Directed by Céline Sallette • Drama • With Charlotte Le Bon • 2025 • 99 minutes
The debut feature of actor-turned-director Céline Sallette, Niki is a vibrant portrait of French-American artist Niki de Saint Phalle (Charlotte Le Bon, star of The White Lotus), one of the most iconoclastic figures of the contemporary art world.
Fleeing the oppressive atmosphere of post-war America, Niki arrives in Paris in 1952 with her husband Harry (John Robinson) ready to leave the past behind. But as she embarks on her new bohemian life in Paris, she is haunted by flashbacks and lingering childhood trauma that pushes her towards mental illness. When this culminates in being institutionalized, she turns to art as a means of survival. Emerging from darkness with a fierce creative drive, she enters the avant-garde art scene of Montparnasse.
Blending emotional intimacy with striking visual invention, Niki offers a vivid look at the making of an icon—an artist who defied convention and transformed deep psychological wounds into creativity and artistic reinvention.
Up Next in Visual Arts (collection)
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Who Am I To Stop It
Directed by Cheryl Green and Cynthia Lopez • Documentary • With Dani Sanderson, Kris Haas, Brandon Scarth • 2016 • 86 minutes
Who Am I To Stop It is a documentary about the traumatic brain injury community made by a filmmaker with disabilities from brain injury. It follows three artists as they ...
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Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor
Directed by Lynne Sachs • Documentary • With Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer, Gunvor Nelson • 2018 • 9 minutes
From 2015 to 2017, Lynne visited with Carolee Schneemann, Barbara Hammer and Gunvor Nelson, three multi-faceted artists who have embraced the moving image throughout their lives. Fro...
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Francofonia (Alexander Sokurov)
Directed by Alexander Sokurov • Documentary • With Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Benjamin Utzerath, Vincent Nemeth • 2016 • 87 minutes
Set against the backdrop of the Louvre Museum’s history and artworks, master director Alexander Sokurov (Russian Ark) applies his uniquely personal vision onto stage...
