Peggy Guggenheim, taiteen rakastaja

Hmm, documentary... let's call it a presentation. 90% of the material is period photos, the rest is archive videos and new talking heads of old people. If most of the film hadn't been taken from excerpts of an interview with the protagonist that was only found during the making of the documentary, it would probably be an insufferable adoration of the dead over and over again. Guggenheim's terse, somewhat senile and condescending speech thankfully gives it some soul. Among other things, I actually enjoyed the fact that we're not watching a classic zero-to-hero documentary about "a woman who triumphs against all odds", but instead the story of how a wealthy daughter from a good family hobnobbed with insufferable bohemians in Paris for so long that when her inheritance landed, she simply opened a gallery to be part of them, often letting them discover her outside their previous sphere of influence. And they all kept fucking each other. Naturally. (14.09.2021)