Time of Grimaces

This is the story of the eccentric sculptor Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, who lived from 1736 to 1783 during the time of Maria Theresa. It deals with the life and work of the mysterious master, whose creations irritated and fascinated, and still leave intriguing unanswered questions about the meaning, motives and inexplicable mystery of the creative process. The film strives to unearth the secrets of the controversial and complex soul of the artist, a man definitively ahead of his time. Messerschmidt´s great series of sculptures, the "character heads" now and invaluable part of European cultural heritage, are themselves an integral part of this 63-minute docudrama. The action focuses on the final period of the artist´s life which he spent in Pressburg, current Bratislava in Slovakia.

Time of Grimaces

Key information

Genres:
Docudrama

Director:
Peter Dimitrov

Run time:
63 min.

Cast:
Marek Vašut, Attila Mokos, František Kovár, Ondrej Hraška

Year of production:
2009

Country:
Slovakia

Language versions

Slovak