Directed by Mark Cousins, exploring the pivotal 1949 experience atop Switzerland’s Grindelwald glacier that reshaped British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham‘s artistic perspective for decades to come. Featuring Tilda Swinton as the voice of Wilhelmina.
Undoubtedly there will be countless women across every industry who have had their achievements gone uncelebrated because there simply wasn’t a space for women to succeed in their time. Wilhelmina Barns-Graham is a good example, particularly in exploring how her work may have been more appreciated when using her nickname ‘Willy’ as she could be mistaken for a man. So, she certainly has a tale worth telling but this doesn’t feel like it did her justice.
Mark Cousins puts a great deal of the runtime into celebrating her works, perhaps too much. That’s a key issue with A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things, the style is exceedingly simple. Especially when we’re talking about an artist who had such a unique perspective and interpretation of the world, to create unusual paintings. It doesn’t at all match her personality. While it does have a good sense of curiosity, it feels otherwise entirely step by step, showing work after work, and adding a small amount of context.
In that sense, it never quite feels as though we’re getting to know Wilhelmina, instead we’re getting Cousins’ exploration of his relationship with the artist’s work. He’s injecting himself too much into the documentary, distracting from the real story. While his admiration for her is the perfect driving force to create the film in the first place, it did not at all need to be so involved in the final product. It’s a choice that ultimately weakens the documentary.
A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things had a strong concept but got lost by looking inward instead of into the wider story that Wilhelmina Barns-Graham‘s life had to tell. Cousins unfortunately imposes too much of himself and leaves the style almost entirely bare. It’s a shame to see, as it feels as though another filmmaker could have potentially weaved together the artist’s unique view of the world into the style of the documentary and explored her story more thoroughly, and let her take the lead.
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