Jean Siméon Chardin, Painter

This film is the portrait of 'a magician', as Diderot, his contemporary, described Jean Simeon Chardin, the painter of contemplative life. Two centuries later, the magic is still there. There is no one to match Chardin in his ability to confer upon people and things some kind of universal self-evidence. His paintings never leave the house: objects come quite simply from the kitchen, the rooms are well-lit, the children are pretty and well-behaved, and their mothers discreet and well-built. Everyone is in his place. A marginal in an era when everything brilliant and shining was popular, Chardin was nonetheless the portrait artist of Louis XV. Slow to speak and introverted, he was also known to be talkative and worldly. Whence lies his mystery... (official distributor synopsis)