Degas

More about... DEGAS (feature)

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SYNOPSIS:

The early years of Edgar Degas were spent in Paris and Italy, fighting to pursue his art, against the pressures to join the family business. At the age of 12, Edgar’s mother, Celestine Musson de Gas, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, dies, leaving 5 young children, Edgar being the oldest. His father, Auguste de Gas, a wealthy banker and investor, is both proud of his son’s artistic gifts, yet pushes him to pursue a career in law, in order to follow the family businesses around the world. His father owned banks in Naples and Florence. His close relationship with his mother’s family led the girls from New Orleans to spend four years in Paris with Degas’ family, following the tradition of protecting women during wartime by sending them to France. His cousin Estelle, or "Telle," was young, beautiful, widowed from a marriage to a Civil War hero, a nephew of the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, and her sister Desiree, of "Didi." Edgar escorted them to the opera, races, the symphony, theater openings, and luxurious dinners. From them, he heard about New Orleans, which, prior to the Civil War, had been as cultured as New York City (the first opera house in the US, the largest city park, one of the oldest buildings—Ursuline Convent, the oldest cathedral—St. Louis Cathedral, etc.). Painters like Audubon had been discovered in Louisiana and great architects were actively building a mini-Paris.

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In 1872, at the behest of his father, who had invested heavily in the South, and his youngest brother René, Edgar travels to New Orleans. He finds his mother's family, the Musson's, once a family of great wealth, now deep in debt, during the desperate years of the reconstruction of the US Civil War. Michel Musson, father of Estelle, Desiree, and Matilde, had lost everything, including their magnificent Garden District home and their vast plantation upriver. His brother René, his wife Estelle, and their children struggle as their cotton business fails. They implore Edgar to help them.

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He returns to Paris with an intensified drive to use his art, to not only break through the mountain of debt his family accumulated, but focus in a new direction, which leads him to be one of the founders of the Impressionist movement.

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Bios:

Writer/Producer: Carol Bidault de l'Isle

Carol Bidault de l’Isle is an award-winning producer, specializing in international motion picture/television financing, distribution, media asset acquisitions, and management. She brings with her over 30 years of industry experience in the United States, Europe, and, Latin America. She recently co-produced in association with Serein Productions DALILAND, directed by Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO), starring Erza Miller and Ben Kingsley; THE SECURITY OF FEAR, starring Brad Dourif, William Baldwin, Jean-Marc Barr; in pre-production and development features on three continents (US, Europe, and, the Middle East).  Read more

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Executive Producers/Co-Writers:  Rory O’Neill Schmitt & Rosary O'Neill

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