In the first two films we watched in class, "Pollock" and "Basquiat," the "madness" that these artists suffered from was a direct correlation to their work and extremely obvious to recognize. When Pollock started drinking heavily again (alcohol addiction was his madness), the quality and interest of his artwork decreased. When Basquiat started doing drugs, his artistic inspiration seemed to increase.
The past three movies that we have seen, however, have been harder to spot the madness the artists suffer from, and how that relates to artistic inspiration. The film that I wanted to discuss this question with is "Camille Claudel."
In the movie, it's very hard to recognize what madness Claudel is suffering from. While the options are very few, I think it could be more than one. The madness that I noticed had the most impact on Claudel's artistic inspiration was her passionate love of Rodin. Similarly to "Frida" and "Artemisia," as soon as a male figure entered into her life, Claudel's artistic creativity, drive and inspiration shifted. Upon entering her relationship with Rodin, Claudel stopped making her own sculptures and instead invested all her time into being Rodin's "apprentice" and assisting him on HIS work. Camille's father even draws attention this fact, asking his daughter when she was going to do her own work again. The affair made Claudel focus her time and talent into perfecting Rodin's work instead of producing new pieces of her own.
While Camille wasn't producing work of her own, there was a scene in the movie that exemplified the madness of passionate love taking over artistic inspiration. We see Claudel sculpting a bust, and we find out that it is Rodin (and she did it "all from memory"). This is startling because the first real piece of artwork that she has done since becoming involved with Rodin isn't inspired by other aspects of her life; instead Rodin is the artistic inspiration in her life now.
After Claudel's relationship with Rodin comes to a close, that is when we see her starting to sculpt on her own again. She even has an exhibition and is commissioned to do work by several people. When someone doesn't like her work, or an exhibition doesn't work out, however, Camille doesn't put the blame on herself. Instead, she points fingers at "Rodin and his gang" as being the culprits that have hindered her artistic inspiration and prohibiting the public/others to see/appreciate her art.
While Claudel didn't have a substance addiction that drove her to madness, we can argue that her love of Rodin made her "crazy." While I disagree with the fact that she spent the last 30 years of her life in an institution, it was obvious to see how dramatic Camille's shift in inspiration and attitude towards life shifted once Rodin was a part of her life. This is what make Claudel the most interesting to me, though. People can beat substance abuse problems. A heartbreak/lost love, however, may be considered unrecoverable.
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