Skip to main content
The Painting film image; painting of an arm with ribbon around wrist

The Painting

Le Tableau

VIFF Short Forum

Using pinscreen animation, an instance of institutionalized incest in art history is examined through the portrait of Queen Mariana of Austria, who was 14 when she married her uncle.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In English and French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Incest

18+
11 min
Animation Art, Music & Photography Family Relations Shorts Women Directors
The National Film Board of Canada

Credits & Director

Producer

Christine Noël, Julie Roy

Screenwriter

Michèle Lemieux

ANIM

Michèle Lemieux

Editor

Annie Jean

Original Music

Robert Marcel Lepage

Michèle Lemieux headshot; The Painting director

Michèle Lemieux

Michèle Lemieux is an illustrator and animation filmmaker who has taught at UQAM’s School of Design for over 30 years. Since the late 1970s, she has worked on 15 illustrated books for young people, including Stormy Night (1997) which was adapted to the screen in 2003 at the NFB. In 2006, during a workshop given by Jacques Drouin, Lemieux was introduced to Alexeïeff-Parker’s pinscreen, subsequently becoming the artistic heir to this unique animation technique. She has made two short films using the pinscreen: Here and the Great Elsewhere (2012), which won several awards, and most recently, The Painting (2024).

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

There Will Be Blood

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
158 min

Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Godland

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
143 min

In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest is dispatched to a far corner of Iceland where a devout farmer has seen fit to build a church. The physical journey is arduous. His spiritual journey, more taxing still.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Balconettes

Dir. Noémie Merlant
105 min

In this flamboyant black comedy set in Marseille during a heatwave, writer-director-star Noémie Merlant and her two besties have to cover up the unpleasant evidence of a disastrous night partying with the hunk across the way.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Hard Eight

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
101 min

Anderson's debut is a deceptively modest character piece about a veteran gambler (Philip Baker Hall) who takes a much younger man under his wing and teaches him how to play the system and win. Until things take a darker turn...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Monk in Pieces

Dir. Billy Shebar & David C Roberts
95 min

A playful and engaging portrait of the avant-garde singer, composer, choreographer and performance artist Meredith Monk. Philip Glass, David Byrne and Bjork share their observations.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Master

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
138 min

Joaquin Phoenix as WWII vet Freddie Quell falls into the orbit of Philip Seymour Hoffman's self-styled prophet Lancaster Dodd in this tremulous 1950s psychodrama from Paul Thomas Anderson.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema