Hesse's work has taken its place as a seminal part of 20th-century art, and this indispensable film will be shining a light on it, and her, for a long time to come.
It's a measure of Begleiter's documentary skills and her commitment to Hesse's work and vivid presence that such scant materials have resulted in a portrait that is so lively, intelligent, and moving.
Hesse's interest was more a matter of process than product. Begleiter's movie picks up the next two sentences to give Hesse the poignant existential credo that serves as her last word. "Life doesn't last; art doesn't last. It doesn't matter."
Moving, incisive... chronicles the short life and decade-long career of the German-American sculptor and denizen of the 1960s art world with impressive command of both the scene Hesse found herself in, as well as the methods that led to [her] artwork.
