Niki de Saint Phalle (Niki)
France/Belgium 2024

Opening 20 Mar 2025

Directed by: Céline Sallette
Writing credits: Céline Sallette, Samuel Doux
Principal actors: Charlotte Le Bon, John Robinson, Damien Bonnard, Judith Chemla, Alain Fromager

French director-writer Céline Sallette’s debut feature film’s subject choice is the ground-breaking contemporary artist, Niki de Saint Phalle (Charlotte Le Bon). French born and American raised, Saint Phalle’s creativity stretched across many genres: sculptor—she is on the top ten women monumental sculptors list—painter, filmmaker, plus she authored her hand-painted children’s books. The film’s thirteen-year coverage is between Niki’s late teens when she modeled, her marriage to American Harry Lewis (John Robinson) and her life in Paris with their daughter, then their son’s birth on a Spanish island, Niki’s encounters with other Parisian artists and her friendship with Swiss artists Jean Tinguely (Damien Bonnard) and Eva Aeppli (Judith Chemla) to 1961 when Niki stages her first outdoor shooting event for an audience.

The film is nominally about de Saint Phalle, yet inexplicably audiences see nothing of Niki’s work, merely her working on something, sometimes from the canvas’ perspective, e.g., actors look at her painting into the camera. Sallette’s focus is, instead, on Saint Phalle’s rebellious behavior, her manic episodes and ever lingering emotional challenges, gliding over her social/political involvements. A few well-placed flashbacks fill in her parents’ (Nora Arnezeder, Grégoire Monsaingeon) stressed union resulting in their five children’s tense homelife—Niki’s the second oldest—as well as her father’s special interest in her when Niki (Alice Laffargue) turns eleven.

Samuel Doux’s co-scripted screenplay, with Sallette, meanders from one scene to another topic spending inordinate amounts of time on insignificant situations and dashing through noteworthy circumstances. Victor Seguin’s camera obediently follows, showering us with a mix of camera shots and positions. While editor Clémence Diard’s split screens are enviable, the overall structure succeeds in only extending its length.

Although an untrained artist, Niki’s affinity with experimentation and her vibrant personality that exuded a naïvely refreshing love of color, Niki’s light-heartedness dominated her many creatively pioneering endeavors and much of her life. To be portrayed so one-dimensionally, and without seeing a glimmer of her artwork—nary a Nana—in a film bearing her name is baffling, and egregious. We can only hope that director Sallette’s vision improves before attempting another such project and wonder why Niki de Saint Phalle was included in the Un Certain Regard competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. (Marinell Haegelin)