Leonora im Morgenlicht (Leonora in the Morning Light) 
Germany/Mexico/Romania/U.K.
2024
Opening 17 Jul 2025
Directed by:
Thor Klein, Lena Vurma
Writing credits:
Thor Klein, Lena Vurma
Principal actors:
Olivia Vinall, Alexander Scheer, Ryan Gage, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Luis Gerardo Méndez
In describing herself, “I didn’t have time to be anyone’s muse…I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist,” Lenora Carrington describes this biopic from the writing-directing duo, Thor Klein and Lena Vurma. Assuming that audiences know of the English/Mexican artist Leonora Carrington, one of 1930s Surrealism art/literary movement’s stars, instead of delving into the fullness of her life, the filmmakers wallow in her psychotic breaks and affair with the German artist Max Ernst. Pity, because Carrington’s legacy is that of a visionary, rebelling against upper-class English conservatism, art establishments, and conventionalism, an early advocate for women’s rights and ecology she also continually experimented and diversified with new mediums, ideas, and spirituality. One of the longest living surrealists, Carrington worked nonstop until her 2011 death.
Ernst (Alexander Scheer) and Carrington (Olivia Vinall) meet in London at a party, bond, and return to Paris where Ernst tidies personal affairs before moving to the South of France. In Saint Martin d'Ardèche, they artistically thrive and collaborate, adding plaster casts on the farmhouse’s exterior walls. During World War ll, the Gestapo arrests Ernst, whereby Carrington’s acute anxiety results in a nervous breakdown. Treated at a Spanish asylum, treatment related flashbacks introduce snippets of her family and posh upbringing, and her Irish nanny, Mary’s (Vivienne Soan) influence. Her friend, Remedios Varo (Cassandra Ciangherotti), assists Lenora’s escaping her parents to the US and then to Mexico City. She fits well in the Surrealist (expatriate) scene; Carrington meets and marries Hungarian photographer Emerico “Chiki” Weisz (István Téglás), and is good friends with Edward James (Ryan Gage), the surrealism patron. Then, Lenora suffers another breakdown.
The film’s redeeming feature is its spectacular, nuanced production values, particularly Tudor Vladimir Panduru’s cinematography, Nohemi Gonzalez’s production design, Mariá Portugal’s score and Adrian Lo’s sound design. Matthieu Taponier’s editing is sometimes confusing. Based in Mexico City for 70 years, Carrington’s expansive legacy—painting, sculptures, photography, novels, tapestries, lithographs, et al.—opens and excites minds to the creative potentiality of one’s surroundings. (Marinell Haegelin)
