Year: 2024

Runtime: 98 minutes

Written by: Samuel Doux and Céline Sallette

Directed by: Céline Sallette

Starring: Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Judith Chemla, Damien Bonnard, Alain Fromager

By Sarah Manvel

If you’ve been in a major European city you’ve probably seen some of Niki de Saint-Phalle’s sculptures. Her most famous ones, of women’s bodies, large and curvaceous, painted in ludicrously bright colours, are called ‘Nanas’. They are a cheerful assertion of women’s right to take up space and an antidote to the normal serious statuary of important men that normally dominates the public atmosphere. But Ms de Saint-Phalle had to work very hard – both as a woman and as a self-taught artist – to get into a position where her work would even be considered by city fathers. ‘Niki’ is the biopic of one artist finding her feet while battling some very serious personal demons along the way. It’s an ordinary story about an extraordinary woman and that is meant as a compliment. Struggles like hers are much more common than anyone would have us realise and it’s important for art to grapple with these hidden histories.

Niki (Charlotte Le Bon) is first seen modelling and acting on the Parisian stage, but her French parents largely raised her in the USA. Her lovely husband Harry (John Robinson) is a dual national as well, meaning they flit interchangeably between English and French at home with their children. It’s the 1950s and they moved to Paris to escape the oppressive American political atmosphere but also their families, since Harry’s mother greeted the news of Niki’s first pregnancy by arranging an appointment for an abortion. Niki’s family is considerably worse, and her flashbacks (and what modern audiences can clearly see as PTSD) become so oppressive that Niki starts sleeping with all the household knives under the mattress. A brief spell in an psychiatric hospital helps considerably, not least in that it gives her time and space to begin making art. Harry is wholly supportive – and also financially independent, meaning they have the luxury of behaving as they please with all the help they require – and to aid her recovery Niki begins focusing on art full-time. She rents a small studio through which she makes various artistic friends, most importantly Eva Aeppli (Judith Chemla) and Jean Tinguely (Damien Bonnard), who always has a twinkle in his eye and a kind word. But many others, mostly men of course, are dismissive of Niki’s works as the pastime of a dilettante housewife. Niki understands the truth of these remarks, but rather than be crumpled by them she is fired up. She has plenty of things within herself to express and by God she’s going to figure out how. 

Now, it’s clear director Céline Sallette did not get permission from Ms de Saint-Phalle’s estate to use any of her artworks, which means the focus is entirely on Ms Le Bon as she works, gluing feathers to cardboard or mixing paints in front of a canvas. This is not nearly as distracting as it might be, because this is not a movie of the ‘master’ at the peak of their powers, but instead an artist’s coming of age. The works she is making at this stage of her career are the ones necessary for the large more powerful pieces of follow later. Indeed the movie ends where others might begin, but that only makes it more fascinating. Here we get to see an artist before the art world has labelled them and hung them on a wall. We get to feel the struggle as Niki attempts to articulate, to Harry, to Jean and most importantly to herself just what it is that she wants to achieve. In the similar-feeling biopics “Sylvia”(2003), and “Camille Claudel”(1988), the main hindrance to their artists was the men in their lives and it’s very refreshing that here it’s the absolute opposite. When Niki must have a furious confrontation with one of her doctors (Alain Fromager), Harry stands behind her without question. Even the scene where they accuse each other of infidelities – with complete accuracy, as it turns out – is handled by Ms Le Bon and Mr Robinson with openhearted understanding. Ms Le Bon is excellent here as a woman who’s come to this line of work almost despite herself, but who is thrilled to figure out a way of living that allows her peace. 

Victor Seguin’s cinematography makes occasional use of split-screen, best in the sequence where Niki and Jean meet for the first time. The costume design by Matthieu Camblor and Marion Moulès also makes this a great movie for hats, as the ways in which Niki expresses her mental state through elegant headwear is delightful to see. The movie was hidden at the end of the Cannes Film Festival schedule this year meaning it didn’t attract a lot of attention, but anyone interested in seeing how an artist builds her worldview will be interested in ‘Niki.’