What a glorious film this is, richly and immediately enjoyable - The Guardian” The new film from Mike Leigh stars Timothy Spall on Cannes Best Actor winning form as painter J.M.W Turner. Beginning in 1826 the film focuses on the last quarter-century of Turners’ life, from living in London with his beloved father and his career in the ascendancy, to his close relationship with a Margate landlady and his risking the wrath of the Royal Academy with his increasingly abstract and impressionist works. Spall’s performance is a tour-de-force, his grunting Turner is eccentric and humane, a world away from the priggish art-critics and snooty members of the Academy. A gorgeously textured biopic from the director of Another Year and Vera Drake.Somehow, though, I wasn't quite in the right mood for the film and didn't fully appreciate it. Ought to watch it again some time.
However, it reminded me of a visit to the "Turner in Deutschland" exhibition in Mannheim back in 1995 or 1996 (alarming, how time flies!), and the exhibition catalogue reminded me how surprisingly extensively Turner had travelled in Germany. As it happens, the front cover of the exhibition catalogue features a detail of the painting entitled "Heidelberg mit einem Regenbogen".
