Released 1997
Stars Valentina Cervi, Michel Serrault, Miki Manojlovic
Directed by Agnes Merlet

Born on July 8, 1593 in Rome, during an era when many professions were forbidden to women, Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the first female painters to make a living as an artist. In the immediate centuries following her death, her work was largely-forgotten, only to be re-discovered in the last forty years. Her best-known painting, "Judith Beheading Holophernes," was completed in 1612, and has often been cited as one of the most passionate and proficient works of art crafted by a woman during the seventeenth century. Today, Artemisia's surviving canvasses are recognized throughout the West, and several of them reside in the Louvre.

Merlet's speculative treatment of a chapter in Artemisia's life (many of the actual details from the period are unknown, so the film maker is able to fashion her own interpretation of the historical record) begins in 1610, the year when her artistic urges become too powerful to suppress, and ends in 1612, after a rape trial separates her from her mentor and lover, Agostino Tassi. Tassi, an artist working with Artemisia's father, Orazio, in painting a series of religious frescos, agreed to teach Artemisia after the girl's request for admission to the males-only Academy of Fine Arts was rejected. Their relationship, which improved Artemisia's understanding of the technical aspects of painting, eventually turned sexual, and led to Tassi's arrest on rape charges.

Italian-born Valentina Cervi (Portrait of a Lady) plays the lead character with the right mix of innocence and sensuality. As essayed in this film, Artemisia is a brilliant, headstrong, passionate woman whose tribulations made her a better artist. Cervi's portrayal is stunning.

Summary by James Berardinelli