The Man In The Hat: Rene Magritte with Will Young
“The way he saw life changed the way I see life. He was a giant of a man.”
Having first discovered Rene Magritte’s art as a
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The Man In The Hat: Rene Magritte with Will Young
“The way he saw life changed the way I see life. He was a giant of a man.”
Having first discovered Rene Magritte’s art as a teenager, singer Will Young was immediately struck by Magritte’s strange distortions of familiar objects and his subversive humour. So much so that Will opened his last tour donning a bowler hat and raincoat, so synonymous with Magritte.
In this film, Will goes in search of Magritte the artist and Magritte the man, along the way peering through the window that famously appears in his work. Following in the footsteps of this most famous of Belgians, Will visits Magritte’s place of birth, the site of a tragedy that struck the Magritte family, and ends his journey at Magritte's final resting place.
What Will discovers is a superficially conventional man who “lived quietly in a suburb of Brussels, dressed like a banker and married his childhood sweetheart". But appearances can deceive. Magritte’s suit and bowler hat concealed a subversive nature and a deep desire to explore every day, ordinary objects in new and exciting ways.
Will visits the house, today a museum, where Magritte lived with his beloved wife Georgette for more than 20 years. He travels to Lessines where the young Magritte spent his early years with his two younger brothers and his parents, and then to Chatelet, where Will discovers an unhappy childhood - Magritte’s mother suffered from severe depression and eventually committed suicide by throwing herself in the river when her oldest son was just thirteen years old. The revelation moves Will deeply: “I can’t imagine what effect that would have had on him. I think if I was his age and my mother had left me in such a sad way as well, I don’t know if I would have ever recovered.”
But Magritte wasn’t a man who believed in psychology, despite its significance for the new artistic movement that was beginning to sweep Europe in the 1920s – surrealism. He studied at art school in Brussels but found himself rebelling against traditional art, instead believing passionately in mystery, in the impossibility of explaining things.
Belgian society wasn’t quite ready for Magritte. But his childhood sweetheart Georgette Berger certainly was. Will meets the custodian of the Magritte estate, and hears how the two young people met again by chance in the botanic gardens after the First World War and fell deeply in love. They married in 1922 and settled into a life of suburban bliss, with Magritte declaring to a friend: “I’m producing nothing for the moment. I’m simply in love. As soon as I’ve secured our material future I shall find another to live by, and that will be to make Georgette as happy as possible.”
Magritte’s objective wasn’t easily met. With his first exhibition in Brussels a disaster, Magritte took his wife to Paris and became involved with the French surrealists led by Andre Breton. But the two men fell out and three years later the couple returned to Brussels. Struggling to survive, Magritte made money by setting up an advertising agency with his brother Paul – and the seeds of his influence on modern art were sewn.
The documentary draws heavily on rare archive footage featuring silent films and also Magritte’s own extensive stock of home movies. Trips to London followed – in Mayfair, Will gets measured up for a bowler hat at the famous Lock and Co, the better to emulate his hero. It was here that Magritte first started selling his pictures for significant sums of money. Further exhibitions followed and eventually, in the 1950s, this most unassuming of artists found international fame and wealth.
Will visits one of his most spectacular later works – a gigantic fresco at the Casino in Knokke Le Zoute. He’s blown away: “It’s unbelievable, it’s completely overwhelming. You know, I feel kind of sick with excitement.”
Will’s excitement is further boosted when he attends a London art auction and watches one of Magritte’s early work sell for £5.8 million. He also meets legendary graphic designer Aubrey Powell, who explains how Magritte’s vision has inspired dozens of album covers including the ones he himself designed for Pink Floyd.
Will ends by visiting Magritte’s modest grave where he is buried alongside his beloved Georgette. And we’re treated to a rare glimpse of the artist himself summing up his life and work: “Ah yes, we are all mysteries. We are part of the world and the world itself is a mystery.”
