Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden

In the early 20th century, expressionist artist Egon Schiele (Noah Saavedra) was one of the most provocative in Austria. The film begins in 1918 when Schiele is dying and then flips back to 1910 when he first became household name. Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden shows back-and-forth between the past and present of his life and art with the beautiful women he has been with, in a dying period. Two women were a lasting inspiration for Schiele: first his sister Gerti, and then Wally, his only true love, immortalized in his painting Death and the Maiden. Although this film shows women surrounding him, of those with whom he was involved, his two muses appear like signboards through his life. His provocative and extreme paintings, including nudes of children, unleashed fierce debate about the border between art and pornography, which ballooned into a major scandal in the conservative Viennese society of the time. However, Gustav Klimt and various art agents sensed his exceptional talent. Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden enduringly ingrains the sparking moments of Egon Schiele's life; a young artist in his twenties, living boundlessly free, intensely portrayed on screen. (Busan International Film Festival)