0:31:22.038
Andreas Singdahlsen
0:31:22.718,0:31:24.518
Halfdan Strain
0:31:24.598,0:31:26.438
and Thorvald Torgersen.
0:31:27.838,0:31:30.038
And Jørgen Sørensen
0:31:30.438,0:31:32.638
crippled since the age of seven
0:31:33.318,0:31:35.999
who is to die in his early 30's.
0:31:38.879,0:31:41.118
We must take part in
0:31:41.238,0:31:44.078
what is happening around us
0:31:44.158,0:31:49.838
and, what with poverty and need[br]and children who have to work,
0:31:49.918,0:31:53.318
we must join forces with the people
0:31:53.438,0:31:55.678
not with the bourgeoisie.
0:31:55.758,0:31:59.598
Painters mustn't be led astray[br]by new ideas...
0:31:59.678,0:32:00.678
My Lord!
0:32:00.758,0:32:03.918
...but sacrifice themselves[br]for their painting.
0:32:03.998,0:32:04.998
Painting?
0:32:06.798,0:32:11.758
Yes, but his painting emerges[br]from his own person.
0:32:13.198,0:32:15.678
He is the one who paints.
0:32:15.758,0:32:19.798
So art must express[br]the subjective view
0:32:19.918,0:32:22.678
of the artist on reality.
0:32:26.398,0:32:32.038
In 1884, Edvard Munch begins work[br]on a canvas of his younger sister
0:32:32.638,0:32:36.358
a portrait that illuminates[br]her face and her hands.
0:32:36.838,0:32:40.038
The remainder of her body[br]is shrouded in darkness.
0:32:41.038,0:32:43.998
There is no movement[br]save for the tension
0:32:44.318,0:32:47.758
in the slight raising[br]of the left hand.
0:32:52.718,0:32:55.798
Edvard, my brother,
0:32:55.918,0:32:59.878
almost died too[br]from the same disease.
0:33:02.198,0:33:04.438
Lord God, I beg you...
0:33:07.038,0:33:09.798
The near-death of 13 year-old[br]Edvard Munch
0:33:09.878,0:33:11.838
from a pulmonary haemorrhage
0:33:11.958,0:33:16.558
took place on Christmas Day, 1875.
0:33:18.638,0:33:20.958
Has all the suffering
0:33:21.038,0:33:24.798
in your family affected your faith?
0:33:26.318,0:33:31.158
I don't think it's for me[br]to interfere in God's will.
0:33:32.718,0:33:37.158
He loves us and we must be grateful.
0:34:09.478,0:34:12.718
"Our Father who art in heaven
0:34:13.518,0:34:17.558
"Hallowed be Thy name[br]Thy kingdom come
0:34:18.838,0:34:22.958
"Thy will be done on earth[br]As it is in heaven."
0:34:23.038,0:34:26.318
"A strange man,[br]dressed all in black
0:34:26.638,0:34:28.998
"stood at the foot of the bed[br]and prayed.
0:34:29.998,0:34:31.557
"The air was heavy and black."
0:34:33.078,0:34:36.158
Munch's family is puritan.
0:34:36.238,0:34:39.678
Everyone who's seen[br]his father knows that.
0:34:41.238,0:34:42.878
When he's with us
0:34:42.998,0:34:46.878
he has to go home[br]for family evening prayer!
0:35:02.598,0:35:07.838
"Lead us not into temptation[br]But deliver us from evil
0:35:08.317,0:35:13.038
"For Thine is the kingdom[br]The power and the glory
0:35:13.478,0:35:14.918
"For ever.
0:35:15.838,0:35:16.758
"Amen."
0:35:42.798,0:35:47.117
- Have you met his family?[br]- I've not seen him pray either.
0:35:47.198,0:35:49.078
He sits there like a monk!
0:36:19.238,0:36:23.278
It was distressing[br]for the older children
0:36:24.437,0:36:28.078
to see so much illness[br]and death.
0:36:32.758,0:36:34.198
Are you sick?
0:36:39.318,0:36:42.397
"If anyone worships[br]the beast's image
0:36:42.478,0:36:45.957
"and receives a mark[br]on his forehead or hand
0:36:46.358,0:36:49.478
"he shall drink[br]the wine of God's wrath
0:36:49.558,0:36:52.758
"poured unmixed into[br]the cup of his anger
0:36:52.878,0:36:57.798
"and he shall be tormented[br]in the presence of the holy angels."
0:37:00.438,0:37:06.518
To be free on Sundays I have to work[br]17 to 18 hours the other days.
0:37:06.598,0:37:07.998
It's hard work.
0:37:09.638,0:37:11.918
Some of my friends,[br]after working hours,
0:37:11.998,0:37:16.998
make so little that they often[br]take to the streets.
0:37:21.077,0:37:23.478
The prostitutes of Kristiania
0:37:23.557,0:37:26.398
many of them from the district[br]known as "Vika"
0:37:26.478,0:37:29.037
are legalised[br]into a public institution
0:37:29.118,0:37:32.838
under the control[br]of the police health authorities.
0:37:33.277,0:37:37.117
Look at prostitution[br]in Kristiania today.
0:37:37.797,0:37:43.557
According to Christian morals[br]there is no prostitution today.
0:37:43.638,0:37:48.517
It's typical that prostitution[br]is controlled by the police.
0:37:49.877,0:37:53.918
But you're for making people[br]live on prostitution.
0:37:53.997,0:37:58.397
No. In my society there is[br]no room for prostitution.
0:37:59.877,0:38:04.438
There are 300 police officers[br]in the city of Kristiania.
0:38:04.518,0:38:09.357
Amongst their principal duties,[br]the control of venereal disease.
0:38:10.317,0:38:14.758
It's the bourgeoisie[br]who gain from prostitution.
0:38:15.478,0:38:19.517
Yet bourgeois morals[br]do not allow it to exist:
0:38:19.838,0:38:22.758
"Thou shalt not commit adultery."
0:38:23.197,0:38:26.237
What are your views on marriage?
0:38:27.997,0:38:29.237
In my opinion
0:38:30.838,0:38:36.198
marriage is an incalculably[br]important and necessary institution
0:38:37.398,0:38:41.558
which undoubtedly[br]forms the foundation
0:38:41.638,0:38:45.837
of our social and cultural structure.
0:38:46.797,0:38:54.438
Without marriage, rootless[br]and chaotic conditions would arise
0:38:55.758,0:38:57.958
which in turn, I fear,
0:38:58.798,0:39:02.997
might easily lead to anarchy.
0:39:05.558,0:39:10.158
In brief, if we want[br]to maintain peace and order,
0:39:10.517,0:39:15.558
it is essential to support[br]and expand our institutions.
0:39:25.398,0:39:29.638
The way society is today,[br]if one marries and has a wife,
0:39:29.717,0:39:33.878
she is just as prostituted[br]as "the girls from Viken".
0:39:36.597,0:39:41.517
Once every week each prostitute must[br]report to the police for inspection.
0:39:41.598,0:39:42.838
Sit there.
0:39:47.758,0:39:50.037
The year 1884.
0:39:50.878,0:39:55.838
An American inventor called Maxim[br]develops the machine gun
0:39:56.438,0:39:59.237
and the United States receives[br]Pearl Harbor
0:39:59.318,0:40:01.318
as a Pacific naval base.
0:40:03.398,0:40:08.038
Those who are prostituted[br]are excluded from society
0:40:08.797,0:40:11.518
by the same people...
0:40:11.598,0:40:13.077
Lean back.
0:40:13.158,0:40:15.718
...who've put them[br]in that situation.
0:40:15.797,0:40:18.397
That's the bourgeoisie's[br]love of humanity.
0:40:22.198,0:40:26.237
A little wider.[br]Raise your feet higher.
0:40:37.197,0:40:40.718
- Name and address.[br]- Line Pedersen.
0:40:40.838,0:40:43.397
When I ask for your name,[br]I want your surname first.
0:40:43.478,0:40:46.397
- Pedersen.[br]- Name...
0:40:48.118,0:40:49.157
Pedersen.
0:40:49.277,0:40:54.678
Because of my illness,[br]I'm grateful for the girls in Viken
0:40:54.757,0:41:01.238
but I don't use them any more[br]than Mr Average uses his wife.
0:41:01.917,0:41:04.757
To me marriage[br]is legal prostitution.
0:41:08.317,0:41:10.078
You can go now.
0:41:10.158,0:41:12.918
I assume the present assembly
0:41:13.038,0:41:15.877
is well aware of who it is
0:41:15.997,0:41:20.557
that uses prostitutes:[br]the bourgeoisie and the police.
0:41:54.317,0:41:58.598
Once, when Grandfather came[br]home from a business trip,
0:41:58.677,0:42:03.317
he found Granny behind[br]a screen together with
0:42:03.437,0:42:05.237
three dead children.
0:42:09.438,0:42:14.358
When Edvard Munch first shows[br]his completed painting, Inger in Black
0:42:15.117,0:42:19.558
the conservative press[br]in Kristiania refer to...
0:42:19.637,0:42:22.718
"his almost frighteningly[br]ugly portrait
0:42:22.797,0:42:24.317
"of a lady in black"
0:42:25.717,0:42:29.357
thus beginning a critical assault[br]on his work
0:42:29.878,0:42:33.757
that is to last[br]for at least 15 years.
0:42:40.477,0:42:43.957
In May 1885,[br]Edvard Munch visits Paris.
0:42:44.877,0:42:46.878
For the first time in his life,[br]he comes
0:42:47.397,0:42:51.037
face to face with[br]full-size classical art.
0:42:51.118,0:42:53.397
He sees Velasquez[br]and Rembrandt
0:42:53.917,0:42:55.118
and Manet.
0:43:13.517,0:43:16.957
Three weeks later,[br]Munch returns to Norway
0:43:17.038,0:43:20.638
and shortly afterwards[br]takes a boat with his family
0:43:20.717,0:43:25.077
down the Kristiania fjord[br]to the little village of Bone.
0:43:45.838,0:43:47.078
Hello.
0:43:48.277,0:43:52.318
You live quite close to here?[br]Then we're neighbours.
0:43:53.077,0:43:57.077
- Will you visit me one day?[br]- I'd like to.
0:43:57.157,0:44:00.997
Some ladies are visiting today.[br]Perhaps tomorrow?
0:44:05.758,0:44:10.597
In his diaries, Edvard Munch[br]refers to this woman
0:44:10.678,0:44:12.998
as "Mrs Heiberg".
0:44:13.077,0:44:15.677
It is not her real name.
0:44:15.758,0:44:19.917
- Aren't you hungry?[br]- Yes, I am hungry.
0:44:27.997,0:44:29.437
Beautiful landscape here.
0:44:39.237,0:44:40.517
It's so blue.
0:44:48.557,0:44:50.878
The year 1885.
0:44:51.398,0:44:53.997
General Gordon dies at Khartoum
0:44:54.077,0:44:56.758
Serbia invades Bulgaria
0:44:56.837,0:44:59.557
the British annex Bechuanaland
0:44:59.638,0:45:03.837
Karl Marx writes[br]volume two of Das Kapital
0:45:03.917,0:45:09.997
and the future General Patton[br]and D. H. Lawrence are born.
0:45:13.557,0:45:19.398
All the things he'd wanted to say![br]He felt awkward and afraid.
0:45:21.637,0:45:27.277
They walked on in silence.[br]His cheeks burned.
0:45:37.117,0:45:41.837
Later in his life, Edvard Munch[br]is to express a deep disillusionment
0:45:42.397,0:45:45.917
that all his father could do,[br]as a doctor
0:45:45.998,0:45:49.957
for his dying mother and[br]his dying sister and for himself
0:45:51.437,0:45:54.477
was to put his hands together[br]and pray.
0:46:09.197,0:46:10.637
She spent time in bed
0:46:13.397,0:46:15.437
coughing into a handkerchief.
0:46:16.438,0:46:18.877
Did blood come this time too?
0:46:42.277,0:46:45.597
- I kissed you. Are you angry?[br]- No.
0:46:49.157,0:46:51.197
Kissed your neck...
0:46:52.957,0:46:55.797
If you're angry, you can beat me.
0:46:58.278,0:47:00.277
I'm not angry.
0:47:04.197,0:47:07.437
Perhaps you'll let me[br]kiss your mouth?
0:47:20.918,0:47:25.357
I'm in a fortunate position,[br]married with no children.
0:47:31.878,0:47:36.717
One is free when one is married[br]and has no children.
0:47:38.517,0:47:41.317
But what about your husband?
0:47:41.397,0:47:44.397
He's nice. He lets me do[br]as I please.
0:47:48.637,0:47:52.637
- Is he as nice as that?[br]- He's awfully nice.
0:47:53.997,0:47:59.437
I probably hurt him[br]but I can't help it. I have to.
0:48:08.997,0:48:12.237
Stand still like that.[br]Let me see you.
0:48:13.477,0:48:16.237
How picturesque[br]you are in this light.
0:48:24.037,0:48:27.957
I'm so restless at night.[br]I can't sleep.
0:48:28.557,0:48:30.837
I have such dreadful dreams.
0:48:32.557,0:48:36.557
I sleepwalk. I have such[br]a longing to come to you.
0:48:41.437,0:48:45.877
I do so like the dark.[br]I can't stand the light.
0:48:47.477,0:48:51.517
It should be like tonight.[br]So mysterious.
0:49:01.677,0:49:06.917
I could do the most awful things[br]in the dark. Anything.
0:49:12.717,0:49:14.637
Upon his return to Kristiania
0:49:15.357,0:49:18.037
Edvard Munch pays[br]his first social call
0:49:18.437,0:49:20.677
on the home of Mrs Heiberg.
0:49:24.917,0:49:27.077
He looked at the worn steps.
0:49:27.837,0:49:31.437
He remembered all[br]he had heard about her,
0:49:31.797,0:49:37.477
all the lovers who had passed here[br]and quarrelled with her husband.
0:49:43.397,0:49:45.677
He looked well, he thought.
0:49:48.957,0:49:52.357
It was so heavy and dark[br]and subdued.
0:49:56.717,0:50:01.357
He'd heard she usually lay[br]on the couch all morning.
0:50:02.717,0:50:05.557
The light in here was favourable.
0:50:15.357,0:50:20.197
Have you seen how the hair[br]grows out of his ears?
0:50:23.717,0:50:25.557
Now he felt shy.
0:50:27.837,0:50:30.197
He could find nothing to say.
0:50:32.557,0:50:37.637
When they were near he felt[br]that she waited for him
0:50:37.717,0:50:40.157
to throw his arms about her.
0:50:40.237,0:50:45.197
We got these last spring.[br]They were rather expensive.
0:50:48.556,0:50:51.717
But he thought it was...[br]he felt cold.
0:50:54.237,0:50:56.277
It was the same shyness.
0:50:57.637,0:51:00.517
He longed to be out[br]in the fresh air.
0:51:00.597,0:51:04.357
This is where my husband works.[br]He's very orderly.
0:51:04.437,0:51:07.357
Daddy, what I'm spitting up[br]is so dark.
0:51:07.437,0:51:09.757
Everything has its place.
0:51:11.357,0:51:13.597
I made that for him.
0:51:16.197,0:51:18.917
- Shall we go out?[br]- No, I can't.
0:51:20.236,0:51:22.197
Perhaps this evening?
0:51:24.477,0:51:25.877
It's blood, Daddy.
0:51:26.437,0:51:27.397
I don't want to!
0:51:27.916,0:51:32.317
He stroked his head.[br]Don't be afraid, my son.
0:51:38.197,0:51:39.477
I don't want to!
0:51:39.557,0:51:42.477
What? Don't you want to?[br]Come here.
0:51:42.557,0:51:44.397
Are you crazy?
0:51:45.357,0:51:47.837
Don't be so frightened.
0:51:47.917,0:51:52.037
What a wretched idiot you are.
0:51:52.637,0:51:54.677
A cowardly wretch!
0:52:02.277,0:52:07.117
Why are you so set on[br]becoming a great painter?
0:52:09.117,0:52:13.757
You're going to die anyway.[br]Then you'll be gone.
0:52:18.477,0:52:22.877
Using his aunt and a young girl[br]called Betsy as models
0:52:22.957,0:52:25.077
Edvard Munch begins work[br]on a canvas measuring
0:52:25.557,0:52:31.836
119.5 cm by 118.5 cm.
0:52:32.357,0:52:34.917
The death of his sister Sophie.
0:52:34.996,0:52:37.277
How quiet it is in the forest.
0:52:42.437,0:52:47.037
Imagine living here, not alone[br]but with someone else.
0:52:48.797,0:52:51.237
It's so mysterious here.
0:53:43.237,0:53:45.837
Shouldn't he sit a little closer?
0:53:47.877,0:53:52.717
But he remained where he was,[br]staring at Mrs Heiberg.
0:53:54.676,0:53:56.716
At table Petra said,
0:53:57.717,0:53:59.557
"I saw you talk to Mrs Heiberg.
0:54:00.397,0:54:02.437
"Wasn't it Mrs Heiberg?"
0:54:03.596,0:54:06.957
"Yes," he said carelessly[br]and reddened.
0:54:07.957,0:54:13.077
"She looks dull," his father said.[br]"She behaves badly to her husband."
0:54:15.516,0:54:17.557
People talk so much.
0:54:26.277,0:54:28.357
What a ridiculous dream
0:54:28.477,0:54:30.596
it has been all these years.
0:54:30.677,0:54:35.517
A great painter...[br]It's better than being a doctor.
0:54:36.757,0:54:40.277
But, compared to a king, it's nothing.
0:54:41.397,0:54:44.996
And a king is no more[br]than a tiny microbe.
0:54:45.077,0:54:48.996
Munch now begins to add[br]layer upon layer of texture
0:54:49.437,0:54:52.797
with brush, palette knife[br]and even kitchen blade.
0:54:55.556,0:54:58.837
I've started work on[br]a few canvases
0:54:59.197,0:55:02.477
and there is one of them I think
0:55:02.597,0:55:05.077
I can get something out of.
0:55:05.637,0:55:07.317
I think it is going to be
0:55:07.437,0:55:13.396
a good painting. I'm already[br]very pleased with it.
0:55:17.236,0:55:20.077
I've been thinking of you.
0:55:23.717,0:55:28.957
In the colours especially,[br]I can develop myself.
0:55:29.917,0:55:35.876
It's something new.[br]As I said, I think it will be good.
0:55:39.196,0:55:41.837
Is something troubling you?
0:55:42.157,0:55:46.596
I do have a lot on my mind.[br]I have worries too.
0:55:47.717,0:55:50.156
I have my work to think of.
0:56:00.917,0:56:06.157
The beautiful pale face[br]with its soft full mouth,
0:56:07.036,0:56:10.677
half closed eyes and throat.
0:56:13.117,0:56:15.037
He had to own it again,
0:56:15.157,0:56:19.076
to look into those eyes,[br]so often hard.
0:56:26.116,0:56:29.356
Sophie and Edvard...
0:56:33.397,0:56:36.236
I shall soon be leaving you
0:56:39.317,0:56:44.677
and I'm so afraid of what[br]will happen to our family.
0:56:50.197,0:56:52.956
That's why I want to talk to you
0:56:54.316,0:56:57.157
and I hope you can promise me
0:56:57.597,0:57:03.556
to take care of[br]Laura, Andreas and Inger
0:57:05.797,0:57:09.197
so that I can go to heaven[br]with an easy mind.
0:57:10.037,0:57:13.037
- Will you promise me, Sophie?[br]- Yes, Mamma.
0:57:15.837,0:57:19.077
- Will you promise me, Edvard?[br]- Yes, Mamma.
0:57:55.916,0:57:59.476
I feel you in here very strongly.
0:58:02.717,0:58:06.356
- Have you had physical relationships?[br]- Many.
0:58:06.837,0:58:10.957
Do you feel that you've fulfilled[br]yourself as a human being?
0:58:11.517,0:58:16.356
I try. But there are[br]many obstacles.
0:58:17.316,0:58:22.276
- Do you achieve satisfaction?[br]- Now but not before.
0:58:23.397,0:58:26.956
When one is born one knows nothing.
0:58:27.476,0:58:31.316
One is surrounded by adults[br]one looks up to,
0:58:31.397,0:58:34.917
adults full of words and prejudices.
0:58:34.996,0:58:40.876
Particularly in my family[br]which is very bourgeois.
0:58:41.237,0:58:44.316
I was filled with lots[br]of admonitions.
0:58:44.397,0:58:46.836
You mustn't do this. Do that.
0:58:49.796,0:58:53.276
Things that I wanted to do
0:58:53.356,0:58:56.637
were considered wrong[br]and conflicts arose.
0:59:02.677,0:59:06.716
I've been thinking of you all night.[br]I haven't slept.
0:59:17.477,0:59:19.357
A plate was broken today.
0:59:19.436,0:59:20.836
Was it you?
0:59:20.956,0:59:24.396
- No, it was Sophie.[br]- Sophie, did you do it?
0:59:24.796,0:59:25.996
No. Edvard.
0:59:32.476,0:59:35.516
- Sophie, was it you?[br]- No. Edvard.
0:59:37.716,0:59:41.757
In Jæger's book[br]'From The Kristiania Boheme'
0:59:41.836,0:59:45.236
he describes a scene[br]with a 16 year-old girl
0:59:45.317,0:59:47.477
whom he has met on the street.
0:59:47.556,0:59:50.036
"I went down on my knees
0:59:50.436,0:59:54.637
"and stretched my hands[br]with my gaze resting on her eyes.
0:59:55.477,0:59:59.596
"Her eyes retained[br]their shy expression.
0:59:59.676,1:00:03.356
"Then at once they grew[br]large and tender.
1:00:03.476,1:00:07.436
"And she drew me up to her,[br]put her arms about me
1:00:07.517,1:00:11.357
"and rested her head[br]against my shoulders.
1:00:11.716,1:00:15.877
"I leaned my head against hers[br]and kissed her black hair."
1:00:46.036,1:00:48.476
Munch writes in his diary:
1:00:49.477,1:00:52.436
"They were lying beside each other.
1:00:52.517,1:00:54.796
"They didn't talk much.
1:00:55.117,1:00:56.396
"'Poor you', she said
1:00:57.756,1:01:02.476
"and stroked his wet hair[br]slowly... slowly."
1:01:03.836,1:01:09.237
"She lay there with her head back[br]and her beautiful throat exposed.
1:01:09.316,1:01:12.397
"I kissed it and wanted[br]to carry her to the bed.
1:01:12.476,1:01:14.997
"But the touch of her soft limbs
1:01:15.116,1:01:18.037
"took all strength from my arms."
1:01:21.037,1:01:23.036
"She lay down on him.
1:01:23.956,1:01:26.797
"The moment again when everything[br]ceased to exist.
1:01:28.356,1:01:30.436
"Again and again."
1:01:34.116,1:01:38.796
And that married woman -[br]you shouldn't be seen with her.
1:01:41.317,1:01:45.756
Have you got something[br]besides your work to think of?
1:01:46.996,1:01:51.396
I feel much calmer.[br]I sleep at night too.
1:01:53.277,1:01:54.716
That's fine.
1:02:05.716,1:02:08.156
You know that I need you.
1:02:21.476,1:02:23.916
I'm so happy you came.
1:02:32.596,1:02:34.837
What wonderful lips you have.
1:02:47.476,1:02:51.876
Munch writes in his diaries[br]of making appointments to meet
1:02:51.957,1:02:53.757
Mrs Heiberg on the Karl Johan
1:02:53.836,1:02:59.036
only to have her pass him by with[br]her husband or a friend on her arm.
1:02:59.637,1:03:03.757
Exactly who began to break[br]the appointments first is not known
1:03:03.836,1:03:05.756
but Munch writes of retaliating
1:03:05.836,1:03:09.756
by ignoring Mrs Heiberg[br]when they next meet.
1:03:09.836,1:03:13.876
I waited for half an hour[br]on the Karl Johan.
1:03:16.076,1:03:18.916
And when at last she came
1:03:19.036,1:03:21.356
she simply walked past.
1:03:22.476,1:03:24.916
She scarcely looked at me.
1:03:31.356,1:03:35.317
It's a good thing[br]I don't like her any more.
1:03:35.396,1:03:39.956
At about this same period,[br]Oda Lasson has told Hans Jæger
1:03:40.036,1:03:44.756
that she is becoming emotionally[br]involved with Christian Krohg.
1:03:48.316,1:03:52.356
When I try to live according to[br]what is right for me
1:03:52.716,1:03:57.916
and try to find my freedom[br]and live according to my rules,
1:04:00.476,1:04:04.436
the only thing the bourgeoisie[br]are interested in
1:04:04.517,1:04:07.116
is how many love affairs I have.
1:04:08.836,1:04:15.196
Only my friends look at[br]and talk about what I do...
1:04:16.196,1:04:18.596
talk about my paintings.
1:04:22.116,1:04:26.556
She talked about how[br]he had not greeted her on the street,
1:04:26.996,1:04:30.236
how she was just as good[br]as other ladies.
1:04:30.756,1:04:34.396
Look at Mrs Pettersen who[br]went with the lieutenant to Paris.
1:04:34.956,1:04:38.956
It made him shudder to hear[br]of her affection.
1:04:47.037,1:04:48.876
At first, Munch adds
1:04:48.957,1:04:51.756
domestic details to the periphery[br]of the painting
1:04:51.837,1:04:54.037
such as a chair, a glass, a bottle,
1:04:54.116,1:04:56.836
a flowerpot on a window[br]and curtains.
1:04:57.636,1:05:00.636
Then, slowly, over the months
1:05:01.116,1:05:03.756
he begins to remove these details
1:05:03.836,1:05:07.716
concentrating more and more[br]on the head of his sister.
1:05:08.396,1:05:11.916
Munch's affair with Mrs Heiberg[br]is already deteriorating.
1:05:12.916,1:05:18.756
He takes the hand of his sister and[br]paints it in broad and vague strokes
1:05:18.836,1:05:22.676
blurring out its ability[br]for human contact.
1:05:23.236,1:05:29.676
Her hand was large and coarse.[br]She placed her cheek against his.
1:05:30.036,1:05:32.676
He turned his head away
1:05:32.796,1:05:34.956
so their mouths didn't meet.
1:05:35.036,1:05:36.836
She was too repulsive.
1:05:42.396,1:05:44.636
I'm so glad you came.
1:05:45.956,1:05:48.156
I saw you out with another man.
1:05:48.796,1:05:50.036
Just a friend.
1:05:50.156,1:05:51.476
Just a friend?
1:05:53.836,1:05:58.916
I'd been waiting half an hour[br]and you walked straight past!
1:05:59.356,1:06:02.116
I was with Lt. Lund.
1:06:03.276,1:06:05.796
He's just a friend.
1:06:05.916,1:06:07.516
Don't shout.
1:06:08.356,1:06:10.396
Everybody can hear.
1:06:11.596,1:06:17.636
Damn it, I have hundreds of things[br]to think of. This can't go on!
1:06:18.516,1:06:22.036
I waited for more than half an hour!
1:06:22.116,1:06:24.956
- Who was it?[br]- The banker.
1:06:29.996,1:06:31.916
The year 1886.
1:06:32.476,1:06:35.276
The French government[br]presents the United States
1:06:35.356,1:06:37.396
with the Statue of Liberty
1:06:37.716,1:06:42.836
and equips its own army with[br]the Lebel smokeless powder rifle.
1:07:15.396,1:07:20.436
Perhaps if I tell her[br]that it's all my fault...
1:07:21.796,1:07:24.836
Perhaps then she'll like me...
1:07:27.076,1:07:29.996
If I tell her I could die for her...
1:07:30.596,1:07:32.916
This is nothing to laugh at!
1:07:58.876,1:08:01.236
Don't take it so much to heart.
1:08:03.636,1:08:07.156
There are plenty of women[br]with her qualities.
1:08:07.836,1:08:12.436
I find it difficult to know[br]what life I should lead.
1:08:12.996,1:08:18.436
Even if I try to live freely[br]with men, they don't change.
1:08:18.996,1:08:22.635
They consider that[br]a woman should behave
1:08:23.156,1:08:27.756
in such-and-such a way,[br]which I can't do.
1:08:43.355,1:08:44.956
It's long past midnight
1:08:47.195,1:08:50.075
and you're out every evening.
1:08:51.316,1:08:52.916
Will you answer?
1:08:52.996,1:08:55.076
- Don't push me![br]- Are you drunk?
1:08:55.716,1:08:57.956
What do you do when you're out?
1:08:58.476,1:09:00.756
He's just a friend.
1:09:01.995,1:09:03.876
This can't go on!
1:09:07.156,1:09:11.276
I feel that if ever[br]I am to find myself
1:09:11.356,1:09:14.916
I can't adapt myself[br]to their standards.
1:09:16.436,1:09:21.796
Men I am with,[br]who say that they are free,
1:09:21.916,1:09:27.036
have beliefs too,[br]which obstruct my freedom.
1:09:27.876,1:09:33.356
In fact I don't even know[br]what my freedom is.
1:09:33.436,1:09:38.436
I can't take any more of this.[br]You know that!
1:09:42.315,1:09:47.436
We mustn't speak to each other[br]like this. We mustn't.
1:09:47.916,1:09:52.596
You're a human being[br]in a society oppressed
1:09:52.676,1:09:57.436
by standards and prejudices[br]in every direction.
1:09:57.796,1:10:02.036
Painters can't take notice[br]of political programmes.
1:10:02.396,1:10:06.875
You have to paint something[br]as you see it.
1:10:07.316,1:10:12.956
You can't sit down[br]and paint details.
1:10:13.315,1:10:18.316
If you come from a bedroom[br]into the living room in the morning
1:10:18.395,1:10:22.556
and see everything[br]as if in a bluish light,
1:10:22.635,1:10:25.276
even the darkest shadows,
1:10:25.836,1:10:29.915
that's how you should paint it.[br]As you see it.
1:10:32.276,1:10:38.796
Colour means a great deal.[br]Colour is the mainstay of painting.
1:10:39.395,1:10:40.796
Mood as well.
1:11:15.195,1:11:19.715
She let herself be drawn closer.[br]Right up against him.
1:11:21.475,1:11:26.476
He held her gently about the waist.[br]She reached up towards him.
1:11:28.875,1:11:34.436
He felt a warm mouth against[br]his throat, a wet mouth against his
1:11:35.316,1:11:37.756
and his mouth slipped in[br]towards hers.
1:11:46.516,1:11:50.876
"A feeling of sweet impotence[br]poured over my shoulders
1:11:51.235,1:11:53.875
"and flowed through my limbs.
1:11:54.876,1:11:58.436
"I knelt and pressed her[br]tight against me
1:11:58.556,1:12:02.556
"and kissed her uncovered throat[br]like one possessed."
1:12:06.996,1:12:09.956
Haagen Ludwig Berg, an actor
1:12:10.035,1:12:12.876
and a Lieutenant[br]in the part-time army.
1:12:16.396,1:12:20.836
Miss Drefsen, referred to by Munch[br]as "Miss Rocker"
1:12:21.636,1:12:24.595
whom he recently met at a carnival.
1:12:25.675,1:12:30.075
Something I don't understand[br]occurs again and again
1:12:30.755,1:12:34.916
and that is that a relationship[br]starts strongly.
1:12:34.995,1:12:37.595
And I know what passion is.
1:12:37.676,1:12:42.115
I don't know what love is[br]but I know what passion is.
1:13:15.475,1:13:18.956
The odd thing is that it[br]begins with the feeling
1:13:19.035,1:13:20.835
that all is worthless
1:13:20.955,1:13:23.435
without this one person.
1:13:35.316,1:13:38.556
We should not have spoken of it.
1:13:53.396,1:13:58.635
And gradually, without you noticing[br]what is happening,
1:13:59.915,1:14:03.676
this person becomes[br]the one who holds you back.
1:14:06.875,1:14:10.236
Seeking now to de-emphasise[br]all unimportant details
1:14:10.315,1:14:12.355
by blurring their images
1:14:12.756,1:14:15.915
struggling to eliminate[br]Mrs Heiberg from his mind
1:14:16.716,1:14:20.556
striving somehow to impart the[br]quiver and intensity of his feelings
1:14:20.635,1:14:23.635
onto the raw surface[br]of his canvas
1:14:23.716,1:14:26.956
seeking to awaken[br]a similar mood in the viewer
1:14:27.035,1:14:30.796
Munch works and reworks[br]the head of his sister
1:14:30.875,1:14:33.956
detailing hair, eyes and mouth
1:14:34.035,1:14:37.956
only to scrape the oil[br]from the canvas and begin again.
1:14:38.035,1:14:41.956
Using his knife, the back[br]of his brush, the point of a pencil
1:14:42.395,1:14:46.756
Munch scratches and scores[br]deep into the thick oil
1:14:46.835,1:14:51.475
as he struggles to remember[br]and struggles to forget.
1:14:54.396,1:14:58.755
She looked into my eyes[br]with her fair hair
1:14:59.675,1:15:02.516
and her pale, delicate skin.
1:15:02.595,1:15:07.115
We had a good time[br]when last we met, didn't we?
1:15:10.596,1:15:15.516
- I like you.[br]- You're sweet.
1:15:16.476,1:15:18.595
I've been thinking of you.
1:15:20.515,1:15:22.155
The whole time.
1:15:24.596,1:15:28.515
- I like you too.[br]- How beautiful you are.
1:15:31.515,1:15:33.236
You're strange.
1:15:34.835,1:15:39.516
But you're a fine person.[br]You're sweet.
1:15:43.315,1:15:45.316
What do you think of women
1:15:45.436,1:15:48.395
who have extra-marital[br]relationships?
1:15:49.795,1:15:56.075
In my opinion a woman is[br]and ought to be a defenseless
1:15:57.396,1:16:03.435
and beautiful little being,[br]both in body and soul,
1:16:03.516,1:16:07.396
who needs the protection[br]and security
1:16:07.516,1:16:08.916
of a man.
1:16:10.595,1:16:13.716
If you think this is funny, it's...
1:16:18.636,1:16:26.316
She smiled with her pale lips[br]and white teeth.
1:16:28.315,1:16:33.436
We suit each other, don't we?[br]You're so strange, Munch.
1:16:36.756,1:16:41.835
In December 1885 Hans Jæger's book,[br]From The Kristiania Boheme
1:16:41.915,1:16:45.595
is confiscated within two hours[br]of its publication.
1:16:46.356,1:16:49.675
Four months later Jæger[br]is found guilty of blasphemy
1:16:49.756,1:16:53.316
and "violation of[br]modesty and morality".
1:16:53.395,1:16:55.715
He is sentenced to 60 days in prison
1:16:55.796,1:16:58.676
and the permanent banning[br]of his book.
1:16:59.835,1:17:04.635
Aimar Sørensen, Minister of Justice[br]in the Liberal Government.
1:17:04.716,1:17:10.196
I received a copy of the book[br]from the police in Kristiania
1:17:10.876,1:17:13.435
with certain parts underlined.
1:17:14.915,1:17:20.595
I telegraphed at once to ask[br]all the police commissioners
1:17:20.995,1:17:24.115
to stop publication of the book.
1:17:25.115,1:17:30.835
In this part the lead character[br]in the book
1:17:30.955,1:17:34.316
addresses himself[br]to a very young girl,
1:17:34.395,1:17:37.955
so young that she could be[br]his daughter.
1:17:38.596,1:17:41.235
She is sitting on his knee.
1:17:41.795,1:17:46.836
This will give you an idea[br]of what it's about.
1:17:47.835,1:17:52.395
"Listen, I said to her[br]while I patted her on the cheek.
1:17:53.396,1:17:56.475
"Let's have a sensible little chat.
1:17:57.875,1:18:03.595
"Do you know what this is?[br]I had taken a condom from my pocket.
1:18:04.075,1:18:07.236
"No, she said.[br]Well, I'll tell you..."
1:18:07.315,1:18:10.956
The following year Hans Jæger[br]will be forced to flee from Norway
1:18:11.035,1:18:13.556
after the Liberal government[br]imposes upon him
1:18:13.635,1:18:17.595
a second sentence of[br]150 days in prison
1:18:17.676,1:18:20.875
this time for sending[br]300 copies of his book
1:18:20.956,1:18:23.515
out of the country to Sweden
1:18:23.595,1:18:27.995
under a cover entitled[br]"Christmas Tales by Hans Jæger".
1:18:28.995,1:18:32.235
"...and it doesn't pass[br]through because...
1:18:32.356,1:18:37.875
"And I blew up the condom.[br]Not even air passes through."
1:18:40.795,1:18:45.195
I could read more[br]but I think that suffices.
1:18:50.835,1:18:55.315
Cell no. 1 of the Møllergaten[br]district prison in Kristiania.
1:18:55.956,1:19:00.876
Does imprisonment[br]influence your work?
1:19:01.235,1:19:04.275
No, it has no influence whatsoever.
1:19:04.875,1:19:09.355
That good people,[br]who use literature for diversion,
1:19:09.435,1:19:14.635
scream and cross themselves[br]means nothing. I knew they would.
1:20:20.115,1:20:28.995
It provokes the bourgeoisie[br]who live their cosy, false life.
1:20:29.875,1:20:32.995
It provokes them to see free women.
1:20:33.675,1:20:38.835
Everything outside the fence[br]they have raised around themselves
1:20:39.915,1:20:42.395
is so terrifying for them
1:20:42.835,1:20:47.395
except perhaps in their dreams,[br]when they indulge in fantasies.
1:20:52.915,1:20:56.115
But, because I live openly and freely,
1:20:57.795,1:21:00.315
I think they become terrified.
1:21:00.795,1:21:05.435
The so-called free women[br]we're always hearing about,
1:21:06.516,1:21:08.995
they can't be quite normal
1:21:10.675,1:21:16.555
but they can become normal[br]if they discover their real capacity.
1:21:18.195,1:21:20.916
Half an hour before she came
1:21:21.876,1:21:24.115
and she just smiles[br]as she passes by...
1:21:27.115,1:21:28.955
with another man.
1:21:33.396,1:21:34.635
Oh, damn!
1:21:55.195,1:21:58.356
Finally I finished, exhausted.
1:21:59.435,1:22:03.395
I had brought out a lot[br]of the first impression,
1:22:06.075,1:22:08.195
the trembling mouth,
1:22:08.875,1:22:13.435
the transparent shine[br]and the tired eyes
1:22:15.075,1:22:18.795
but the colours were not finished.
1:22:19.595,1:22:24.955
It was pale and Grey.[br]The painting was heavy as lead.
1:22:29.435,1:22:33.595
At almost the last stage,[br]Munch attacks the canvas again
1:22:33.675,1:22:35.995
scoring deep into the oil
1:22:36.075,1:22:39.995
and, in one gesture of[br]broad sweeping strokes
1:22:40.075,1:22:44.355
eliminates the carefully executed[br]window, curtains and flowerpot
1:22:44.435,1:22:46.995
on the right-hand side[br]of the canvas.
1:22:47.835,1:22:49.795
The final distracting details
1:22:50.315,1:22:51.715
have gone.
1:23:39.635,1:23:42.915
Edvard Munch is aware that[br]he has made a major breakthrough
1:23:43.435,1:23:45.555
in terms of his own art.
1:23:45.635,1:23:49.435
But he is not yet aware of[br]the dimensions of this breakthrough.
1:23:50.435,1:23:52.995
At this time, in the mid 1880's
1:23:53.395,1:23:55.995
each of the major artists[br]in the Western World
1:23:56.635,1:24:01.835
is still involved in the traditional[br]presentation of the exterior reality.
1:24:01.915,1:24:03.434
Cézanne...
1:24:03.515,1:24:07.435
the early work of Gauguin[br]and, even at this stage...
1:24:07.555,1:24:09.595
Vincent Van Gogh.
1:24:10.795,1:24:13.875
The difference between these works[br]and Munch's canvas
1:24:13.955,1:24:15.755
is most clearly seen in
1:24:15.835,1:24:18.275
the contemporary presentation[br]of young women:
1:24:18.355,1:24:20.035
Auguste Renoir...
1:24:20.635,1:24:22.115
Berthe Morisot...
1:24:23.555,1:24:25.035
the American Mary Cassatt...
1:24:26.474,1:24:28.435
the Norwegian Hans Heyerdahl.
1:24:29.875,1:24:34.675
But Edvard Munch's canvas,[br]with its deeply scored surface,
1:24:34.755,1:24:37.635
which has transcended[br]all exterior reality
1:24:38.075,1:24:42.355
to become the first[br]expressionist painting of "feeling"
1:24:42.435,1:24:46.115
in the history of Western art,[br]is strongly attacked
1:24:46.435,1:24:50.035
both by the Kristiania public[br]and by its conservative press.
1:24:56.355,1:25:00.835
The public won't accept[br]that sort of madness.
1:25:00.915,1:25:02.795
When one passes
1:25:02.915,1:25:06.675
people stand laughing[br]at the painting.
1:25:06.794,1:25:12.315
Some people always set themselves up[br]as guardians over others.
1:25:12.834,1:25:17.595
In literature they decide[br]what is decent and indecent.
1:25:18.475,1:25:23.114
Says one colleague to Munch,[br]"I think that your painting is shit."
1:25:23.435,1:25:26.435
Asks another,[br]"What are all those strokes for?
1:25:26.515,1:25:28.355
"It looks like it's raining."
1:25:28.435,1:25:31.235
A human life is decent
1:25:31.354,1:25:34.555
but writing about[br]human sexual life is indecent.
1:25:34.634,1:25:38.035
Another friend tells Munch[br]that he will go mad
1:25:38.115,1:25:39.714
if he continues in this way.
1:25:39.795,1:25:42.195
As long as I can write,
1:25:42.314,1:25:46.195
I'll combat society and its rules[br]to create a society
1:25:46.315,1:25:49.195
in which literature is free.
1:25:49.275,1:25:52.874
Who has the right to stop anyone[br]writing about his emotional life?
1:25:53.235,1:25:54.915
No one!
1:25:54.995,1:26:01.475
The best way to judge Munch's picture[br]is to see it at a distance.
1:26:02.435,1:26:05.875
Andreas Aubert, art historian[br]and critic.
1:26:05.955,1:26:11.595
The colours and contours appear[br]most clearly on cloudy days.
1:26:12.354,1:26:16.194
If one really wants[br]to get a better impression
1:26:16.915,1:26:20.475
of this extremely strange painting,
1:26:20.555,1:26:24.115
one should look at it like this,[br]between two fingers.
1:26:25.674,1:26:28.355
At some point in this period[br]of his life
1:26:28.435,1:26:33.035
Edvard Munch writes in his diary[br]of chasing a woman through the streets
1:26:33.115,1:26:35.515
whom he believes to be Mrs Heiberg.
1:26:35.595,1:26:40.035
I'm faltering. I think I am falling.
1:26:41.115,1:26:46.435
But he has been lured[br]into throwing away his talent
1:26:46.514,1:26:49.355
in such a useless way
1:26:50.115,1:26:56.514
and encouraged to follow[br]this path which leads nowhere.
1:26:57.795,1:27:02.675
I have no feeling in my legs.[br]They won't carry me.
1:27:03.995,1:27:08.034
Everyone passing looks[br]alien and strange.
1:27:08.994,1:27:11.915
I think they are all staring at me.
1:27:13.315,1:27:16.195
My whole body is shaking.
1:27:16.315,1:27:18.275
Sweat pours from me.
1:27:19.115,1:27:23.954
I have received an anonymous letter[br]in my capacity as critic
1:27:24.035,1:27:29.434
in which the writer claims to see[br]nothing but meaninglessness
1:27:29.515,1:27:36.315
and an attempt to be original[br]in Munch's work.
1:27:36.395,1:27:40.115
All I can say to this person[br]is that he get himself
1:27:40.235,1:27:42.355
a new pair of eyes.
1:27:43.475,1:27:47.875
Anyone who can't see that[br]here we have a great
1:27:47.995,1:27:51.075
and genuine talent,[br]has no right
1:27:51.195,1:27:52.634
to judge art at all.
1:28:03.235,1:28:07.675
I want life, that which is alive.
1:28:09.634,1:28:13.675
What do I care whether[br]the chair is properly made?
1:28:15.035,1:28:21.075
What I wanted to bring out is[br]what cannot be measured.
1:28:22.355,1:28:27.915
The tired movement[br]in the eyes, in the eyelids.
1:28:28.595,1:28:31.994
The lips must seem[br]to have whispered something.
1:28:32.394,1:28:38.235
It must have been painted[br]by one almost mentally deranged
1:28:39.514,1:28:43.634
who sees hallucinations[br]as if in a fever.
1:28:45.875,1:28:50.595
I lay down on a sofa in the corner.[br]I lay half asleep.
1:28:51.395,1:28:53.595
I hated them for looking at me.
1:28:54.275,1:29:01.515
It is possible that Munch can speak[br]in some way or other
1:29:02.195,1:29:06.235
to those with a sick emotional life.
1:29:06.794,1:29:13.035
But I think it's one of the most[br]dreadful things I've ever seen.
1:29:13.794,1:29:23.315
One would have expected that[br]a painter who presents his paintings
1:29:23.394,1:29:28.634
at a public exhibition,[br]would respect people's taste
1:29:28.995,1:29:31.435
in a totally different way.
1:29:33.674,1:29:37.554
Hurt and confused by the attack[br]on The Sick Child
1:29:37.635,1:29:42.555
and by the constant references[br]to his work as "unfinished sketches"
1:29:42.634,1:29:47.355
Edvard Munch now checks the advance[br]begun by his revolutionary painting
1:29:47.674,1:29:49.034
and steps back.
1:29:59.715,1:30:04.875
He paints a third self-portrait,[br]this time with eyes veiled
1:30:04.954,1:30:08.755
a pose of defiance,[br]looking down on the viewer.
1:30:09.474,1:30:13.435
A 2-year period of withdrawal[br]has begun.
1:30:17.515,1:30:19.875
January 1888.
1:30:21.674,1:30:24.955
By this period, the group[br]known as the Kristiania Boheme
1:30:25.035,1:30:26.955
has begun to disintegrate.
1:30:27.474,1:30:30.874
Personal tragedy, alcoholism,[br]syphilis
1:30:30.955,1:30:34.555
scarring relationships,[br]social isolation
1:30:34.635,1:30:36.794
have taken their toll.
1:30:36.875,1:30:40.955
The writer Karl Jensen-Hjell[br]will die of stomach tuberculosis
1:30:41.034,1:30:42.714
within a month.
1:30:42.794,1:30:45.475
And six more of the young men[br]at this table
1:30:45.554,1:30:48.434
many of them personal friends[br]of Munch
1:30:48.515,1:30:51.034
will not reach the age of 40.
1:30:54.474,1:30:57.354
Bertrand Hansen will die[br]of consumption.
1:30:59.595,1:31:02.635
Jørgen Sørensen will die an invalid
1:31:02.714,1:31:08.474
and the popular painter Kalle Løchen[br]will kill himself at the age of 28.
1:31:13.394,1:31:17.475
Jæger himself, with the germs[br]of cancer in his body
1:31:17.554,1:31:21.875
will die in 1910,[br]a pauper and an outcast.
1:31:22.835,1:31:26.034
Outside the death room,[br]a debtor will be waiting
1:31:26.115,1:31:28.555
to claim a bottle of whisky.
1:31:37.035,1:31:39.074
The summer of 1888.
1:31:41.995,1:31:45.555
Edvard Munch rents a cottage[br]in Åsgårdstrand
1:31:45.674,1:31:48.954
near the village of Bone[br]on the Kristiania fjord.
1:31:54.314,1:31:58.595
The affair of Oda Lasson[br]with Hans Jæger has ended.
1:31:59.354,1:32:02.875
Oda Lasson is now married[br]to Christian Krohg.
1:32:08.394,1:32:11.034
At the same time,[br]with Krohg's knowledge,
1:32:11.114,1:32:14.755
Oda is developing the interest[br]of Jappe Nilssen
1:32:14.834,1:32:20.435
age 18, student of French Literature,[br]friend of Edvard Munch.
1:32:27.034,1:32:30.995
Inger Munch is now[br]a close friend of Sigurd Bødtker.
1:32:31.395,1:32:36.715
Laura Munch, age 21,[br]remains unmarried.
1:32:39.755,1:32:43.595
Why do you think[br]I shouted so angrily
1:32:46.434,1:32:49.075
and said I couldn't see you again?
1:32:50.715,1:32:52.674
It was because you lied!
1:32:56.154,1:33:02.194
It's your inaccessibility[br]that makes me so angry!
1:33:09.274,1:33:12.154
You said I shouldn't come so often.
1:33:12.795,1:33:19.834
Yes, but then I didn't know[br]how much I liked you.
1:33:24.274,1:33:29.714
You've forgotten me now.[br]You have someone else.
1:33:32.594,1:33:34.234
I love you.
1:33:34.954,1:33:41.755
If I'd only known that you went to[br]somebody else to punish me.
1:33:47.714,1:33:56.314
It's the uncertainty that[br]makes me so nervous, so furious.
1:34:16.954,1:34:19.554
You demand more and more[br]love from me.
1:34:19.634,1:34:23.715
Don't you understand I can't[br]give you more than I have?
1:34:33.155,1:34:37.275
The moment you show[br]your feelings, it seems like
1:34:37.354,1:34:41.074
you want to take something stolen back.
1:34:43.035,1:34:46.274
Is it for your art you save yourself?
1:34:55.795,1:34:57.474
1888.
1:34:58.835,1:35:01.874
August Strindberg writes[br]Miss Julie.
1:35:03.314,1:35:07.035
The pneumatic Tyre and cordite[br]are invented.
1:35:09.074,1:35:12.474
Vincent Van Gogh paints[br]Sunflowers
1:35:13.314,1:35:15.074
The Drawbridge At Arles
1:35:15.714,1:35:17.354
and The Sower.
1:35:18.314,1:35:22.794
An unemployment demonstration[br]in Rome is suppressed by the military.
1:35:23.915,1:35:25.794
And Wilhelm II
1:35:26.354,1:35:28.315
becomes Emperor of Germany.
1:35:49.114,1:35:52.354
Whilst he continues[br]to pursue Mrs Heiberg
1:35:52.435,1:35:55.674
at the same time, Munch is trying[br]to escape from her.
1:35:56.914,1:35:58.874
He begins to cultivate[br]his acquaintanceship
1:35:58.954,1:36:01.874
with Åse Carlson, age 19
1:36:01.954,1:36:07.034
herself a painter and engaged[br]to be married to a Kristiania lawyer.
1:36:07.714,1:36:11.034
You need a woman[br]and yet you don't want one.
1:36:12.034,1:36:17.194
I like you but we really[br]can't meet like this.
1:36:17.994,1:36:20.914
You follow me everywhere.[br]You plague me.
1:36:33.954,1:36:37.435
Munch writes in his diaries,[br]repeatedly
1:36:37.514,1:36:40.754
of following Mrs Heiberg[br]to her rendezvous with other men...
1:36:43.875,1:36:46.114
Jealousy is possessiveness.
1:36:46.194,1:36:49.834
Your jealousy is driving me[br]to other love affairs.
1:36:50.434,1:36:52.754
...of endlessly waiting.
1:36:56.194,1:36:58.594
You can't own a woman.
1:36:59.474,1:37:01.514
It's impossible.
1:37:30.674,1:37:35.035
They kiss each other,[br]just now, at this moment,
1:37:36.754,1:37:39.434
and she says she is fond of him.
1:37:40.954,1:37:45.754
Hidden behind the stairs,[br]she whispers to the lieutenant
1:37:45.834,1:37:49.834
the same words as she previously[br]whispered to him.
1:37:52.994,1:37:55.354
It is probable that at this time
1:37:55.434,1:37:59.354
Edvard Munch asks Åse Carlson[br]to marry him.
1:38:02.674,1:38:06.434
Do you want to hold my hand?[br]I'm so alone.
1:38:08.034,1:38:10.474
No, not here.
1:38:14.634,1:38:17.874
You know that I like you, but...
1:38:19.794,1:38:22.075
...more as a friend.
1:38:22.754,1:38:24.714
Friendship is...
1:38:26.234,1:38:31.274
Friendship is so little.[br]Life is short.
1:38:35.394,1:38:37.474
In this winter of 1888
1:38:37.554,1:38:41.034
after heavy drinking with friends[br]in the country near Slagen
1:38:41.114,1:38:43.954
Munch is pushed into frozen water
1:38:44.034,1:38:47.034
by an artist named[br]Palle Dørnberger
1:38:48.034,1:38:49.754
and almost dies.
1:38:52.154,1:38:55.634
This is very serious.[br]We should notify them.
1:38:56.874,1:39:02.074
On the left is Dørnberger's sister,[br]Charlotte, age 20.
1:39:03.874,1:39:06.714
I don't know where they live.
1:39:08.434,1:39:11.314
I feel so young.
1:39:13.154,1:39:18.994
I try to see life optimistically.
1:39:23.594,1:39:26.634
We have different views on life.
1:39:28.074,1:39:32.994
You seem a little gloomy.
1:39:36.554,1:39:44.274
You seem weak,[br]a little tired of life.
1:39:44.834,1:39:46.994
A feeling of tension[br]and loneliness
1:39:47.434,1:39:50.034
now enters the canvases[br]of Edvard Munch.
1:39:50.394,1:39:51.994
People appear still...
1:39:52.394,1:39:53.434
immobile...
1:39:53.514,1:39:56.954
often as though helpless[br]in the face of nature.
1:40:02.154,1:40:04.834
I don't want to kiss you.
1:40:09.994,1:40:13.234
They looked at each other[br]without speaking.
1:40:14.114,1:40:20.074
At that moment he had a feeling[br]that life's greatest happiness
1:40:20.194,1:40:21.954
had slipped from his grasp.
1:40:23.794,1:40:26.154
There were tears in her eyes.
1:40:31.514,1:40:36.394
Munch now prepares himself again[br]for the public and the critics
1:40:36.474,1:40:40.394
often in the introvert company[br]of Sigbjørn Obstfelder, the poet
1:40:40.794,1:40:43.874
and Jorgen Sørensen,[br]the crippled artist.
1:40:45.634,1:40:47.474
April 1889.
1:40:47.554,1:40:49.794
Edvard Munch again[br]faces the public...
1:40:52.514,1:40:57.234
and to show exactly where he stands[br]and what he stands for
1:40:57.314,1:41:00.514
exhibits everything[br]he has ever created:
1:41:00.594,1:41:04.434
110 canvases and[br]innumerable drawings.
1:41:05.314,1:41:08.713
Dominating the exhibition[br]is a huge canvas.
1:41:09.314,1:41:13.834
Entitled Spring, it is a re-working[br]of The Sick Child.
1:41:14.473,1:41:17.674
But gone now is[br]the loose expressive brushstroke
1:41:17.754,1:41:19.114
of the earlier work.
1:41:19.594,1:41:21.994
Here, there is minute detail:
1:41:22.433,1:41:24.073
a strand of hair
1:41:24.514,1:41:26.434
a blood stained handkerchief
1:41:26.514,1:41:29.274
a carefully outlined bottle and vase
1:41:29.754,1:41:31.794
the detailed top of a cupboard
1:41:31.914,1:41:34.434
and even the pot of flowers.
1:41:34.514,1:41:36.994
Have you seen Miss C.[br]since she married?
1:41:38.874,1:41:42.234
I expect things are difficult for you.
1:41:42.313,1:41:46.713
It must feel strange[br]when you think of her.
1:41:46.794,1:41:53.794
Why has Munch's work changed[br]so much since The Sick Child?
1:41:54.514,1:41:58.394
I can only guess something[br]must have happened to him,
1:41:58.474,1:42:02.274
which made him lose faith[br]in himself and his art,
1:42:02.714,1:42:05.954
poor criticism and other factors.
1:42:15.434,1:42:19.194
Society accepts[br]that a man has a mistress
1:42:25.793,1:42:29.353
but, if a woman has a lover,[br]it's quite different.
1:42:33.554,1:42:37.434
Later perhaps...[br]Perhaps we can meet then.
1:42:39.314,1:42:42.554
Everything could be different.
1:42:45.594,1:42:48.234
We mustn't take it so casually.
1:42:49.113,1:42:53.034
If I marry, I must live[br]for my husband.
1:42:54.114,1:42:59.074
A woman often marries[br]because she needs to be supported.
1:42:59.554,1:43:02.634
She can't earn what[br]she needs to live.
1:43:24.874,1:43:31.913
What was she thinking[br]as she sleepwalked along?
1:43:32.514,1:43:35.154
A Madonna-like beauty.
1:43:40.553,1:43:44.874
That's the way it goes,[br]year after year, a sort of trap.
1:43:45.994,1:43:50.553
Having now promised[br]to live together in matrimony
1:43:51.154,1:43:56.873
and vouchsafed it before God and[br]this congregation, I declare you...
1:43:58.194,1:44:04.714
Was she now thinking also[br]of the pale man behind the column?
1:44:05.194,1:44:07.114
...and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
1:44:07.674,1:44:09.394
What God has joined together,
1:44:09.473,1:44:11.834
let no man put asunder.
1:44:15.913,1:44:20.834
The affair between Jappe Nilssen[br]and Oda Krohg is now developing.
1:44:22.034,1:44:25.034
Åsgårdstrand, 1889.
1:44:27.274,1:44:31.794
She forced her way[br]between me and my ideal,
1:44:31.914,1:44:32.834
my art!
1:44:34.713,1:44:37.033
Yet I can't stop loving her.
1:44:39.994,1:44:42.154
I can't put up with
1:44:42.273,1:44:44.234
any more of her lies!
1:44:46.594,1:44:48.433
Her love is poisonous!
1:44:50.834,1:44:51.834
She has feelings, too.
1:44:52.194,1:44:54.514
I don't give a damn!
1:44:54.794,1:44:59.794
Damn it, I said to her,[br]you're lying on white sheets.
1:45:00.434,1:45:04.073
Your body will be deformed[br]by disease and rot.
1:45:07.073,1:45:10.354
You're going to die[br]ugly and stinking!
1:45:10.834,1:45:16.194
I'll laugh while I drink wine[br]with beautiful women.
1:45:17.113,1:45:23.833
My joy will be even greater than[br]the despair she brought.
1:45:24.274,1:45:27.393
I shall laugh, laugh,[br]laugh!
1:46:08.154,1:46:09.714
We wish to thank[br]the men, women and children
1:46:09.794,1:46:11.953
of Oslo and Åsgårdstrand[br]who appear in this film.
1:46:40.314,1:46:44.794
We are very grateful[br]for invaluable help from
1:46:44.914,1:46:50.434
Additional thanks
1:46:50.554,1:46:53.513
We wish to thank the staff at[br]the Munch Museum in Oslo
1:46:53.594,1:46:56.914
without whose help this film[br]could not have been made.
1:46:57.034,1:46:59.393
Directed and Edited by PETER WATKINS[br]and written in collaboration
1:46:59.474,1:47:01.914
with the cast, many of whom express[br]their own opinions.
1:47:15.433,1:47:18.154
Hurt and angered by[br]the continuing viciousness
1:47:18.274,1:47:20.273
of the Kristiania critics
1:47:20.393,1:47:24.793
seeking to escape from the pain[br]of his personal existence in Norway
1:47:24.913,1:47:28.233
Edvard Munch leaves[br]for France, to study art.
1:47:36.833,1:47:41.474
He meets with Emmanuel Goldstein,[br]a 27 year-old Danish poet
1:47:41.754,1:47:46.234
whose own work bears[br]a disillusioned view on love.
1:47:46.394,1:47:49.753
Munch shares a room[br]with Goldstein in St. Cloud
1:47:49.873,1:47:53.313
outside Paris,[br]on the first floor above a cafe
1:47:53.674,1:47:55.753
overlooking the river Seine.
1:47:56.473,1:47:59.233
November 1889.
1:47:59.994,1:48:06.993
Dr Munch's death was[br]a hard blow to the family.
1:48:08.553,1:48:12.633
We had just moved to Hauketo
1:48:14.833,1:48:18.874
and Dr Munch liked it[br]very much out here.
1:48:20.514,1:48:24.114
The Sunday before he became ill
1:48:27.073,1:48:30.714
we took a walk home from the church
1:48:30.993,1:48:35.113
and the rest of us could not[br]keep pace with him.
1:48:37.873,1:48:41.394
Now that he and his father[br]can never be reconciled
1:48:41.674,1:48:45.474
Edvard Munch begins to re-assess[br]the values and beliefs
1:48:45.794,1:48:48.674
that Hans Jæger has taught him.
1:48:50.673,1:48:55.193
There is a city in the city,[br]the city of the dead.
1:48:55.593,1:48:58.833
There the graves lie side by side.
1:48:59.393,1:49:03.034
There you'll find hovels and palaces.
1:49:03.994,1:49:07.633
There quiet people live, the dead.
1:49:10.153,1:49:12.234
It's a popular city.
1:49:13.553,1:49:15.633
The bones make way for new.
1:49:16.993,1:49:19.193
What does it matter if one dies?
1:49:19.433,1:49:22.593
"Naught but sorrow and torment,[br]misery and strife.
1:49:23.273,1:49:26.313
"There is not much more[br]to be had from life.
1:49:26.514,1:49:29.833
"You pay a price too high[br]for joys too brief.
1:49:30.354,1:49:33.593
"Our pleasures are bought[br]by torment and grief.
1:49:33.953,1:49:36.593
"If to love's pleasure[br]your body surrenders
1:49:36.993,1:49:40.833
"The source of all pains[br]a new life is engendered."
1:49:44.953,1:49:46.753
1889.
1:49:46.873,1:49:51.153
The Eiffel Tower is built and the[br]box camera comes into production.
1:49:51.393,1:49:54.873
Vincent Van Gogh paints[br]Landscape with Olive Trees
1:49:55.073,1:49:57.993
and Wheat Field with Cypresses.
1:49:59.353,1:50:01.754
And Adolf Hitler is born.
1:50:04.193,1:50:07.273
In French literature,[br]the "symbolists" hold
1:50:07.433,1:50:09.353
full sway in Paris.
1:50:09.473,1:50:13.473
Verlaine, Huysmans,[br]the poet Mallarmé.
1:50:14.193,1:50:16.034
A rebellion against Naturalism
1:50:16.233,1:50:19.154
is now taking place[br]in the French capital.
1:50:23.154,1:50:24.394
Amongst the painters
1:50:24.794,1:50:28.873
the older generation has already[br]paved the way for the breakthrough.
1:50:29.034,1:50:31.153
Puvis de Chavannes...
1:50:31.313,1:50:33.073
Gustave Moreau...
1:50:33.154,1:50:34.153
and Odilon Radon
1:50:35.153,1:50:38.753
who emphasises the role[br]played by the sub-conscious
1:50:38.914,1:50:41.073
in an artist's work.
1:50:42.513,1:50:44.554
When I light the lamp
1:50:44.713,1:50:47.113
I suddenly see my own[br]enormous shadow
1:50:47.274,1:50:48.753
over the entire wall
1:50:48.913,1:50:50.594
up to the ceiling.
1:50:50.874,1:50:54.113
In the mirror above[br]the fireplace I see myself
1:50:54.274,1:50:56.153
the face of my own ghost
1:50:58.554,1:51:00.793
and I live with the dead.
1:51:10.874,1:51:14.714
All it said was, "Dearest,[br]come at 8 o'clock tomorrow."
1:51:15.353,1:51:20.634
I stared at each letter, each stain,[br]for the marks of her fingers.
1:51:22.473,1:51:24.913
Did she love me[br]or was she pretending?
1:51:26.073,1:51:30.074
Did she love me or the other[br]or both at the same time?
1:51:37.593,1:51:38.994
"You are the vampire
1:51:39.473,1:51:42.073
"which sucks my sparkling blood,
1:51:42.274,1:51:44.393
"from the channels of my heart
1:51:44.474,1:51:46.674
"with icy draining looks.
1:51:48.553,1:51:52.593
"My body glows like desert sand[br]burned and charred
1:51:52.833,1:51:55.073
"and the dry Sirocco[br]of madness rages
1:51:55.673,1:51:57.633
"and my blood flows."
1:52:03.873,1:52:08.233
Munch now sees the work[br]of Auguste Rodin in Paris.
1:52:11.593,1:52:15.593
We didn't even know each other[br]and yet was it because
1:52:17.394,1:52:22.033
she took my first kiss that she took[br]the fragrance of life from me?
1:52:23.473,1:52:26.713
Was it because she[br]lied and deceived
1:52:28.514,1:52:29.793
that she suddenly
1:52:29.874,1:52:32.113
took the scales from my eyes?
1:52:35.273,1:52:38.193
Munch now begins to formulate[br]the artistic philosophy
1:52:38.353,1:52:41.313
that he is to pursue[br]all his life
1:52:41.433,1:52:45.313
to understand and express[br]the purpose of man's existence
1:52:45.433,1:52:47.393
of woman's existence
1:52:47.753,1:52:51.274
the purpose for their pain,[br]their love, their despair
1:52:51.393,1:52:57.034
links in an endless chain tying[br]together thousands of generations.
1:53:05.153,1:53:10.353
There was to be no more painting[br]interiors, people reading and knitting
1:53:11.034,1:53:16.833
but living people who breathe,[br]feel, suffer and love.
1:53:44.634,1:53:48.073
She closes her eyes and listens
1:53:48.353,1:53:52.314
to the words he whispers[br]into her long hair.
1:53:52.994,1:53:57.833
I'd depict it as I saw it now,[br]but in the blue haze.
1:53:58.593,1:54:04.993
I remember something Munch[br]once said a couple of years ago.
1:54:05.754,1:54:11.673
He had discovered that the Greeks[br]regarded death as blue.
1:54:12.993,1:54:19.033
It says somewhere in The Iliad,[br]"Blue death closes his eyes."
1:54:20.313,1:54:25.753
"Here in the Grey gloomy North,"[br]Munch said, "we see death as black.
1:54:26.353,1:54:32.713
"But in sunny Hellas[br]they regard it as blue.
1:54:33.353,1:54:36.033
"Why shouldn't it be blue?"
1:55:03.833,1:55:08.793
Those at home, my aunt,[br]my brother and sisters
1:55:10.073,1:55:12.673
think that death is just sleep,
1:55:13.233,1:55:16.913
that my father sees and hears.
1:55:17.073,1:55:25.713
On Monday he suffered a stroke[br]and within a few days
1:55:26.673,1:55:31.633
he lost the power of speech[br]and then consciousness.
1:55:33.273,1:55:38.433
Now and then we think he recognised us[br]for he smiled and pressed our hands.
1:55:40.313,1:55:44.673
I can do nothing[br]but let my sorrow run out
1:55:44.873,1:55:49.633
into the dawn and into the dusk.
1:55:51.713,1:55:54.833
Munch's painting[br]Night in St. Cloud
1:55:55.153,1:55:59.993
a study of despondency in[br]swirling blue and black silhouette
1:56:00.113,1:56:01.873
is a major breakthrough
1:56:01.993,1:56:06.833
in parallel to the similar breakthrough[br]now occurring in Norwegian literature
1:56:07.193,1:56:10.793
a subjective and personal[br]form of art.
1:56:10.833,1:56:15.673
The use of the first person[br]in literature is introversive art
1:56:15.993,1:56:23.233
which breaks with naturalism[br]in a psychological, mysterious way.
1:56:24.113,1:56:28.953
Things can be said in the first person[br]which were unsaid before.
1:56:29.593,1:56:30.593
This form
1:56:30.713,1:56:34.753
is born of a desire[br]to get right to the bottom
1:56:34.953,1:56:39.193
of the human being,[br]or the mood one is faced with.
1:56:40.753,1:56:45.433
It becomes like a vision[br]or hallucination
1:56:46.193,1:56:47.833
and it would be strange
1:56:47.913,1:56:54.753
if this form of intensity did not[br]make people shudder and tremble
1:56:55.952,1:57:00.313
and listen to what[br]the poet wants to say.
1:57:01.153,1:57:05.033
There is a rupture between[br]the comprehensive view of realism
1:57:05.153,1:57:09.433
and the new personal form.[br]Art for the sake of art
1:57:09.593,1:57:12.433
and for the satisfaction of the artist.
1:57:13.512,1:57:17.113
At last someone is willing[br]to listen to the heart.
1:57:19.713,1:57:21.833
September 1890.
1:57:21.993,1:57:24.193
As proof of his work in Paris
1:57:24.313,1:57:26.672
Edvard Munch submits 10 paintings
1:57:26.793,1:57:30.953
to the official State Autumn[br]Exhibition in Kristiania.
1:57:31.233,1:57:34.673
The painting which he calls[br]Night in St. Cloud
1:57:34.793,1:57:36.393
is heavily attacked.
1:57:37.833,1:57:39.393
For the second time
1:57:39.513,1:57:43.193
Edvard Munch returns[br]to self-exile in Europe.
1:57:43.993,1:57:47.633
This painting which is called Night
1:57:48.673,1:57:53.832
makes such demands[br]on one's ability to guess
1:57:54.033,1:57:59.592
that few people go to the trouble[br]of studying it more closely.
1:58:00.353,1:58:05.273
The atmosphere around the painting[br]is so faintly designated
1:58:05.713,1:58:09.872
that it seems to disappear[br]before one can grasp it.
1:58:11.792,1:58:19.593
The painter himself follows[br]his own path in a misty
1:58:19.833,1:58:22.393
and shapeless world of dreams.
1:58:23.673,1:58:29.553
And the critic of Aftenposten refers[br]to Munch's "sick mind" and states that:
1:58:29.673,1:58:35.233
"the borderline between madness and[br]genius is unconscionably narrow."
1:58:35.433,1:58:37.513
Munch is primarily
1:58:37.833,1:58:40.313
a lyric poet in colour.
1:58:41.033,1:58:46.033
He feels colours, feels in colours[br]but he does not see them.
1:58:46.513,1:58:48.193
He sees sorrow
1:58:48.353,1:58:50.793
and crying and brooding
1:58:51.113,1:58:52.513
and withering.
1:58:54.153,1:58:56.753
To the young poets[br]and writers of Norway
1:58:56.873,1:58:59.112
now rejecting Naturalism
1:58:59.433,1:59:02.833
the work of Edvard Munch[br]proves a revelation.
1:59:03.153,1:59:04.752
Wilhelm Krag:
1:59:04.793,1:59:11.273
"The river flows so slowly[br]Flows and flows and flows.
1:59:12.073,1:59:15.032
"And daylight goes, goes.
1:59:15.633,1:59:18.233
"Night will soon be here.
1:59:19.513,1:59:22.233
"The light shines out of my room.
1:59:22.873,1:59:27.833
"Turns to regard me[br]in silence and in anxiety.
1:59:28.393,1:59:29.712
"It knows he is coming."
1:59:31.352,1:59:34.953
Was it that she was so much[br]more beautiful than others?
1:59:35.553,1:59:39.353
No, I don't even know[br]if she was beautiful.
1:59:40.193,1:59:44.433
Her mouth was big.[br]She could be ugly.
1:59:46.353,1:59:49.353
In my article in the[br]Mercure de France
1:59:49.353,1:59:51.632
Albert Aurier, critic.
1:59:51.753,1:59:54.112
I refer to this work by Gauguin.
1:59:54.273,1:59:59.833
I explain that it is the duty[br]of the new artist to choose between
1:59:59.993,2:00:03.113
the numerous elements[br]which make up objectivity.
2:00:03.312,2:00:07.152
He is also entitled to distort,[br]to emphasise,
2:00:07.313,2:00:12.072
to exaggerate line, form and colour
2:00:12.473,2:00:15.073
in accordance with[br]his personal vision
2:00:15.353,2:00:17.473
and individual subjectivity.
2:00:18.353,2:00:20.753
Nice, 1891.
2:00:21.433,2:00:26.273
Two lovers, their faces[br]dissolved together, featureless
2:00:26.393,2:00:29.153
lurk in the comer of a room.
2:00:29.273,2:00:31.152
Perspective has vanished.
2:00:31.272,2:00:35.272
Broken, slashing strokes[br]of thin paint.
2:00:35.392,2:00:37.992
The breakthrough has begun.
2:00:40.233,2:00:43.433
She was affected,[br]a liar and a whore!
2:00:49.713,2:00:54.872
The affair between Oda Krohg and[br]Jappe Nilssen is now at crisis point.
2:00:55.033,2:00:58.312
Jappe wants his relationship[br]to be clearly defined.
2:00:58.432,2:01:01.833
She, still married,[br]feels differently.
2:01:02.393,2:01:07.072
Jappe is now taking drugs[br]and has threatened to kill himself.
2:01:08.872,2:01:17.232
There seem to be rules demanding[br]that women sacrifice themselves.
2:01:18.233,2:01:22.113
The best thing one can say[br]about a woman
2:01:22.273,2:01:24.953
is that she is self-sacrificing.
2:01:26.633,2:01:28.592
I can't put up with it anymore.
2:01:30.713,2:01:34.153
I am so fond of her but[br]why is she so angry with me?
2:01:38.993,2:01:41.112
It's so difficult at times.
2:01:41.393,2:01:43.873
I know that I lose control.
2:01:49.072,2:01:53.152
Seeking a way of peeling down[br]to the essence of the inner reality
2:01:53.233,2:01:56.793
of stripping away needless[br]detail and perspective
2:01:56.953,2:02:00.913
Munch now combines all[br]the forms of media at his disposal
2:02:01.033,2:02:04.233
using pencil, pastel,[br]oil and charcoal
2:02:04.353,2:02:07.032
not separately, but together.
2:02:09.352,2:02:11.112
He applies the oil thinly
2:02:11.433,2:02:13.192
to permit the canvas texture
2:02:13.312,2:02:16.472
to remain a visible component[br]of the finished work
2:02:16.752,2:02:18.832
to emphasise its flat surface.
2:02:19.352,2:02:23.113
He allows the preliminary drawings[br]in pencil and pastel
2:02:23.192,2:02:25.313
including the corrections[br]made in them
2:02:25.433,2:02:29.993
to remain in the final work[br]to show its spontaneity.
2:02:33.232,2:02:36.993
On this canvas, to be known[br]variously as Melancholy
2:02:37.192,2:02:39.952
Evening or The Yellow Boat
2:02:40.072,2:02:43.393
Munch is attempting,[br]for the first time in his work
2:02:43.713,2:02:46.153
to depict jealousy.
2:02:46.473,2:02:48.832
And not merely[br]the event of jealousy
2:02:48.992,2:02:52.353
but its psychology[br]and innermost quiver.
2:02:56.713,2:02:57.993
I wonder if something
2:02:58.432,2:03:04.113
is going on between her[br]and Jæger. What shall I do then?
2:03:04.592,2:03:07.673
At any rate, I believe[br]that the idea must be
2:03:09.992,2:03:11.232
to live according to
2:03:11.393,2:03:14.192
one's particular possibilities,
2:03:15.113,2:03:18.273
that one has a duty to develop
2:03:18.513,2:03:20.433
these possibilities,
2:03:22.432,2:03:25.153
that one has a duty[br]to expand oneself,
2:03:26.552,2:03:29.832
to acquire more knowledge,[br]a greater breadth.
2:03:30.993,2:03:35.993
I think that leads to greater[br]freedom in the long run.
2:03:37.672,2:03:40.152
Look how she's on top of it all.
2:03:40.793,2:03:45.872
Cheerful and smiling,[br]while the men all lie and perish.
2:03:47.353,2:03:51.672
Not everyone can have feelings[br]for each other all their lives.
2:03:53.393,2:03:57.712
When a relationship no longer works,[br]one should be able to break it off
2:03:58.352,2:04:04.952
before it changes to bitterness[br]and gnawing hate.
2:04:07.473,2:04:11.712
This canvas marks a major development[br]in the work of Edvard Munch.
2:04:11.952,2:04:15.912
It develops still further[br]the flat application of colour areas
2:04:16.033,2:04:17.712
the lack of perspective
2:04:17.832,2:04:20.752
the tension between[br]space and surface.
2:04:21.392,2:04:25.392
It is dismissed by the critics[br]as a "sketch".
2:04:26.352,2:04:30.352
Edvard Munch is now seeking to take[br]the practical artistic consequences
2:04:30.433,2:04:34.352
of what lies behind[br]the theories of the symbolists.
2:04:35.193,2:04:39.152
He wants to realise them[br]in all-powerful subjectivity
2:04:39.272,2:04:44.312
to pass on what he and he alone[br]experiences from the motif
2:04:44.393,2:04:47.792
at the very moment[br]that he grips it, or...
2:04:48.032,2:04:49.792
that he is gripped by it.
2:04:50.112,2:04:52.392
I walked along the road[br]with two friends.
2:04:52.753,2:04:54.592
The sun went down.
2:04:55.552,2:04:58.233
I felt it like a melancholy sigh.
2:04:59.552,2:05:02.272
Suddenly the sky became blood red.
2:05:03.033,2:05:04.273
I stopped.
2:05:04.953,2:05:08.352
I leaned against the fence,[br]tired to death.
2:05:09.513,2:05:11.352
I saw the flaming sky
2:05:11.553,2:05:15.472
like blood, like a sword[br]over the fjord and the town.
2:05:16.272,2:05:20.473
My friends continued on.[br]I stood there shaking in anguish.
2:05:21.872,2:05:23.112
I felt it like
2:05:23.312,2:05:25.872
a great endless scream[br]through nature.
2:05:28.993,2:05:33.113
The German Kaiser visits London,[br]hoping that Britain will agree to
2:05:33.312,2:05:36.113
the Triple Alliance[br]with Austria and Italy.
2:05:37.392,2:05:42.912
There is civil war in Chile,[br]widespread famine in Russia.
2:05:52.912,2:05:57.032
Munch now paints and exhibits[br]a portrait of his sister Inger.
2:05:57.353,2:05:58.912
Another breakthrough.
2:05:59.033,2:06:03.192
Perspective has vanished.[br]Space and surface are one.
2:06:03.793,2:06:07.992
But this canvas and his work[br]known as Despair
2:06:08.193,2:06:11.353
with the artist's featureless[br]and blank profile
2:06:11.872,2:06:16.672
its large disconnected strokes of[br]heavy colour running over each other
2:06:17.032,2:06:20.393
are heavily attacked[br]by the Norwegian press as
2:06:20.712,2:06:24.872
"an awe-inspiring[br]gibberish of futuristic art."
2:06:29.753,2:06:32.272
For reasons[br]which still remain unclear
2:06:32.392,2:06:36.993
Edvard Munch is now formally invited[br]by the Berlin Art Association
2:06:37.153,2:06:39.272
the Verein Berliner Künstler
2:06:39.392,2:06:42.392
to arrange a one-man exhibition[br]of his work
2:06:42.672,2:06:46.473
in their new exhibition hall,[br]the Architektenhaus
2:06:46.792,2:06:49.873
a converted beer-parlour[br]on the Wilhelmstraße.
2:06:50.033,2:06:53.033
On the 5th of November[br]the exhibition opens
2:06:53.193,2:06:55.233
containing many of[br]Munch's latest paintings
2:06:55.992,2:06:59.152
a total of fifty-five canvases.
2:07:00.193,2:07:02.752
The Berlin press is here in force
2:07:02.872,2:07:06.473
including Adolf Rosenberg,[br]of Kunstchronik
2:07:06.792,2:07:10.952
and a representative from[br]the conservative National Zeitung.
2:07:11.872,2:07:15.113
Here in the Berlin[br]of Kaiser Wilhelm II
2:07:15.232,2:07:18.392
"impressionism"[br]is still a term of abuse.
2:07:18.792,2:07:22.312
The Kaiser himself,[br]who once referred to Richard Wagner
2:07:22.432,2:07:25.192
as "a cheap little conductor,"
2:07:25.352,2:07:28.072
is dedicated to fighting[br]what he calls
2:07:28.192,2:07:30.073
"the un-German type of art"
2:07:30.192,2:07:33.032
or "art of the gutter."
2:07:38.352,2:07:41.392
The entire exhibition is a mockery.
2:07:41.712,2:07:43.113
Every painting!
2:07:43.832,2:07:45.472
The man must be mad.
2:07:46.632,2:07:48.632
The colours are so unnatural.
2:07:50.992,2:07:54.392
Within a matter of days,[br]the exhibition of these paintings
2:07:54.753,2:07:58.193
the like of which has never before[br]been seen in Germany
2:07:58.312,2:08:01.473
has broken into a notorious scandal.
2:08:07.513,2:08:09.552
We haven't had a revolution!
2:08:09.872,2:08:14.872
Just think of people's reaction![br]To invite someone who...
2:08:15.353,2:08:17.232
Hermann Eschke, sculptor
2:08:17.393,2:08:21.672
professor at the Berlin Academy of Art,[br]seen here in the foreground
2:08:22.152,2:08:25.952
has raised a petition amongst[br]the conservative members of the Verein
2:08:26.112,2:08:29.193
to force through[br]the immediate removal
2:08:29.712,2:08:31.832
of Munch's "anarchistic smears."
2:08:32.952,2:08:36.313
The conservative majority[br]is led by Anton Von Werner
2:08:36.432,2:08:39.792
a painter of court and[br]battle scenes for the Kaiser.
2:08:39.912,2:08:42.832
Von Werner, strongly attacked[br]by the liberals
2:08:43.193,2:08:46.112
who refer to him as a[br]"boots and uniform" painter
2:08:46.992,2:08:50.192
urges the removal[br]of Munch's "Schmiererei."
2:08:54.392,2:08:57.072
This rubbish doesn't belong here.
2:09:05.792,2:09:07.352
In opposition to these conservatives
2:09:08.112,2:09:10.712
is the small caucus of liberal artists
2:09:10.832,2:09:14.272
amongst them Ludwig Knaus[br]who argue
2:09:14.472,2:09:17.873
not so much for Munch's[br]freedom of expression
2:09:17.992,2:09:21.993
as against the social incorrectness[br]of the Berlin Academy
2:09:22.112,2:09:24.992
for throwing out an invited guest.
2:09:29.872,2:09:32.912
Amid reports[br]of anarchist activities in Paris
2:09:33.032,2:09:35.713
and rising beer taxes in Bavaria
2:09:36.032,2:09:39.392
the German newspapers headline[br]"the struggle taking place
2:09:39.672,2:09:41.032
within the Verein."
2:09:48.352,2:09:50.592
We must be united[br]on objective grounds.
2:09:51.272,2:09:53.312
That's nonsense! No!
2:09:53.992,2:09:56.712
We'll withdraw from the Society
2:09:56.912,2:09:59.592
if the exhibition is closed down.
2:10:01.672,2:10:04.392
On the 11th of November,[br]a conservative bloc carry
2:10:04.672,2:10:07.673
the vote to close the exhibition
2:10:07.792,2:10:11.832
and Munch is ordered[br]to remove his "Schmiererei."
2:10:12.992,2:10:15.832
The Kunstchronik charges[br]Edvard Munch
2:10:15.992,2:10:20.192
with "brutality, crudity[br]and baseness of expression."
2:10:20.833,2:10:25.312
The National Zeitung accuses[br]"this man E. Blunch"
2:10:25.392,2:10:29.832
of selling himself body and soul[br]to the French Impressionists.
2:10:31.712,2:10:35.752
Edvard Munch has arrived[br]in Imperial Germany.
2:10:45.192,2:10:49.352
One critic even states[br]that Munch knows next to nothing
2:10:49.472,2:10:51.232
and should only exhibit
2:10:51.392,2:10:55.032
if he is in dire peril[br]of dying of starvation.
2:10:59.112,2:11:03.192
I went to the Rotunda for a laugh.
2:11:03.192,2:11:06.832
Theodor Wolff,[br]editor of the Berliner Tageblatt.
2:11:09.792,2:11:12.632
But, by God, I didn't laugh.
2:11:13.712,2:11:20.032
I found a great deal that was[br]strange, even disgusting
2:11:20.792,2:11:25.792
but I also found tones that[br]were delicate, almost too sensitive.
2:11:27.112,2:11:32.352
A dark room washed through[br]with moonlight.
2:11:33.592,2:11:35.792
Lonely roads.
2:11:36.872,2:11:39.992
The secretive Norwegian[br]summer night.
2:11:41.352,2:11:46.352
I felt as though I heard[br]the breathing of melancholy people
2:11:46.472,2:11:49.032
struggling with their problems.
2:11:49.792,2:11:52.432
No sound came from their breasts.
2:11:52.832,2:11:55.672
They sat alone by the shore.
2:11:56.312,2:11:58.232
By God, I did not laugh.
2:12:06.912,2:12:10.072
Munch, choosing to be true[br]to his vision
2:12:10.192,2:12:13.192
has painted the clouds[br]over the Kristiania fjord
2:12:13.352,2:12:15.672
as he saw and felt them.
2:12:16.392,2:12:20.232
He argues that if he experienced[br]clouds as blood
2:12:20.392,2:12:22.312
during an agitated mood
2:12:22.472,2:12:25.272
then that is how[br]he should paint them.
2:12:36.232,2:12:39.792
Accompanied by his[br]"anarchistic Schmiererei"
2:12:39.952,2:12:42.712
Edvard Munch moves into[br]the room of a hotel
2:12:42.832,2:12:45.072
in the Charlottenburg[br]district of Berlin.
2:12:46.312,2:12:50.152
Memories and images[br]stored for over 20 years
2:12:50.272,2:12:52.312
are about to break forth.
2:12:53.192,2:12:56.912
All that is needed[br]is one final catalyst.
2:12:57.992,2:13:00.952
On the corner of Neue Wilhelmstraße[br]and Unter den Linden
2:13:01.072,2:13:04.832
is a tavern, serving[br]over nine hundred kinds of liquor
2:13:04.992,2:13:07.112
and nicknamed "The Black Pig"
2:13:07.392,2:13:09.192
a meeting place for writers.
2:13:09.352,2:13:13.112
Amongst them, now living in Berlin,[br]August Strindberg
2:13:13.192,2:13:17.432
who holds court in "The Black Pig",[br]where, in the words of a historian
2:13:17.752,2:13:21.912
"he is virtually a tourist attraction[br]for the intelligentsia."
2:13:23.152,2:13:24.952
Laura Marholm, journalist
2:13:25.072,2:13:28.352
who with her husband has given[br]financial aid to Strindberg
2:13:28.672,2:13:33.152
a source of growing resentment to the[br]poverty-stricken Swedish celebrity.
2:13:33.352,2:13:35.672
With Strindberg in this room
2:13:35.752,2:13:39.232
are as many Scandinavians[br]as there are Germans.
2:13:40.312,2:13:44.072
Christian Krohg, who has accompanied[br]his wife Oda to Berlin
2:13:44.192,2:13:46.392
where he watches[br]her intense love affair
2:13:46.912,2:13:49.991
with the Norwegian author[br]Gunnar Heiberg.
2:13:50.992,2:13:55.392
Sigbjørn Obstfelder and,[br]next to him, Bengt Lidforss
2:13:56.112,2:13:57.671
Swedish botanical student
2:13:57.792,2:14:00.992
recently engaged[br]to a 12 year-old girl.
2:14:01.992,2:14:05.392
Hermann Schlittgen,[br]painter and engraver.
2:14:06.952,2:14:09.352
In this room, a centre[br]of the literary storm
2:14:09.432,2:14:11.232
that is to sweep over Europe
2:14:11.472,2:14:14.792
are those who have already[br]rejected Naturalism
2:14:14.912,2:14:17.912
who are now seeking[br]an artistic or literary means
2:14:18.032,2:14:21.312
of presenting the interior[br]macrocosm of the soul
2:14:22.072,2:14:25.312
peering into[br]the darkest abyss of man.
2:14:25.472,2:14:27.672
Here, in the words of a historian
2:14:27.792,2:14:31.792
ideas change hands[br]"faster than mistresses."
2:14:31.912,2:14:35.272
Here the writers feed upon[br]the staccato genius in their midst
2:14:36.392,2:14:40.191
August Strindberg,[br]in self-exile from Sweden
2:14:40.312,2:14:43.071
where he has been condemned[br]as a blasphemer
2:14:43.192,2:14:46.832
where educationalists clamour[br]for the suppression of his books
2:14:46.992,2:14:50.792
and where he is spat upon[br]by parents in the streets.
2:14:51.192,2:14:53.832
Within this room, all is discussed:
2:14:53.992,2:14:58.312
art, black magic, spiritualism,[br]the philosophy of Nietzsche
2:14:58.831,2:15:01.952
the erotic work of[br]the Belgian etcher, Felicien Raps
2:15:02.072,2:15:06.912
such as Thievery and[br]Prostitution Rule The World.
2:15:09.792,2:15:13.832
Richard Dehmel, currently writing[br]a cycle of poems about sex
2:15:13.952,2:15:18.912
their purpose to raise sexual love[br]to the level of religious mysticism
2:15:19.032,2:15:20.392
shortly to be prosecuted
2:15:20.832,2:15:24.792
because of his description[br]of a nun masturbating.
2:15:25.472,2:15:27.152
Stanislaw Przybyszewski,
2:15:27.272,2:15:30.032
Polish-German author[br]and medical student
2:15:30.192,2:15:34.392
involved with the occult,[br]studies satanism
2:15:34.952,2:15:38.232
who rewrote the opening[br]of the Gospel of St. John to read:
2:15:38.392,2:15:41.112
"In the beginning there was sex..."
2:15:47.752,2:15:49.392
And Edvard Munch
2:15:49.472,2:15:52.191
famous overnight[br]as the centre of a storm
2:15:52.272,2:15:56.232
that has rocked the German art world[br]to its very foundations.
2:15:56.392,2:16:01.832
Already he has received invitations[br]to exhibit in Düsseldorf and Cologne
2:16:02.191,2:16:05.272
and he has been prevailed upon[br]by the Berlin intellectuals
2:16:05.392,2:16:08.791
to make his home here in Germany.
2:16:26.471,2:16:28.192
Of all the men in this room
2:16:28.352,2:16:32.312
two will have the most marked effect[br]upon the work of Edvard Munch.
2:16:33.232,2:16:36.952
Stanislaw Przybyszewski[br]who is to later believe that
2:16:37.152,2:16:39.152
his passionate interpretation[br]of Chopin
2:16:39.231,2:16:42.152
will have more meaning[br]for German literature
2:16:42.352,2:16:43.712
than all his writing
2:16:43.832,2:16:46.472
and August Strindberg, divorced
2:16:46.791,2:16:49.192
separated from the children[br]he adores
2:16:49.312,2:16:52.832
who presents the "Black Pig"[br]with a triple credo:
2:16:53.231,2:16:55.151
woman the inferior
2:16:55.352,2:16:57.071
woman the whore
2:16:57.312,2:17:00.672
woman the man-weakening vampire.
2:17:11.471,2:17:17.832
There are paintings everywhere[br]in Munch's hotel room,
2:17:18.591,2:17:22.991
on the sofa, on the cupboard[br]and on all the chairs,
2:17:23.712,2:17:28.152
even on the stove[br]and on the washbasin.
2:17:47.752,2:17:52.032
Amongst the group in "The Black Pig"[br]is Laura Marholm's husband
2:17:52.191,2:17:54.352
the Swedish poet, Ola Hansson
2:17:54.872,2:17:58.872
who has had to leave his country[br]following the reaction to his publication
2:17:59.272,2:18:01.312
of a collection of short stories
2:18:01.671,2:18:05.791
describing man's split[br]emotional sex life.
2:18:07.912,2:18:12.071
Ola Hansson tells Munch that[br]he suffers from a fear of life
2:18:12.392,2:18:13.991
constantly seeing "Death...
2:18:15.391,2:18:18.192
following him like his own shadow."
2:18:18.432,2:18:21.752
I have little faith in your struggle
2:18:21.951,2:18:23.591
for emancipation.
2:18:24.472,2:18:29.111
The equality which you strive for[br]means that I cut off my penis
2:18:29.272,2:18:32.391
and you put it into yourself[br]and then we're all equal.
2:18:38.192,2:18:40.712
Right now all women hate Buddhas,
2:18:40.871,2:18:43.631
hate and humiliate them,
2:18:43.872,2:18:48.831
well knowing that they will[br]never become Buddhas.
2:18:55.991,2:19:01.392
Dagny Juel, age 26, daughter of[br]a Norwegian country doctor
2:19:01.471,2:19:03.992
who has come to Berlin[br]to study the piano
2:19:04.152,2:19:06.752
and who has been introduced[br]to "The Black Pig"
2:19:06.872,2:19:09.711
by her family friend,[br]Edvard Munch.
2:19:13.192,2:19:17.272
On the other hand, she feels[br]a sort of instinctive sympathy
2:19:17.391,2:19:22.112
for beggars, braggarts,[br]liars and dogs,
2:19:22.311,2:19:23.752
especially mangy ones.
2:19:26.311,2:19:30.032
Under the eyes of Przybyszewski[br]who is in love with her
2:19:30.192,2:19:33.431
Dagny Juel now becomes[br]the mistress of Edvard Munch.
2:19:34.152,2:19:37.791
Being married is the only way[br]women have to survive.
2:19:37.992,2:19:42.071
You simply can't exist[br]without a man.
2:19:44.472,2:19:47.512
If we leave you,[br]you fall like ninepins.
2:19:52.432,2:19:53.672
You want the women
2:19:53.831,2:19:55.272
submitted to you.
2:19:57.431,2:20:00.311
I can manage[br]with or without them.
2:20:00.431,2:20:02.672
- Are you sure?[br]- Absolutely.
2:20:03.591,2:20:06.392
Why is there a woman[br]beside you then?
2:20:34.672,2:20:37.751
At this time, Edvard Munch[br]is beginning to suffer
2:20:37.911,2:20:39.472
from agoraphobia,
2:20:39.872,2:20:42.232
a fear of open spaces.
2:20:44.191,2:20:48.112
He walks close to walls[br]and dreads to cross an open square.
2:20:51.431,2:20:53.152
I do as I please.
2:20:59.391,2:21:01.392
The year 1893.
2:21:01.871,2:21:04.191
There is a general strike in Belgium
2:21:04.312,2:21:07.432
serious riots[br]suppressed by the police.
2:21:07.992,2:21:10.231
Hermann Göring is born.
2:21:10.391,2:21:13.671
And Peter Iljich Tchaikovsky dies.
2:21:15.311,2:21:17.992
Not the slightest artistic tradition
2:21:18.191,2:21:22.552
or affinity with[br]accepted artistic ideals
2:21:22.792,2:21:27.432
can be found in Blunch[br]or his colleagues.
2:21:33.271,2:21:36.191
Here, in the Germany[br]of Kaiser Wilhelm II
2:21:36.392,2:21:40.792
Edvard Munch begins work on the[br]subjective image of a naked woman
2:21:41.231,2:21:45.751
seen as from the viewpoint of[br]her partner in sexual intercourse.
2:21:45.952,2:21:49.471
Around her head,[br]the halo of a Madonna.
2:21:50.792,2:21:53.711
For his exterior model,[br]Munch uses Dagny Juel.
2:21:56.991,2:21:58.192
Dagny Juel...
2:21:58.791,2:22:01.111
described by Strindberg as...
2:22:01.271,2:22:05.872
"tall, thin, haggard[br]from liquor and late hours
2:22:06.351,2:22:11.431
"speaking with a drawling voice[br]broken as if by swallowed tears
2:22:12.192,2:22:17.191
"with the figure of a Madonna and[br]a laughter that drove men insane."
2:22:24.191,2:22:26.391
Strindberg has discussed with Munch
2:22:26.712,2:22:30.392
fear and distaste[br]at the idea of his sperm
2:22:30.672,2:22:33.391
coming in contact with[br]the sperm of another man
2:22:33.751,2:22:36.671
in the vagina[br]of their common mistress.
2:22:36.872,2:22:39.911
He believes that this meeting[br]of similar poles
2:22:40.191,2:22:42.791
sensual contact with another male
2:22:42.951,2:22:45.191
is so unbearable and horrible
2:22:45.752,2:22:50.152
that the normal man would often[br]even prefer death.
2:22:54.911,2:22:59.072
"I run on. I am filled[br]with increasing anguish.
2:22:59.431,2:23:02.871
"No one speaks to one another.[br]No one smiles at one another.
2:23:03.031,2:23:05.272
"They rush off as though whipped."
2:23:13.551,2:23:16.711
So it is difficult to distinguish[br]a human form
2:23:16.792,2:23:21.191
or even to determine[br]the nature of an object at all.
2:23:29.151,2:23:31.391
But he was so frightened.
2:23:32.471,2:23:34.911
He felt the blood run[br]through his chest.
2:23:37.391,2:23:38.992
1893.
2:23:39.191,2:23:43.311
An army bill increases the size[br]of the German armed forces.
2:23:44.111,2:23:49.272
An anarchist bomb explodes in[br]the Paris Chamber of Deputies.
2:23:50.951,2:23:55.231
When he breathed it felt as though[br]his chest had come loose
2:23:55.992,2:23:59.552
and all his blood poured[br]through his mouth.
2:24:03.591,2:24:05.511
Jesus Christ!
2:24:08.391,2:24:12.712
Strindberg has posed to Munch[br]the question, "What is jealousy?"
2:24:13.911,2:24:15.872
and has answered
2:24:16.271,2:24:19.151
"Jealousy is not[br]the fear of losing
2:24:19.271,2:24:21.951
"but the fear of dividing."
2:24:24.392,2:24:26.032
Przybyszewski feels differently.
2:24:26.432,2:24:30.191
He believes that no man[br]should possess another human being
2:24:30.272,2:24:33.471
and has even offered the key[br]of his apartment to Strindberg
2:24:33.911,2:24:38.232
so that he may avail himself of[br]Przybyszewski's common-in-law wife.
2:24:38.991,2:24:41.191
Strindberg has declined.
2:24:43.992,2:24:45.391
Przybyszewski tells Munch
2:24:45.751,2:24:49.191
that he believes sex[br]to be life's basic substance
2:24:49.391,2:24:52.191
and the inner essence[br]of individuality
2:24:52.311,2:24:56.671
the ever-creating, the transforming[br]and the destructive.
2:24:57.191,2:25:00.671
Sex created the brain,[br]says Przybyszewski
2:25:00.951,2:25:04.191
but between them there will[br]always be a constant fight
2:25:04.351,2:25:08.791
that will inevitably lead[br]to death and destruction.
2:25:12.311,2:25:15.832
Three years from now, in 1896
2:25:16.391,2:25:20.431
Dagny Juel, accompanied[br]by Stanislaw Przybyszewski
2:25:21.151,2:25:26.071
will travel to the Russian city[br]of Tiflis to meet with a lover
2:25:26.792,2:25:29.311
who will shoot her through the head
2:25:29.672,2:25:32.391
and then himself commit suicide.
2:25:39.871,2:25:42.351
I feel better now.
2:25:42.631,2:25:44.831
May I look out the window?
2:25:51.271,2:25:54.031
Working simultaneously[br]on themes of love
2:25:54.191,2:25:56.911
pain, despair and death
2:25:57.471,2:26:00.711
searching for the ever-elusive[br]artistic solution
2:26:00.831,2:26:03.151
to the expression of his feelings
2:26:03.711,2:26:06.751
Edvard Munch turns now to tempera,
2:26:07.071,2:26:10.391
the use of egg-white[br]to roughen the quality of the oil
2:26:10.711,2:26:13.231
to flatten and condense the image.
2:26:13.832,2:26:17.791
He begins a new canvas[br]depicting the death of his sister
2:26:17.911,2:26:23.071
one of a series to deal with the[br]grief and isolation of his family...
2:26:23.951,2:26:24.952
of himself.
2:26:29.671,2:26:32.191
God bless you, my child.
2:26:33.751,2:26:38.112
Munch depicts himself,[br]his brothers and sisters
2:26:38.231,2:26:43.391
at the same age as if these events[br]were happening in the present.
2:26:49.311,2:26:53.071
- Something to drink?[br]- Yes, please.
2:27:22.991,2:27:24.991
Do you have a nice hotel room?
2:27:51.991,2:27:54.351
What do you think of the girls?
2:28:01.551,2:28:03.751
Perhaps you'd like a chubby girl?
2:28:10.791,2:28:11.871
In her will
2:28:12.071,2:28:13.791
Mother asked us
2:28:14.431,2:28:18.431
to be good
2:28:19.591,2:28:21.631
and to love Jesus.
2:28:23.951,2:28:26.831
We all had to promise her
2:28:27.071,2:28:31.591
that we would go on[br]believing in Jesus.
2:28:31.871,2:28:33.911
I am so fond of the dark.
2:28:40.271,2:28:45.031
Munch paints his Madonna with[br]what he calls "a corpse's smile"...
2:28:45.751,2:28:47.751
the moment of conception.
2:28:47.831,2:28:50.791
"Life shakes the hand of death."
2:29:04.711,2:29:08.591
Is it the whole night[br]or only half an hour?
2:29:11.191,2:29:12.271
The night.
2:29:12.471,2:29:14.471
30 marks, please.
2:29:15.151,2:29:17.831
At some time in this period,[br]Strindberg
2:29:17.991,2:29:21.431
who is now courting[br]an Austrian woman living in Berlin
2:29:21.791,2:29:24.471
takes Dagny Juel as his mistress.
2:29:24.911,2:29:29.391
Referring to himself as "Andersson",[br]he writes in his notes:
2:29:29.791,2:29:34.711
"Andersson liberates her from the[br]anxiety of a disorderly way of living.
2:29:34.871,2:29:37.831
"The hollow cheeks are filled out[br]with fiery blood.
2:29:37.991,2:29:40.951
"The creator admires his creation.
2:29:41.071,2:29:46.191
"The painter is ignored[br]and accepts it without protest."
2:29:49.031,2:29:50.831
Good you have time.
2:29:53.111,2:29:54.991
It's much better.
2:30:03.191,2:30:04.431
Thank you.
2:30:50.231,2:30:54.751
"A kiss, a kiss is not a sin."
2:31:11.351,2:31:14.111
Munch begins work on a canvas
2:31:14.231,2:31:18.111
showing a woman bent over[br]the neck of a weakened man.
2:31:18.951,2:31:23.191
He says of this painting that[br]"in reality, all it is
2:31:23.390,2:31:27.791
"is a woman kissing a man[br]on the nape of the neck."
2:31:28.231,2:31:31.391
He calls the painting[br]Love and Pain.
2:31:32.430,2:31:36.071
But to Przybyszewski,[br]the work depicts Woman
2:31:36.191,2:31:38.791
sucking the strength from a man.
2:31:39.111,2:31:42.191
He re-titles the painting[br]The Vampire.
2:31:42.951,2:31:46.071
Munch lets the new title stay.
2:31:56.990,2:31:58.831
I need you.
2:32:01.671,2:32:04.071
The woman known as Mrs Heiberg
2:32:04.191,2:32:08.311
divorces her husband[br]on the 4th April 1891
2:32:08.991,2:32:11.110
and remarries a month later.
2:32:11.871,2:32:17.191
Her ex-husband, the doctor,[br]dies shortly afterwards.
2:32:20.310,2:32:21.351
Well, Strindberg?
2:32:21.471,2:32:25.031
What do you think of[br]love and marriage?
2:32:25.591,2:32:28.270
Have you known love in marriage?
2:32:30.511,2:32:35.151
- I can't see my children.[br]- Do you miss your children?
2:32:36.791,2:32:40.831
- Yes, very much.[br]- Is that love?
2:32:44.590,2:32:47.071
All women are bloody whores.
2:32:53.711,2:32:55.311
February 1893.
2:32:55.871,2:32:58.071
Edvard Munch is in Copenhagen.
2:32:58.191,2:33:01.271
The first exposure of his work[br]in Denmark.
2:33:01.431,2:33:03.910
It is his 15th exhibition.
2:33:07.791,2:33:09.830
Munch uses the occasion to study
2:33:10.111,2:33:13.271
the effect of his paintings[br]placed next to one another
2:33:13.471,2:33:16.191
in the order of[br]their developing theme
2:33:16.311,2:33:17.831
for now he is planning
2:33:17.991,2:33:19.351
and working on
2:33:19.471,2:33:23.751
a whole cycle of paintings[br]that will link together
2:33:23.911,2:33:27.151
a Frieze of Life,[br]as Munch calls it
2:33:27.271,2:33:29.871
to unfold the very meaning
2:33:30.031,2:33:32.430
of nature and existence.
2:33:33.351,2:33:35.951
It's so calm.
2:33:40.911,2:33:42.391
May I kiss you?
2:33:52.391,2:33:54.670
Munch returns to Berlin.
2:33:55.031,2:33:58.230
The Danish critics echo[br]the Norwegians and the Germans:
2:33:59.151,2:34:02.231
"Some of the pictures[br]are shockingly bad."
2:34:02.431,2:34:05.471
"There is little hope that[br]the artist's talent will develop."
2:34:05.591,2:34:07.631
Do you sleep better now?
2:34:10.231,2:34:13.990
"The disease is almost[br]certainly incurable."
2:34:35.711,2:34:44.151
The last Sunday Pappa and I[br]went up Liabrubakken to church
2:34:45.591,2:34:52.471
I remember that I said,[br]"You're very like Edvard today."
2:34:54.911,2:34:59.151
"Am I?" he replied happily[br]and straightened himself up.
2:34:59.991,2:35:03.431
Look what I bought from[br]Helgelandsmoen, Edvard.
2:35:06.830,2:35:10.311
Is it wine? It doesn't look[br]very good.
2:35:21.671,2:35:26.351
When he comes home at night,[br]he often starts to paint
2:35:26.990,2:35:32.590
and if you visit him in the morning,[br]you may trip over a palette
2:35:32.710,2:35:37.510
and a new painting[br]in some crazy position.
2:35:38.750,2:35:42.791
By the early Spring[br]Strindberg writes of Dagny Juel:
2:35:43.391,2:35:46.710
"When the spark has leaped[br]and the currents are neutralised
2:35:46.870,2:35:49.431
"he discovers that she is ugly.
2:35:49.911,2:35:52.791
"When he remembers[br]how she has offered herself
2:35:52.951,2:35:55.991
"he is overwhelmed[br]by revulsion for her body."
2:35:56.111,2:36:02.111
Did you know how I suffered?[br]Did you understand why I was hard?
2:36:03.791,2:36:08.351
I wasn't myself.[br]She was in me, in my blood.
2:36:11.071,2:36:14.430
Inger promised for all of us
2:36:15.110,2:36:16.951
that we'd be true to God.
2:36:22.191,2:36:25.950
Strindberg first offers Dagny Juel[br]to the student Lidforss
2:36:26.070,2:36:28.231
who is known to be in love with her.
2:36:28.390,2:36:31.870
But Lidforss tells Strindberg[br]that he cannot accept.
2:36:32.191,2:36:34.430
He is suffering from syphilis.
2:36:43.390,2:36:46.670
Strindberg then turns to[br]his next alternative
2:36:46.831,2:36:50.311
Doctor Ludwig Schleich,[br]a habitué of the Black Pig.
2:36:50.711,2:36:52.990
Schleich accepts.
2:36:53.551,2:36:54.910
A man can't live
2:36:55.071,2:36:58.870
more than three or four years[br]with the same woman.
2:36:59.311,2:37:04.111
One must make new discoveries.
2:37:04.510,2:37:11.151
By loving one, can't we love[br]many at the same time?
2:37:11.630,2:37:13.430
You want to be men,
2:37:13.670,2:37:15.030
not human beings.
2:37:15.190,2:37:17.790
One should strive[br]to be a human being.
2:37:18.750,2:37:22.430
Both men and women[br]derive strength
2:37:23.191,2:37:25.750
from being united[br]in front of everyone.
2:37:27.390,2:37:30.071
Women have become[br]more and more manly.
2:37:30.471,2:37:36.071
They strive for humanity but[br]in that they see only manliness.
2:37:44.031,2:37:48.390
Has anyone tried to love a woman[br]who walks like a man,
2:37:49.151,2:37:53.351
talks like a man, moves like a man?
2:37:54.311,2:37:57.670
It's like loving a man[br]who acts like a woman.
2:37:58.311,2:37:59.431
Disgusting!
2:38:10.710,2:38:13.070
Przybyszewski says of this painting:
2:38:13.391,2:38:15.910
"A man broken in spirit
2:38:16.031,2:38:19.271
"on his neck the face[br]of a biting vampire."
2:38:19.390,2:38:24.111
"There is something terribly silent,[br]passionless about this picture.
2:38:38.111,2:38:41.911
"The man spins around and around,[br]powerless.
2:38:42.390,2:38:47.031
"He cannot rid himself[br]of that vampire nor of the pain
2:38:47.190,2:38:52.310
"and the woman will always sit there,[br]will bite eternally."
2:39:02.111,2:39:05.190
In his canvas[br]Death in the Sickroom
2:39:05.310,2:39:10.150
contrasted to the detailed, staring[br]face of his younger sister Inger
2:39:10.670,2:39:12.231
Munch depicts himself
2:39:12.391,2:39:18.271
turned away, in profile,[br]his face a blank mask.
2:39:18.551,2:39:22.830
He was very happy that Edvard[br]had received the scholarship.
2:39:23.870,2:39:29.470
But he was sorry he had forgotten[br]to send Edvard's Bible.
2:39:31.991,2:39:35.230
I've written to Edvard[br]to say he must buy one.
2:39:37.471,2:39:39.030
At this period
2:39:39.190,2:39:43.310
as he paints Mrs Heiberg[br]standing outside her summer cottage
2:39:43.430,2:39:45.870
her shadow looming large
2:39:45.991,2:39:50.990
the psychic and sexual tension of[br]Edvard Munch is at an unbearable peak.
2:39:51.471,2:39:54.030
Constantly his nerves[br]are at breaking point
2:39:54.191,2:39:57.030
as he struggles to find[br]the artistic solution
2:39:57.190,2:39:59.110
to expressing his feelings.
2:40:00.791,2:40:05.711
He is isolated from his family,[br]separated for ever from his father.
2:40:05.830,2:40:08.990
His work is rejected[br]in his own country.
2:40:09.110,2:40:13.951
He watches his mistress, Dagny Juel,[br]pass from one hand to another.
2:40:14.270,2:40:19.031
His bronchial condition is worsening.[br]He is drinking heavily.
2:40:19.591,2:40:23.790
It's far too dangerous[br]to share a woman with another man.
2:40:23.991,2:40:31.190
If a man mounts a woman[br]who has just been with another man,
2:40:31.511,2:40:37.790
the preceding man's sperm will enter[br]the organ of the man now mounting her.
2:40:40.350,2:40:45.231
He believes that he is going insane,[br]that he is about to die.
2:41:13.790,2:41:16.430
The affair between Dagny Juel[br]and Ludwig Schleich
2:41:16.750,2:41:20.191
lasts, again, for only two weeks.
2:41:20.710,2:41:24.830
Strindberg then agrees to help[br]Schleich pass Dagny on to another man
2:41:24.950,2:41:28.790
and now offers her[br]to Stanislaw Przybyszewski.
2:41:28.950,2:41:31.711
Strindberg himself is in good spirits[br]at this time.
2:41:31.830,2:41:34.390
He is about to leave Berlin[br]for his marriage.
2:41:34.670,2:41:36.791
He declares himself to be in love
2:41:36.910,2:41:40.150
and glad to be rid of[br]the "wretched woman DJ."
2:41:53.230,2:41:57.270
You're disfiguring yourself![br]You'll die. Ugly and stinking.
2:41:58.550,2:42:02.390
And I, I shall drink wine[br]with exultant women.
2:42:03.030,2:42:04.270
I shall laugh
2:42:04.870,2:42:06.431
even more!
2:42:11.190,2:42:15.710
At this time in Berlin,[br]a party is held in "The Black Pig."
2:42:16.470,2:42:22.950
Accompanied by the sound of the sea[br]Oda Krohg and an ex-lover of Strindberg
2:42:23.110,2:42:28.390
dance in the centre of the room[br]with crab-tails placed in their hair.
2:42:57.070,2:43:02.350
With Sigbjørn Obstfelder,[br]Edvard Munch briefly visits Kristiania.
2:43:03.190,2:43:05.710
At the same time, in Berlin
2:43:05.790,2:43:10.310
Dagny Juel is marrying[br]Stanislaw Przybyszewski.
2:43:25.190,2:43:28.510
This can't go on.[br]I can't put up with any more.
2:43:33.511,2:43:37.110
Emotions. I can't have emotions.
2:43:40.390,2:43:45.630
I wait and then she comes[br]and simply walks past with a smile.
2:43:56.430,2:44:00.030
"I look. I look at the white sky.
2:44:00.190,2:44:04.950
"I look at the Grey-blue clouds.[br]I look at the bloody sun.
2:44:05.990,2:44:10.271
"So this is the world.[br]This is the home of the planets.
2:44:11.030,2:44:12.630
"A drop of rain.
2:44:12.870,2:44:15.390
"I look at the high buildings.
2:44:15.510,2:44:19.910
"I look at the thousand windows,[br]at the distant church spire.
2:44:20.390,2:44:24.470
"So this is the world.[br]So this is the home of mankind.
2:44:25.070,2:44:28.750
"The Grey-blue clouds gather.[br]The sun disappears.
2:44:29.270,2:44:32.750
"I look at well-dressed gentlemen.[br]I look at smiling ladies.
2:44:32.990,2:44:38.030
"I look at leaning horses[br]and the Grey-blue clouds grow heavy.
2:44:38.710,2:44:40.910
"I look. I look.
2:44:41.430,2:44:45.590
"I must have come to the wrong globe.[br]Everything is so strange."
2:44:48.710,2:44:54.190
In late 1893, using pastel[br]on a base of cardboard
2:44:54.350,2:44:57.830
Edvard Munch creates The Shriek.
2:45:01.230,2:45:05.950
December 1893. A gallery on[br]the Unter den Linden in Berlin.
2:45:06.270,2:45:09.390
Edvard Munch's 24th exhibition.
2:45:09.750,2:45:13.230
Amongst the works exhibited[br]are 5 of his Life Frieze
2:45:13.390,2:45:16.110
listed in the catalogue[br]under the title
2:45:16.230,2:45:19.190
Studies for a Series on Love.
2:45:19.750,2:45:23.790
I placed the paintings together[br]and it was as though
2:45:23.990,2:45:26.550
each was connected to the others.
2:45:27.990,2:45:35.350
Then came a tone, a musical tone,[br]linking the pictures together.
2:45:38.590,2:45:44.550
So, if a relationship between[br]two people is to be sound
2:45:44.710,2:45:46.510
and I think it can be so
2:45:46.750,2:45:48.550
even if not for ever,
2:45:50.790,2:45:53.990
it must be based on mutual regard,
2:45:56.430,2:45:58.150
on tolerance.
2:46:02.790,2:46:07.950
In the wards of Oscar Kokoschka,[br]the Austrian Expressionist painter
2:46:09.190,2:46:13.790
"It was given to Edvard Munch's[br]deeply probing mind
2:46:13.910,2:46:16.990
"to diagnose 'panic dread'
2:46:17.110,2:46:20.430
"in what was apparently[br]social progress."
2:46:28.470,2:46:31.830
One member of the public[br]writes in his catalogue
2:46:32.070,2:46:36.430
that the exhibition is[br]"the world's greatest swindle.
2:46:37.030,2:46:41.870
"Junk! Take it all[br]to the insane asylum!"
2:46:44.429,2:46:47.030
And Munch himself has written
2:46:47.190,2:46:51.470
in pencil in the red sky[br]of The Shriek
2:46:52.670,2:46:56.390
"Could only have been painted[br]by a madman."
2:47:06.950,2:47:08.790
1894.
2:47:09.190,2:47:12.110
A canvas entitled Anxiety.
2:47:13.229,2:47:14.950
The faces of Edvard Munch
2:47:15.270,2:47:19.150
Stanislaw Przybyszewski[br]and Dagny Juel.
2:47:19.870,2:47:21.869
Here, as in "The Shriek"
2:47:21.990,2:47:26.830
the individual is in the grip of[br]something far beyond his control.
2:47:57.910,2:48:02.030
I have a friend who got married.
2:48:02.230,2:48:05.190
After two months he was a mess!
2:48:05.510,2:48:06.550
As if his wife
2:48:06.830,2:48:08.830
had drawn his teeth.
2:48:09.189,2:48:11.070
And his wife, then?
2:48:11.270,2:48:13.830
She was a dreadful bitch!
2:48:14.269,2:48:15.510
That's what she was!
2:48:15.629,2:48:17.350
Wasn't she disappointed?
2:48:17.950,2:48:22.470
She took everything from him.[br]She treated him like a dog.
2:48:23.070,2:48:26.350
She said come and he came.[br]She said go
2:48:26.590,2:48:27.830
and he wanted to go.
2:48:27.910,2:48:31.549
We had to pull him out[br]of her embrace
2:48:31.790,2:48:34.070
from between her breasts.
2:48:36.270,2:48:40.150
His eyes were quite ashen.[br]They were empty!
2:48:40.950,2:48:42.950
She was a dreadful bitch!
2:48:50.030,2:48:52.230
Munch has now completed[br]another three canvases:
2:48:54.029,2:48:57.350
a woman pressed into[br]the embrace of Death
2:48:58.110,2:49:01.989
the gaunt face of Przybyszewski[br]above his skeleton arm
2:49:02.750,2:49:05.350
and Dagny Juel, poised...
2:49:06.230,2:49:07.910
inviting.
2:49:29.910,2:49:32.350
You talk about your friend.
2:49:34.430,2:49:41.909
How do you think his wife felt[br]after an unsuccessful relationship?
2:49:42.390,2:49:47.230
Has she emerged from it proudly,[br]undamaged? Is she not marked?
2:49:47.389,2:49:48.990
She is thriving.
2:49:55.390,2:50:00.230
Przybyszewski has himself[br]published a short novel in which
2:50:00.670,2:50:03.709
the hero gives his wife to an artist
2:50:03.870,2:50:07.470
and luxuriates in the feelings[br]of hate and jealousy
2:50:07.790,2:50:10.110
that he has aroused in himself.
2:50:20.390,2:50:27.790
English doctors have proved that,[br]if two children lie together,
2:50:27.910,2:50:33.349
the weaker will absorb strength[br]from the stronger.
2:50:35.150,2:50:38.630
Which of them loses by it?[br]In bed, I mean.
2:50:39.629,2:50:40.950
The stronger.
2:50:41.429,2:50:42.550
And the male is
2:50:42.750,2:50:44.309
the one who is stronger?
2:50:46.070,2:50:46.909
Yes.
2:51:00.790,2:51:05.870
August Strindberg describes Munch's[br]canvas The Kiss as
2:51:07.390,2:51:09.910
"the fusion of two beings
2:51:09.990,2:51:13.789
"the smaller of which,[br]shaped like a carp
2:51:13.949,2:51:16.990
"seems on the point[br]of devouring the larger
2:51:17.109,2:51:19.029
"as is the habit of vermin
2:51:19.310,2:51:22.950
"microbes, vampires[br]and women."
2:51:33.870,2:51:37.590
Who did he get those ideas from?
2:51:39.510,2:51:42.989
Why does he see things like that?
2:51:43.590,2:51:45.629
I don't understand.
2:51:45.990,2:51:49.390
If you love a woman[br]and she loves you
2:51:49.989,2:51:52.629
it's a reciprocal relationship.
2:51:52.990,2:51:57.630
The tension which passes[br]from one to the other
2:51:57.990,2:52:01.910
also goes in the opposite direction.
2:52:02.590,2:52:05.069
I can't understand him.
2:52:06.430,2:52:08.269
But the future...
2:52:09.670,2:52:12.909
Must there be a struggle[br]between the sexes?
2:52:14.070,2:52:17.869
Must it be man against woman,[br]woman against man?
2:52:20.029,2:52:24.910
Since our souls were saved[br]together for Jesus' sake,
2:52:25.669,2:52:28.870
God be with you, Sophie,
2:52:29.470,2:52:32.630
little pale Edvard, Andreas
2:52:32.830,2:52:34.149
and Inger
2:52:35.070,2:52:40.310
and you, my kind, dear, unforgettable[br]self-sacrificing husband.
2:52:44.550,2:52:51.749
I have also written something[br]to Edvard, my eldest son.
2:52:55.149,2:52:59.470
"Do not covet that[br]which is on earth,
2:52:59.990,2:53:02.309
"but rather that[br]which is in heaven.
2:53:03.190,2:53:04.950
"Keep watch and pray.
2:53:06.990,2:53:08.550
"Your mother."
2:53:23.789,2:53:26.949
Munch creates yet another version[br]of Melancholy.
2:53:28.310,2:53:32.790
"Blank against the twisting,[br]sinuous shore of Åsgårdstrand.
2:53:33.389,2:53:37.669
"two rocks, like the black eyes[br]of a snake
2:53:37.910,2:53:39.709
"stare at him."
2:53:48.590,2:53:50.309
I can't go on.
2:53:55.870,2:53:58.870
A predominant characteristic[br]of Munch's work in this period
2:53:59.030,2:54:03.390
is the lack of contact between[br]the human beings in his paintings.
2:54:03.709,2:54:05.389
People remain isolated
2:54:05.669,2:54:08.789
even though in direct[br]physical contact.
2:54:09.150,2:54:11.789
The sensory organs disappear
2:54:11.870,2:54:13.749
faces become blank
2:54:13.869,2:54:17.350
hands are clubs or curved hooks
2:54:17.670,2:54:21.070
as the features of human contact[br]are eliminated.
2:54:22.150,2:54:23.990
For Edvard Munch himself
2:54:24.110,2:54:27.189
human contact[br]is becoming a matter of fear
2:54:27.349,2:54:31.110
fear of his own ego[br]dissolving into the psyche
2:54:31.189,2:54:33.389
and into the body of another.
2:54:50.030,2:54:57.150
Colours, brushwork[br]and lines express so much.
2:54:58.670,2:55:04.909
They're fantastic.[br]No artist can compete with him.
2:55:07.229,2:55:11.509
To be honest, I don't like[br]these paintings at all.
2:55:11.710,2:55:15.909
I'm no art expert[br]but they don't say anything to me.
2:55:16.109,2:55:18.589
I don't like his art at all.
2:55:18.989,2:55:25.989
So unnatural, the colours are[br]not natural: blue trees...
2:55:26.989,2:55:29.230
I don't like it.
2:55:29.749,2:55:33.790
His figures are[br]no more than suggested.
2:55:35.309,2:55:38.749
Munch makes[br]a powerful impression on me.
2:55:38.990,2:55:43.149
He reflects a great deal[br]of humanity in his paintings
2:55:44.269,2:55:48.749
and shows brutal reality,
2:55:48.990,2:55:50.829
as life is.
2:55:51.829,2:55:57.829
I'm a compatriot of Munch[br]and I've heard it said of him
2:55:58.470,2:56:02.629
that he's an awful,[br]dreadful man. But I like it.
2:56:02.830,2:56:06.950
He says something[br]about human beings
2:56:07.110,2:56:09.030
and he speaks to me.
2:56:10.309,2:56:15.829
I know a little about the situation.[br]I feel that he speaks the truth.
2:56:17.549,2:56:20.390
This is how I really believe it is.
2:56:44.390,2:56:48.829
Working in hotel bedrooms,[br]on park and railway station benches
2:56:48.950,2:56:50.990
in bars and restaurants
2:56:51.149,2:56:54.469
using the small piece of copper[br]which he carries in his pocket
2:56:54.749,2:56:57.789
Edvard Munch begins[br]his first engraving
2:56:57.949,2:57:01.349
the theme which he captured[br]the prior year on his canvas
2:57:01.670,2:57:03.709
Death And The Maiden.
2:57:03.829,2:57:07.069
A naked woman,[br]stretched on tip-toe
2:57:07.190,2:57:11.069
presses her full body[br]into the embrace of Death.
2:57:19.429,2:57:21.830
Towards the end of the 19th century
2:57:21.990,2:57:25.229
a new interest has developed[br]in the medium of the graphic.
2:57:25.389,2:57:27.269
In Germany, Munch
2:57:27.389,2:57:31.269
here in the company of a professor[br]of graphic art at Berlin University
2:57:31.389,2:57:34.750
studies the latest trends[br]in copper engraving.
2:57:34.870,2:57:37.989
In particular, the widely[br]published etchings
2:57:38.109,2:57:40.309
of the German Max Klinger.
2:57:41.069,2:57:46.789
Here his cycle of eight developing[br]studies entitled "Eine Liebe" -
2:57:46.909,2:57:48.310
A Love.
2:57:50.189,2:57:52.269
The technical brilliance[br]of Klinger's work
2:57:52.389,2:57:57.349
its painstakingly studied detail,[br]its use of black and white masses
2:57:57.469,2:58:00.349
its fashionable though[br]superficially treated themes
2:58:00.469,2:58:04.309
of eroticism and despair,[br]intrigue Munch
2:58:04.469,2:58:08.190
and reinforces his desire[br]to treat a similar cycle
2:58:08.350,2:58:11.989
on afar deeper[br]and more expressive level.
2:58:16.830,2:58:18.709
I met a young woman
2:58:20.069,2:58:22.109
on the street one evening.
2:58:22.549,2:58:24.629
Her eyes attracted me.
2:58:25.149,2:58:27.389
They were large childish eyes.
2:58:28.189,2:58:32.829
I looked at her. She turned[br]and we walked together.
2:58:34.629,2:58:37.469
"Do you want to come up?" I said.
2:58:38.749,2:58:42.589
In my room she seemed[br]a little shabbily dressed.
2:58:42.989,2:58:47.349
Her face was a little harrowed[br]but her eyes
2:58:47.549,2:58:49.189
were beautiful.
2:58:49.789,2:58:51.589
"Why did you come with me?" I said.
2:58:52.989,2:58:55.189
"That's why I walk the streets."
2:59:09.989,2:59:15.069
Munch writes in his diary:[br]"Ill, ill and lonely.
2:59:16.029,2:59:17.669
"He wanted to put his tired head
2:59:17.989,2:59:19.790
"on a soft lady's breast
2:59:21.389,2:59:25.029
"smell her perfume,[br]hear her heartbeat.
2:59:25.389,2:59:29.349
"Feel her soft curved breasts[br]to his cheek.
2:59:29.670,2:59:32.709
"And, when he looked up,[br]meet her look above him
2:59:33.189,2:59:38.069
"and then he would close his eyes[br]and feel her warm deep look
2:59:38.189,2:59:41.029
"and her soft, lustful smile.
2:59:41.870,2:59:45.829
"And then she would stroke[br]his hair softly downwards...
2:59:47.109,2:59:48.749
"downwards..."
3:00:18.989,3:00:21.869
In Munch's diaries[br]appear these words:
3:00:22.469,3:00:24.229
"I greeted.
3:00:24.349,3:00:26.829
"The girlfriend laughed a little.
3:00:26.989,3:00:29.429
"The pale one smiled a bit, too.
3:00:29.750,3:00:32.469
"May I introduce myself? Painter.
3:00:32.789,3:00:35.869
"I take the liberty...[br]I want to paint you.
3:00:36.989,3:00:40.669
"I bought half a bottle of port[br]and went to the studio with them."
3:00:49.829,3:00:51.789
"Then you'll come tomorrow?"
3:00:52.749,3:00:53.909
Yes.
3:00:55.390,3:00:57.149
She hid the flowers.
3:00:57.349,3:01:00.470
Neither her sister[br]or father had noticed.
3:01:01.549,3:01:03.829
They would have laughed.
3:01:05.909,3:01:08.549
He thought of her all day.
3:01:10.189,3:01:12.149
She looked tired.
3:01:13.229,3:01:14.829
But she was kind.
3:01:15.909,3:01:17.189
Was it true?
3:01:33.909,3:01:35.030
"They stopped.
3:01:35.429,3:01:39.389
"Brandt looked at the large house[br]sombre-looking between the trees.
3:01:40.109,3:01:42.349
"The maids had gone to bed.
3:01:42.469,3:01:45.029
"Then it was as if he was supposed[br]to say something
3:01:45.189,3:01:47.309
"but was unable to find the words.
3:01:48.189,3:01:51.069
"'I have to go,' she said slowly.
3:01:51.709,3:01:55.149
"He put out his hand[br]and took hers without shaking it.
3:01:56.349,3:01:59.229
"'Goodbye then,' he said and left."
3:02:31.189,3:02:33.389
"She was a swan.
3:02:33.709,3:02:37.389
"I lived down in the water[br]among slime and horrible animals
3:02:38.989,3:02:41.749
"remembered a time[br]when I lived up there.
3:02:42.029,3:02:45.389
"I forced myself up,[br]reached for the swan.
3:02:46.029,3:02:47.749
"Couldn't reach it.
3:02:47.989,3:02:51.309
"I saw my face, terribly pale.
3:02:51.469,3:02:56.189
"I heard a shriek and I knew[br]it was I who had cried.
3:02:57.349,3:03:00.389
"The swan was far away."
3:03:16.789,3:03:21.789
During the two years of 1893[br]and 1894, sometimes alone
3:03:21.989,3:03:25.708
sometimes with the help of[br]Adolf Paul, biographer of Strindberg
3:03:25.829,3:03:29.989
Edvard Munch lists, labels,[br]checks, crates and dispatches
3:03:30.109,3:03:32.909
upwards of 50 or 60 canvases
3:03:33.069,3:03:36.829
to each of nearly[br]a dozen major exhibitions:
3:03:36.989,3:03:41.109
Dresden, Breslau, Hamburg,[br]Berlin, Frankfurt.
3:03:41.389,3:03:44.669
He travels hundreds of miles[br]by train.
3:03:44.989,3:03:49.549
Sorrow... Sunset...
3:03:49.988,3:03:52.669
Countless hotel bedrooms
3:03:52.789,3:03:56.909
often working on three or four[br]canvases simultaneously
3:03:57.309,3:03:59.789
and always under attack.
3:04:57.029,3:05:00.669
In July 1894, at the age of 31
3:05:01.229,3:05:05.669
having painted for 14 years,[br]created some 80 canvases
3:05:06.149,3:05:08.349
organised 30 exhibitions
3:05:08.708,3:05:13.389
Edvard Munch receives his first[br]serious recognition as an artist
3:05:13.989,3:05:17.068
500 miles from his own homeland.
3:05:17.789,3:05:20.228
The publication in Berlin[br]of four essays
3:05:20.869,3:05:24.109
by the influential art-critic[br]Julius Meier-Graefe
3:05:24.269,3:05:25.669
Stanislaw Przybyszewski
3:05:26.309,3:05:27.989
and two other German critics.
3:05:30.709,3:05:33.429
The first evaluation[br]of Edvard Munch's art
3:05:33.789,3:05:36.669
and its importance[br]for the contemporary age.
3:05:39.909,3:05:42.749
Constantly seeking other forms[br]of graphic art
3:05:43.069,3:05:45.949
Munch moves to etching and aquatint
3:05:46.069,3:05:48.869
the use of acid to bite the image
3:05:48.989,3:05:53.069
and a base of cooked resin powder[br]to give added texture.
3:05:53.309,3:05:56.949
His theme, a man comforting[br]a crying woman.
3:05:59.909,3:06:03.349
What would I not give[br]if only I could once
3:06:03.549,3:06:08.788
put my arms about him and[br]tell him how fond of him I am.
3:06:09.509,3:06:12.389
Shyness always came between us.
3:06:13.988,3:06:16.389
At this time, Strindberg is in Paris
3:06:17.189,3:06:21.388
already separated from his wife,[br]living in the utmost poverty
3:06:21.668,3:06:26.909
engaged in chemical experiments[br]trying to make gold from copper
3:06:27.028,3:06:30.749
about to begin the writing[br]of his short story Inferno
3:06:31.189,3:06:34.789
an autobiographical study[br]of psychological collapse.
3:06:35.149,3:06:41.189
He had a stroke on Monday evening[br]and died three days later.
3:06:44.069,3:06:46.829
The book written by Meier-Graefe,
3:06:47.509,3:06:51.669
Przybyszewski and[br]the two other critics
3:06:52.429,3:06:55.189
becomes a milestone
3:06:56.149,3:07:00.309
in understanding[br]Edvard Munch's work.
3:07:01.708,3:07:07.549
A paraphrase of a line by Goethe
3:07:08.389,3:07:13.788
provides the best formula
3:07:13.909,3:07:18.229
for the impression[br]which it radiates:
3:07:18.429,3:07:21.429
"Here and now
3:07:21.628,3:07:29.229
"a new phase begins[br]in the history of art
3:07:29.509,3:07:33.668
"and you can say[br]that you witnessed it."
3:07:42.149,3:07:44.149
1894.
3:07:44.388,3:07:47.149
President Carnot of France[br]assassinated.
3:07:48.309,3:07:51.069
Alfred Dreyfus arrested.
3:07:51.788,3:07:55.429
In Sicily, food riots,[br]martial law
3:07:55.989,3:07:58.949
suppression of the Italian[br]socialist parties.
3:07:59.308,3:08:02.789
Japan declares war on China.
3:08:09.549,3:08:12.429
"How dark it grew at once.
3:08:12.829,3:08:15.749
"How vast and black the sky grew.
3:08:16.748,3:08:21.388
"Endless, listening,[br]the stillness of death.
3:08:21.909,3:08:27.468
"Close, close and far, far away.
3:08:29.469,3:08:33.068
"How dark it grew.[br]Stay with me tonight.
3:08:33.509,3:08:36.829
"My soul is frightened and anxious.
3:08:37.669,3:08:38.789
"The dark holds
3:08:38.909,3:08:40.789
"such strange shadows
3:08:41.548,3:08:44.748
"and the stillness[br]such strange tones.
3:08:46.309,3:08:52.189
"My friends leave and I sit alone,[br]deep into the night.
3:08:54.549,3:08:57.549
"What grows bright[br]over the mountains?
3:08:57.989,3:09:02.028
"What glows over the sea?[br]What glints in the dark?
3:09:02.389,3:09:04.468
"What burns in the wind?
3:09:06.148,3:09:08.669
"Not clouds against the red sky.
3:09:08.868,3:09:12.028
"Not the reflected light[br]of a dead day.
3:09:12.428,3:09:16.229
"It is fire which licks[br]and blood which runs
3:09:16.668,3:09:19.828
"A fiery sword and a fire-red river.
3:09:20.268,3:09:24.388
"It is the anguish of doomsday[br]and the torments of death.
3:09:24.748,3:09:28.669
"A scripture which blazes[br]through the halls of night.
3:09:29.028,3:09:32.109
"With the mysterious anguish of life.
3:09:34.469,3:09:37.709
"Deep in the night I sat alone.
3:09:38.468,3:09:42.908
"I felt how a pain-filled scream
3:09:43.189,3:09:46.828
"passed over the[br]Godforsaken world."
3:09:54.268,3:09:56.389
October 1894.
3:09:56.669,3:10:01.349
The first exposure of Munch's work[br]in Sweden, the land of Strindberg.
3:10:01.668,3:10:04.148
With one exception,[br]the critics are merciless
3:10:04.268,3:10:06.908
even discovering points of similarity
3:10:07.028,3:10:10.909
in the erotomaniac drawings[br]of the mentally deranged.
3:10:15.429,3:10:18.148
Edvard Munch returns to Berlin.
3:10:18.709,3:10:22.948
The Swedish Academy officially[br]repudiates Munch's work, stating
3:10:23.188,3:10:27.188
that the Academy allies itself[br]with "the verdict of rejection
3:10:27.348,3:10:31.349
"of which Edvard Munch has become[br]the object on the continent."
3:10:32.629,3:10:38.868
All the others, some with faces[br]red from tears and others white,
3:10:39.749,3:10:43.949
rang in Christmas,[br]while outside the bells tolled.
3:10:45.629,3:10:49.388
In the other room stood[br]the Christmas tree,
3:10:49.589,3:10:52.349
so gay and so sad.
3:10:52.988,3:10:54.429
Jesus, help me.
3:10:55.389,3:10:57.709
Will I go to heaven if I die?
3:10:58.828,3:11:02.428
I think so, my boy,[br]if you have faith.
3:11:04.908,3:11:08.028
Much of the tension in Edvard Munch[br]during these years
3:11:08.868,3:11:12.188
is his search for a "knot"[br]to tie together
3:11:12.349,3:11:15.148
the disparate themes[br]of his Life Frieze
3:11:15.909,3:11:18.868
to explain and clarify[br]and unite them.
3:11:19.148,3:11:21.989
Now, a theme emerges.
3:11:22.789,3:11:26.389
The triple aspect of Munch's[br]feelings for Woman:
3:11:27.148,3:11:29.828
the Temptress, the Devourer
3:11:29.988,3:11:32.789
for whom he has both a revulsion[br]and a deep longing
3:11:35.669,3:11:37.388
the Virgin, the Innocent
3:11:37.708,3:11:39.988
for whom he has respect
3:11:40.708,3:11:44.388
the Giver of Life, the Mother,[br]the Sacrifice
3:11:44.749,3:11:46.988
for whom he has compassion.
3:11:48.108,3:11:48.989
The complexity
3:11:49.109,3:11:52.149
of Munch's suffering, of his art
3:11:52.388,3:11:56.468
is that each of these three images,[br]for him...
3:11:57.909,3:12:00.748
are one and the same woman.
3:12:04.988,3:12:07.349
April 19, 1895.
3:12:08.268,3:12:12.348
Munch's younger brother Peter Andreas[br]marries Johanne Kinck
3:12:12.429,3:12:15.828
age 22, daughter of a headmaster
3:12:15.989,3:12:20.829
with, it is said,[br]the mental age of a girl of 12.
3:12:21.109,3:12:25.069
Munch writes: "He should not[br]have gone through with it.
3:12:25.228,3:12:29.068
"From father's side of the family[br]we inherited poor nerves.
3:12:29.309,3:12:32.668
"Then there was mother's[br]lung weakness..."
3:12:40.228,3:12:42.189
The year 1895.
3:12:42.349,3:12:45.708
H. G. Wells writes[br]The Time Machine.
3:12:45.828,3:12:49.108
Sigmund Freud founds[br]psychoanalysis.
3:12:49.469,3:12:52.148
Italian troops advance into Ethiopia.
3:12:52.909,3:12:56.189
And Edvard Munch creates[br]a new lithograph
3:12:56.349,3:12:59.749
Self-portrait with Skeleton Arm.
3:13:07.149,3:13:13.189
"Then I thanked her shortly[br]and accompanied her to the gate.
3:13:14.068,3:13:19.188
- "'Won't you come inside?'[br]- 'No, thanks, it's getting late. '
3:13:20.148,3:13:23.188
"She looked a little bit[br]disappointed, I thought.
3:13:24.189,3:13:28.188
"I went home quickly,[br]rather satisfied with myself.
3:13:29.068,3:13:32.068
"I felt I had got a small revenge."
3:13:35.748,3:13:37.988
"A lady dressed in black.
3:13:38.388,3:13:41.268
"He quickly walked up[br]the street after her.
3:13:41.388,3:13:46.109
"He started to run, ran like mad,[br]pushing people away.
3:13:46.669,3:13:51.388
"He stopped, short of breath.[br]He was ashamed, running like that.
3:13:51.668,3:13:54.308
"Fool. It wasn't her after all."
3:13:57.988,3:14:00.828
"At times the blood ran[br]down the sheets.
3:14:01.469,3:14:04.909
"His father was on his knees[br]in front of the bed praying.
3:14:05.029,3:14:09.068
"His hands stretched upward.[br]His voice husky from crying.
3:14:09.388,3:14:12.268
"'Lord, I beg you.[br]I demand from you.
3:14:12.388,3:14:15.228
"'Don't let him die today.[br]He is not prepared.
3:14:15.388,3:14:18.349
"'I beg you, have mercy on us.[br]Let him live.
3:14:18.469,3:14:22.108
"'He will always serve you.[br]He has promised me that. '"
3:14:35.509,3:14:38.348
Can't you stay?[br]It's so lovely here.
3:14:39.069,3:14:42.428
- No, I can't.[br]- Don't you want to?
3:14:44.068,3:14:45.348
No.
3:14:47.188,3:14:50.348
How strange you are.[br]Not like others.
3:14:54.468,3:14:57.508
He slept little that night.[br]His lips burned.
3:14:59.548,3:15:04.188
He pressed his hand against them.[br]He was back amongst the trees.
3:15:05.428,3:15:06.468
He felt again
3:15:06.748,3:15:08.788
how she gave way,
3:15:09.148,3:15:12.508
how everything disappeared
3:15:13.148,3:15:16.068
and the tickling[br]softness against his mouth.
3:15:41.428,3:15:43.868
How often have you sat at home
3:15:44.468,3:15:48.428
and waited for your wife,[br]listened for every step?
3:15:50.948,3:15:55.468
She said she was going[br]to meet a woman friend...
3:15:55.628,3:15:57.988
a woman friend she seldom met.
3:16:00.188,3:16:02.668
October 1895.
3:16:02.989,3:16:05.869
The Blomqvist gallery in Kristiania.
3:16:06.429,3:16:11.268
Munch exhibits 40 works.[br]Amongst them, The Life Frieze.
3:16:11.388,3:16:14.109
The exhibition is heavily attacked.
3:16:14.228,3:16:19.228
The newspaper Morgenbladet states:[br]"so much nonsense and ugliness...
3:16:19.388,3:16:23.868
"dreadful... low and repulsive...[br]grimacing and confused...
3:16:23.989,3:16:26.788
"crude and shrieking hideousness."
3:16:27.188,3:16:28.908
The newspaper Aftenposten
3:16:29.068,3:16:31.068
attacks The Life Frieze as being
3:16:31.348,3:16:36.788
"a number of sensual fantasies,[br]the hallucinations of a sick mind."
3:16:37.188,3:16:42.108
A boycott of the building is called for[br]and the police are summoned.
3:16:43.068,3:16:44.228
This is amongst
3:16:44.388,3:16:48.228
the worst I've seen.[br]I don't understand any of it.
3:16:48.389,3:16:49.828
The colours are so ugly.
3:16:50.388,3:16:52.908
Besides, it's highly immoral.
3:16:53.228,3:16:58.708
One almost has to sneak in[br]by the backdoor.
3:16:59.268,3:17:04.668
How can a young man who looks[br]so nice create things like this?
3:17:05.068,3:17:10.228
One can't take one's family along[br]and enjoy the art.
3:17:10.708,3:17:16.348
I don't advocate censorship[br]but why should this be exhibited?
3:17:16.468,3:17:18.268
Children might see them.
3:17:20.748,3:17:23.748
Edvard Munch returns to Berlin.
3:17:24.508,3:17:32.668
Abroad people will wonder[br]what sort of morals we have.
3:17:32.948,3:17:34.588
It's not just ugly.
3:17:35.588,3:17:37.548
He paints such unpleasant things
3:17:37.668,3:17:41.588
that one doesn't speak of,[br]at least my husband and me.
3:17:42.108,3:17:46.549
I regard this as something[br]which must come to an end.
3:17:49.748,3:17:52.708
In late November,[br]Peter Andreas Munch
3:17:52.828,3:17:56.388
now married for six months,[br]writes to his family
3:17:56.868,3:17:59.668
"I can't stand life anymore..."
3:18:00.828,3:18:03.348
and 3 weeks later is dead.
3:18:09.948,3:18:13.028
Many of Munch's contemporaries[br]now rally to his support
3:18:13.188,3:18:15.349
realising that his art[br]is probing into
3:18:15.468,3:18:19.388
a new and revolutionary[br]understanding of the human psyche.
3:18:19.588,3:18:24.348
Munch seeks peculiarity,[br]mystery in everything he sees.
3:18:25.028,3:18:30.148
He sees the world in wave-lines,[br]trees, shorelines,
3:18:30.628,3:18:32.988
female hair, trembling bodies.
3:18:34.428,3:18:36.828
Like no other Norwegian painter,
3:18:37.108,3:18:41.548
Munch aims at making[br]our innermost tremble.
3:18:46.748,3:18:49.428
Working on the theme[br]of the staring, isolated faces
3:18:49.748,3:18:52.388
in his oil on canvas Anxiety
3:18:52.668,3:18:56.748
Munch now turns to the final of the[br]graphic arts that he is to conquer:
3:18:57.148,3:18:58.428
woodcut.
3:18:58.748,3:19:01.468
Already he has seen the use[br]made by Paul Gauguin
3:19:01.748,3:19:04.188
of the grain and texture in wood
3:19:04.988,3:19:07.868
the stark and simple[br]outlines of the blocks
3:19:08.028,3:19:09.748
cut in Tahiti.
3:19:13.028,3:19:14.388
The Japanese use
3:19:14.748,3:19:17.268
of differently coloured[br]contours of wood.
3:19:17.748,3:19:19.948
The instant impact in the use
3:19:20.108,3:19:21.988
of primary white and black
3:19:22.188,3:19:24.748
by the Frenchman Paul Valloton.
3:19:28.868,3:19:32.748
In this field Munch perhaps[br]surpasses all his other work.
3:19:32.988,3:19:36.228
He invents a method of[br]cutting out individual pieces of wood
3:19:36.348,3:19:39.108
shaped to various contours[br]in the picture
3:19:39.348,3:19:41.788
inking the pieces[br]in their different colours
3:19:41.948,3:19:43.788
and then fitting them[br]back together again
3:19:43.868,3:19:46.428
like a jigsaw, ready for printing.
3:19:46.908,3:19:48.948
He uses the grain in the wood
3:19:49.068,3:19:53.068
and takes again the familiar themes[br]of the Frieze of Life
3:19:53.188,3:19:56.868
reducing them to[br]an essential force and simplicity
3:19:56.948,3:20:00.428
for which he has been searching[br]for 10 years.
3:20:11.868,3:20:14.108
Seeking for more effective ways[br]of spreading
3:20:14.228,3:20:16.428
his philosophy of life and death
3:20:17.388,3:20:20.068
constantly fighting against[br]what he sees as
3:20:20.228,3:20:22.988
the suppression of[br]his own personality
3:20:23.148,3:20:25.348
Edvard Munch turns more and more
3:20:25.668,3:20:28.468
to graphic art[br]with its multiple prints.
3:20:28.748,3:20:31.668
Within one year[br]his graphic output has tripled
3:20:31.748,3:20:35.388
as he turns from dry-point[br]to etching to wood-cut
3:20:35.708,3:20:39.188
to lithography[br]in black and white and colour.
3:24:14.667,3:24:18.387
In a letter written by[br]the nurse of Peter Andreas Munch
3:24:19.028,3:24:20.707
were these words:
3:24:22.028,3:24:25.667
"He asked me to read a little[br]to him on the Friday afternoon.
3:24:25.787,3:24:28.868
"He wanted Christ's speech[br]from the summit.
3:24:29.668,3:24:33.788
"With each attack of suffocation[br]I had to give him a shot of naphtha.
3:24:33.907,3:24:36.907
"In the last attack three shots.
3:24:37.428,3:24:42.228
"On the Saturday night, we put him[br]in his bridegroom clothes."
3:24:44.748,3:24:49.468
Your paper has mentioned[br]Munch's paintings as
3:24:49.628,3:24:53.708
"confused and inarticulate,[br]dreadful
3:24:53.907,3:24:56.068
or nauseating distortions."
3:24:56.148,3:24:56.988
Yes.
3:24:57.988,3:25:00.388
Isn't that rather strong language?
3:25:00.507,3:25:06.547
Yes, it is. What we feel[br]for Munch's painting is expressed
3:25:06.667,3:25:11.988
in a footnote I added[br]personally to our review:
3:25:12.468,3:25:18.428
"It is true the public is annoyed[br]by these disgusting works.
3:25:19.307,3:25:25.108
"How regrettable then that[br]such exhibitions draw full houses.
3:25:25.467,3:25:29.707
"An empty gallery would best[br]control these extravagances."
3:25:31.548,3:25:37.188
I agree with Aftonposten.[br]This is not art, it is dirt.
3:26:08.708,3:26:11.947
For the next 14 years,[br]Edvard Munch is to lead a life
3:26:12.107,3:26:15.107
of increasing pain and isolation.
3:26:15.188,3:26:20.427
His illness, aggravated by smoking[br]and alcohol, is to grow worse.
3:26:20.867,3:26:24.348
He is torn by the themes[br]of jealousy and suffering
3:26:24.707,3:26:26.627
by the thought of[br]his own death
3:26:26.787,3:26:29.387
and his descent into a literal Hell.
3:26:45.947,3:26:49.107
The conservative press is to[br]continue its attacks on his work
3:26:49.348,3:26:53.268
and other than for periods[br]spent at Åsgårdstrand
3:26:53.347,3:26:55.947
where he once met[br]with Mrs Heiberg
3:26:56.028,3:26:58.348
he is to spend most of 14 years
3:26:58.668,3:27:02.228
travelling endlessly[br]from one country to another.
3:27:03.348,3:27:06.748
He is to paint a major theme,[br]The Dance of Life
3:27:06.868,3:27:09.348
in which the couples[br]do not see each other.
3:27:23.947,3:27:25.788
Look at these streets.
3:27:26.108,3:27:28.948
Human creatures[br]set upon one another.
3:27:29.147,3:27:32.148
Buses run with[br]countless human souls.
3:27:33.307,3:27:37.547
They look indifferently on[br]the happy man, alone outside.
3:28:20.228,3:28:24.788
Though most of his work is to deal with[br]the problems of human communication
3:28:25.027,3:28:28.667
Munch is to try again[br]with two more relationships
3:28:28.788,3:28:33.187
one of which will result in[br]physical and psychic injury
3:28:33.268,3:28:37.148
And following a nervous breakdown,[br]he will finally place himself
3:28:37.227,3:28:42.348
into a psychiatric clinic[br]in Copenhagen in 1908.
3:28:49.748,3:28:52.827
At the same time,[br]Munch is to be notified
3:28:52.947,3:28:54.867
that he has been made a Knight
3:28:55.027,3:28:58.268
of the Royal Norwegian Order[br]of St. Olav.
3:29:15.747,3:29:18.067
Did you notice me much before?
3:29:23.508,3:29:25.587
Yes, I often looked at you.
3:29:29.388,3:29:31.308
I thought you looked like Christ.
3:29:41.547,3:29:42.907
Sit here.
3:30:16.828,3:30:19.067
We wish to thank the men, women and[br]children of Oslo and Åsgårdstrand
3:30:19.148,3:30:20.787
who appear in this film.
3:30:33.867,3:30:38.027
Director of Photography
3:30:38.228,3:30:42.147
Lighting Supervisors[br]Sound Supervisors
3:30:42.267,3:30:47.028
Production Designer[br]Properties Supervisor
3:30:47.227,3:30:51.067
Costume Design[br]Make-Up
3:30:59.587,3:31:02.027
Production Manager
3:31:02.187,3:31:06.628
We are very grateful[br]for invaluable help from
3:31:06.748,3:31:12.227
Additional thanks
3:31:12.427,3:31:15.147
We wish to thank the staff at[br]the Munch Museum in Oslo
3:31:15.268,3:31:18.747
without whose help this film[br]could not have been made.
3:31:18.907,3:31:21.028
Directed and Edited by PETER WATKINS[br]and written in collaboration
3:31:21.148,3:31:23.867
with the cast, many of whom express[br]their own opinions.
3:31:27.107,3:31:30.667
Edvard Munch's aunt, Karen Bjølstad
3:31:31.067,3:31:32.668
will never marry.
3:31:33.908,3:31:37.827
His sister Inger will never marry.
3:31:39.227,3:31:43.307
Laura Munch will withdraw[br]deeper into her isolation
3:31:43.388,3:31:47.947
and will spend a brief period[br]in a clinic.
3:31:49.667,3:31:52.347
Oda Lasson is to break with[br]with Gunnar Heiberg
3:31:52.708,3:31:55.947
and to become the lover[br]of a Norwegian doctor
3:31:56.347,3:32:00.147
while remaining married[br]to Christian Krohg.
3:32:02.387,3:32:05.307
Åse Carlsen will remain married
3:32:05.427,3:32:09.308
until her death at the age of 40.
3:32:09.947,3:32:14.427
Dagny Juel, accompanied by[br]Stanislaw Przybyszewski
3:32:14.907,3:32:19.147
will go to Tiflis[br]to meet with a Russian lover
3:32:19.868,3:32:22.027
who will shoot her through the head.
3:32:23.827,3:32:30.708
The woman known as "Mrs Heiberg" will[br]divorce for the second time in 1911.
3:32:31.788,3:32:35.427
She and Edvard Munch[br]will never meet again.
3:32:48.347,3:32:52.347
"I felt as if there were[br]invisible threads between us.
3:32:52.947,3:32:56.267
"I felt as if invisible threads[br]from her hair
3:32:56.427,3:32:59.667
"still twisted themselves[br]around me.
3:33:01.267,3:33:05.187
"And when she completely[br]disappeared there, over the ocean
3:33:05.747,3:33:11.787
"then I felt still how it hurt,[br]where my heart bled
3:33:12.747,3:33:16.907
"because the threads[br]could not be broken."