Leonora in the Morning Light review pioneering British artist who fled convention for the surrealists

Leonora Carrington runs away from London at age 20 to pursue art in Paris, living with surrealist Max Ernst despite their large age difference and his marriage. In Paris, she encounters a male-dominated surrealist circle with objectionable attitudes toward women, while she rejects prominent men who treat women as divine muses. The story moves to southern France and continues until World War II begins in 1939, when Ernst is imprisoned as a German citizen. Carrington then crosses into Spain, suffers a mental health crisis, and is subjected to barbaric psychiatric treatment involving restraints and induced convulsions. The narrative later shifts to 1940s Mexico, where she works independently on her own terms.

"At the age of 20, debutante Leonora Carrington ran away from London to be an artist in Paris, living with the surrealist Max Ernst, who was married and more than twice her age. But you won't notice the uncomfortable age gap in this biopic, in which Carrington is played by Olivia Vinall, who is in her late 30s and portrays the artist for a decade or so, from Paris until Carrington settled in Mexico in the 1940s."

"We meet Carrington arriving in Paris, where she discovers that the surrealists' circle is another male-dominated world, with its own objectionable attitudes to women. Carrington, though, gives short shrift to men such as Andre Breton and Salvador Dali, drivelling on about woman as the divine muse to be worshipped. The dialogue clunks along unconvincingly, such as one line spoken to Ernst (Alexander Scheer): I don't want to be your wife. I want to be your lover."

"What follows is a dark period in Carrington's life and provides some of the most effective, if difficult, scenes in the film. After crossing the border to Spain, she becomes unwell, experiencing a mental health crisis; in a psychiatric hospital, Carrington has a barbaric drug treatment inflicted on her, strapped down and subjected to induced convulsions that leave her comatose, head lolling."

"Again, the film slips into uneventful storytelling as it shifts to 1940s Mexico, where Carrington lived and worked on her own terms for"

Read at www.theguardian.com