Ceramic Movie Night

One way to relax at the end of the day when you’re too tired to do ceramics is by watching movies about ceramics.

There are of course many documentaries about ceramics, but this post is about cinematic fictions.

Fictions about ceramics are not that common. I came across this page, which mentions Ghost (1990) , two Japanese movie "Ugetsu monogatari"(1953) and "Hibi" (2005)as well as an American movie by Christophe Gans called “Crying Freeman” from1995. Although I have seen Ghost recently (again), I have never seen the other three so I’ll let you decide if you want to give it a go.

Let’s talk about Ghost and get it out of the way. If you do ceramics, someone is going to mention it at some point: the sexy scene with Demi Moore on the wheel and so on… You have my permission to bash them on the head with a ceramic cylinder. Ghost has absolutely nothing to do with ceramics. Demi Moore is supposed to be a potter, but she is just a prop in the movie. In French a girl who is supposed to look pretty and keep quiet is called a “potiche” which (as you can guess) means “pretty pot” and that’s what Demi Moore is in this movie. She makes pots and is one herself. Her personality, her love for ceramics and her job (is she even selling these pots?) have no place in the movie. She is literally a vessel (see what I did there?) through which we can experience the movie, a bit like Woopi Goldberg being possessed by Patrick Swayze (that’s a pretty cool scene actually). The fact that she is a potter was probably added to the scenario to make her interesting because she gets dirty and looks strong when making these huge pots, which I guess must have been radical in the 90’s? The real hero is Patrick Swayze who finds ways to communicate with her, protect her, and punish the bad guy while finding her a new boyfriend from beyond the grave. We’re done talking about Ghost now.

Another movie mentioned on this page is “the colour room” , 2021 which I watched as a result and it was a pleasant surprise. It’s based on the life of Clarice Cliff, and English Ceramic artist and designer who was born in 1922 . She was influenced by the Art Deco era and created a brand new ceramic style that still looks very modern. It’s interesting to learn about a female mid- 20th century ceramic artist, and the fact that she works in a ceramic factory allows you to get glimpses of the manufacturing process.

Another webpage from Canada on the same subject mentioned “Ghost” as well, but it also brought to my attention a Canadian movie called “Kamataki” by Claude Gagnon (2005). At the start of the movie, a suicidal young man is sent to his uncle Takuma’s in Japan who is a famous potter, in the hope that a change of scenery will help him. The young man helps his uncle with preparing the clay, firing his kiln (I believe Kamataki is the style of firing/kiln you see in the movie) and somehow finds new purpose in his life. This movie has some weird scenes, but you see real pottery scenes: the potter on the wheel, at exhibitions and more importantly making sure the wood fire kiln keeps going. There is a very obvious metaphor between firing the kiln to make sure it doesn’t run out of wood and finding the will to live. It’s hard to find but I managed to rent it on Vimeo.

I have two recommendations of my own:

Camille Claudel (1988) a French movie based on the life of the famous French sculptor (born in 1864) who was Rodin’s lover and spent the last thirty years of her life in an insane asylum. Ceramics is not the main focus of the movie, since she used other materials like marble and a lot of the movie is about her relationship with Rodin. However the first scene shows Camille digging clay at night in Paris in the trenches dug out to build the new subway and you see her work with clay to create her sculptures. Her art is just as amazing as her tragic destiny. Available on Kanopy, and quite famous in France.

Showing up (2022) is a similar (female artist struggling with clay and her life) but fictional American movie on a much smaller scale. It focuses on very small details which makes it quite endearing. A female art student in Portland, Oregon is prepping for her art exhibition (clay sculptures) while dealing with work issues, fellow students, an injured pigeon and other setbacks. Again, the main focus is not ceramics, but it’s part of the movie.

Quite pleased that out of the four movies I recommend, three are about female artists working with clay!

Comment if you have any other recommendations to add to the movie.