Henri Rousseau

When one first looks at the works of Rousseau, the "Douanier", his art appears naïve, even a little simple. Yet powerful and knowledgeable feeling resonates on his canvases as the result of the artist's astonishing sensitivity. From a poor family, Henri Rousseau was obliged to find a job and ignore his artistic calling. It wasn't until the age of 41 that he made his debuts in the world of art. Self-taught, it was very difficult for him to get anyone to pay attention to his work, despite the support of Apollinaire, Picasso and Alfred Jarry . Because he believed that the painter's role was to promote harmony and liberty, the "Douanier's" canvases are expressions of love and fraternity. He is a creator of utopias, where jungles, fairylights and the world's gaiety make up the decor. His life and work take place in the theater of childhood, in the midst of a carnival and puppet show. Becoming a metaphor of this world, the film plays a few scenes from a puppet show where Douanier Rousseau's paintings are the moving traces of this world he has bequeathed to a humanity he believed in... (official distributor synopsis)