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Parents' Guide to

Charlotte

By Sandie Angulo Chen, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Tragic, powerful chronicle of young Holocaust-era artist.

Movie NR 2022 92 minutes
Charlotte Movie Poster

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

  • Charlotte Movie: Scene #1
  • Charlotte Movie: Scene #2
  • Charlotte Movie: Scene #3

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What's the Story?

CHARLOTTE chronicles the adult life of Charlotte Salomon (voiced by Keira Knightley in the English version and Marion Cotillard in the French version), a German Jewish art student. While in hiding in the South of France during the Holocaust, Salomon created an autobiographical masterwork, Life? or Theatre?, out of hundreds of paintings, text, and musical cues. At the beginning of the film, Charlotte, whose father is renowned Berlin surgeon Albert Salomon (Eddie Marsan), and stepmother Paula (the late Helen McCrory, in her final performance), an opera singer, witness how Jews are kicked out of the public sphere after the Nazis come to power in the early 1930s. At a time when the Jewish quota is limited to 1.5% of enrolled students, Charlotte is admitted to a prestigious art school, while her late mother's elderly parents move to the South of France, to the villa of Ottilie Moore (Sophie Okonedo), a German American heiress who saved and sheltered many Jewish adults and children during World War II. By summer 1938, racist laws force the art academy to expel 21-year-old Charlotte, who's having her first love affair with her stepmother's 41-year-old voice instructor, Alfred (Mark Strong). After Kristallnacht in November 1938, Charlotte's father is arrested and sent to a concentration camp but eventually released, and then her parents send Charlotte to France to join her controlling grandfather (Jim Broadbent) and fragile grandmother (Brenda Blethyn) at Ottilie's estate. In the South of France from 1939 until her capture in 1943, Charlotte survives tragedies and creates her life's magnum opus.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say: Not yet rated
Kids say: Not yet rated

Little known outside art history circles, Charlotte Salomon's remarkable story is told here in a thoughtful and memorable way that pays tribute to her as a burgeoning artist whose life was cut short. The animated medium works well to highlight Charlotte's gouache paintings, which are heavily featured in the film. The animation isn't slick, polished, and ultra-realistic like in a Pixar movie; it's purposely expressionistic to capture the artist's style. And the voice actors all do a fine job with their emotional cues. It's lovely to hear the late and wonderful McCrory again as Charlotte's stepmother, and Strong captures the smoldering gravitas of Charlotte's two-decades-older first love. Okonedo is playful and confident as selfless socialite Moore, while Knightley is mostly subdued as Charlotte, quietly observing everything around her. Perhaps that's in keeping with what's known about the artist, but it's curiously at odds with the spirit of her art and her personal narrative.

Ideally, this animated drama would be followed by live-action films/documentaries that explore more of the dark but unexplored aspects of Charlotte's tale. Charlotte leaves some issues ambiguous surrounding her grandfather's abusive nature and death, why Ottilie Moore left without Charlotte and Alexander, and how Charlotte's art finally made its way back to her parents, to name just a few dangling pieces. A few scenes make it seem like Charlotte didn't fully understand the urgency of the war, even though she had witnessed the Nazis' brutality early on. Anyone truly interested in Salomon as an artist will want to consider this an appetizer to one of several thorough biographies of her and her work. But despite its flaws, the story is compelling, and Salomon's art is vibrant and haunting, reminiscent of Modigliani, Chagall, and Munch. Teens and adults will undoubtedly want to explore Life? Or Theatre? more thoroughly online at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about how Charlotte incorporates Salomon's art and text from Life? Or Theatre? What did you learn about Salomon's work? What does it capture? Why do you think she's called the first graphic novelist?

  • What role do violence and sex play in the movie? Is that content out of place, or necessary to the story?

  • Why are mature animated movies hard for some audiences to accept? What other animated movies can you think of that are meant for older audiences?

  • Did watching the movie make you want to learn more about Charlotte Salomon's artwork or life? What questions do you have that the movie doesn't address?

  • Why do you think Salomon is not as widely known or studied (in the United States, at least) as other Holocaust writers and artists? What did you learn about life for Jews in Germany and throughout Europe during World War II?

Movie Details

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