S%C3%A9raphine (film)

Sraphine is a 2008 FrenchBelgian film directed by Martin Provost and written by Marc Abdelnour and Provost. It stars Yolande Moreau as the French painter Sraphine Louis and Ulrich Tukur as Wilhelm Uhde. It won the 2009 Csar Award for Best Film.

Uhde, a noted art critic, encounters her first as a housekeeper and then sees one of her paintings, which he regards as very promising. Sraphine feels she is just a housekeeper and no one will take her seriously, but Uhde firmly assures her she has a talent and that he will look after her and promote her work. He kindly tells her to follow her gift, but he is a German and has to flee France and leave Sraphine when the 1914 war begins. However, she continues to do her paintings. In 1927, Uhde encounters Sraphine again and considers her work to have greatly improved. He begins buying her pictures and encouraging her to do nothing but paint. But prosperity upsets the womans balance, she buys an expensive bridal gown even though she has no suitor, and claims to have received an important message from the angels. As the Great Depression gets under way, Uhde can no longer sell her paintings and is forced to disappoint Sraphine, who has begun to regard herself as a woman of means. She is mentally affected by the setback.After she rouses the town while wearing her bridal gown, she is put into a lunatic asylum and eventually stops painting. Uhde visits but is advised not to make contact since this would deeply upset her, even to be told that he has finally sold some of her artworks. He decides to care for her wellbeing and secures her a room in the institution which enables her to go outside, where she begins to enjoy the beauties of nature again. It is revealed that she died in 1942 and that her art became famous and respected. ........

Source: Wikipedia