Edgar Reitz is 92 and continues to make films that tower over those 70 years his junior. The man who gave us the masterpiece that is HEIMAT: A CHRONICLE OF GERMANY and the recent SUBJECT FILMMAKING returns with the staggering chamber piece LEIBNIZ CHRONICLE OF A LOST PAINTING.
The film tells the story a painting of the philosopher and teacher Leibniz. He was the teacher Charlotte Queen of Prussia. She missed her home town and her teacher and asked her mother to have his portrait painted and sent to her. What follows here is a fictional tale involving famous people.
Despite being a series of dialogs between painters and Leibniz, the film is neither static nor claustraphobic. This is very much a chamber piece, but one where the dialog and the performances lift up and make it truly something special.
This is one of 2025's best films.
Its a film that ponders life, art, philosophy, god, the universe, memory and many other things. The discussions spring from Leibniz quizzing the artists who are making the portrait what they want to achieve. The first painter simple wants to plug the oldman's face into pre-existing portrait and thus make him immortal. Leibniz wants none of it and essentially runs him out. The second painter, with perhaps maybe connections Vermeer, is looking for the essence of the philosopher and literally wants to pull the portrait out of darkness.
This is a film that shows the most powerful things in cinema are not explosions and computer created worlds but simply the discussion of people trying to hash out what it means to be alive.
This film is as perfect a film as the come. From the script to the writing to the shifting visual style this film is cinematic achievement of the highest order.
I full expect this film to move on to the other big festivals this year because it is not only a human drama that touches the heart but a intellectual delight that impresses the programmers.
I can't recommend this film more. See it.
Thank you very much for this wonderful review.
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