All the beauty and bloodshed, an admirable documentary, winner of the Golden Lion at Venice

Published by Nathanaël de Sortiraparis · Updated on March 13, 2023 at 06:08 p.m.
Laura Poitras' documentary "All the Beauty and Spilled Blood", which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, follows the life and career of Nan Goldin, an artist who has made her story a permanent struggle. In cinemas March 15.

It's an admirabledocumentary, so much so that it was awarded the Golden Lion, the equivalent of the Palme d'Or at the second most important film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival. It was also nominated for anOscar for best documentary. All the Beauty and Spilled Blood, directed by Laura Poitras, is due in cinemas on March 15, 2023.

The trailer for All the Beauty and Spilled Blood

The film follows artist photographer Nan Goldin as she battles the Sackler family, the driving force behind the opioid crisis in the United States. But that's not all! Nan Goldin is a woman of a thousand lives, and just as many battles. She had to impose herself as an artist, but also as a woman, to have her voice heard, throughout her life. It's a deeply moving portrait.

The film takes two different forms: the artist's past, which we discover through archival footage and a voiceover by Nan Goldin herself, and her fight against the Sacklers, filmed live by cinematographer Laura Poitras, like a news report. The comparison of these two aspects of her life is telling. The present is, in a way, a consequence of the past, and the viewer discovers all the choices that led her to where she is today. This woman's destiny is troubling, just as her radical feminism is impressive. It's important to tell stories like these, as they are rarely represented in cinema. And while the film may be a documentary, that doesn't stop Nan Goldin from being a genuine cinema character, one we take great pleasure in discovering.

She is the symbol of an era, and a historic figure in the fight against opioids and the Sackler family, little-known in France, but at the heart of a huge scandal for years in the United States. All the Beauty and Spilled Blood is one of our favorites of 2023.

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Practical information

Dates and Opening Time
Starts March 15, 2023

× Approximate opening times: to confirm opening times, please contact the establishment.
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