Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict

An intriguing bio-documentary about a well-known figure in modern art collection. Her life was one of triumph and tragedy. She came from a family in which many aunts and uncles-even her own mother-were eccentric to say the least. There was the aunt who didn't speak her sentences; she sang them! Another uncle attempted to kill his wife with a baseball bat, but did not succeed. Her rather remote mother did things in threes, eg, she repeated her sentences three times, wore three watches and three coats. Peggy's father went down with the Titanic and her family life with her son and daughter was difficult to say the least. But, Peggy bloomed when she met famous artists and writers in post-WWI Paris. She was one of the first to purchase Miros, Picassos, Dalis, Pollacks and many others for a song. She purchased what she liked and had no idea that many of these works would now sell for millions of dollars. Although not gregarious and rather unprepossessing in appearance she managed to attract a series of fascinating men (who were also fascinated with her) which lead to an active social life. Because she was Jewish, she was forced to flee Paris before the Nazis invaded and finally landed in what turned out to be her favorite city, Venice, where she set up her gallery which now displays over 300 paintings done by over a 100 artists which is her gift to the world. Since 1979 (the year of her death) the gallery has been visited by millions of art-lovers from all parts of the world. Her life, then was indeed interesting and productive. And there is much, much more to her story. The film tells her story with still photos, film clips of the famous, the usual interviewees-experts from the art world and the real find, a series of long-lost taped interviews with Peggy recorded before her death.