af Klint until recently — or before finding your way to “Hilma,” Lasse Hallström’s somewhat syrupy, conventional yet still respectable attempt to broaden the general public’s knowledge of, and affection for, the Swedish abstract artist. If so, you can hardly be blamed for your unawareness, considering af Klint’s longtime obscurity in art circles.
In the last decade, extensive museum exhibitions have sought to reintroduce her art across Europe and the U.S.; “Beyond the Visible,” a 2019 documentary by Halina Dyrschka, examined af Klint’s artistic importance and imagination. Hallström continues this cinematic and cultural revival by transposing her tale into a two-hour feature that is sensual, whimsical and feels as comfortable to slip into as a silk robe.
Aided by his DP Ragna Jorming, Hallström warmly embraces these qualities, for the most part with palpable curiosity for her process and inner world. But his style can work against af Klimt too.
We come to understand that it’s always been that way for Hilma. Hallström puts special emphasis on Hilma’s arrival at art school as a hungry, aspiring artist of wildlife, seashells and flowers. She and several other equally eager and fiery female students infuriatingly get asked to use the side entrance, in case they ever doubted their place in a male-dominated world.