Despite largely failing as a student at school and having to repeat a year, his artistic talent gained him entry to the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where famous artist Gustav Klimt had studied. But one of his teachers there complained that Schiele had “too much talent” and he was sent to Vienna’s Academy of Fine arts, the youngest student ever enrolled there, at the age of 16. According to records he was accepted over another candidate — Adolf Hitler.
But Schiele soon rankled at the conservatism of the Academy. In 1907 he sought out Klimt, whose work Schiele admired, hoping to learn more from the great artist. Klimt was the leader of the Vienna Sezessionist (Secessionist) group, who had made a break from the conservative styles of the Academy. He was greatly impressed by the teenager’s talent and became a mentor and friend, buying some of Schiele’s works, organising models and finding him connections in the art world. It led to Schiele’s first inclusion in a Sezessionist exhibition in 1908.
**
In 1911, Egon Schiele met a woman. She was seventeen, bright eyed, fun, amiable, not a bit shy or innocent. Her name was Valerie ‘Wally’ Neuzil, and she was just what both Schiele and his art needed. In that short period of time, Schiele’s art blossomed, and Wally was his muse, his lover, his friend. Their story is the one of obsession, love, betrayal, erotic exploration, and death – death of an artist, death of a muse, death of a whole empire and death of an era.
Egon Schiele beat Adolf Hitler for a place in the Vienna Academy of Art but died of flu before career fulfilled
The Austrian artist Egon Schiele was struck by a tragedy when his wife died in 1918. His own death followed just days later
by Troy Lennon
(October 31, 2018)
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/egon-schiele-beat-adolf-hitler-for-a-place-in-the-vienna-academy-of-art-but-died-of-flu-before-career-fulfilled/news-story/56d331068e6181e7fd8ca5118450bca9
Austrian artist Egon Schiele was despondent. On October 28, 1918, his pregnant wife Edith had died after contracting the Spanish flu. To cope with the loss of both his partner and his unborn child, Schiele did what he did best and drew pictures of his late wife. They would be his last works. By October 31, 1918, a century ago today, he too had succumbed to the disease.
It was a sad end to a brief but promising career and one that was on an upswing at the time. In his mere 28 years of life, the artist produced thousands of drawings and paintings. His works were also very influential in the Expressionist movement. Schiele pushed boundaries and defied art conventions. His paintings, many of which featured distorted human figures, were often sexually charged and confronting and he also courted controversy in his personal life.
Born in Tulln, 30km northwest of Vienna, in Austria, on June 12, 1890, he was the son of the station master. As a youth he was obsessed with railways, filling sketchbooks with intricately drawn trains. His father hoped the obsession would make his son a good station master but at school his teachers recognised his artistic talent.
When Schiele’s father died in 1905 from syphilis the 15-year-old was deeply affected. Many of his works dwelt on death, pain or twisted depictions of sexuality. He also turned from drawing trains to self-portraits, examining his own psychological turmoil.
Despite largely failing as a student at school and having to repeat a year, his artistic talent gained him entry to the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where famous artist Gustav Klimt had studied. But one of his teachers there complained that Schiele had “too much talent” and he was sent to Vienna’s Academy of Fine arts, the youngest student ever enrolled there, at the age of 16. According to records he was accepted over another candidate — Adolf Hitler.
But Schiele soon rankled at the conservatism of the Academy. In 1907 he sought out Klimt, whose work Schiele admired, hoping to learn more from the great artist. Klimt was the leader of the Vienna Sezessionist (Secessionist) group, who had made a break from the conservative styles of the Academy. He was greatly impressed by the teenager’s talent and became a mentor and friend, buying some of Schiele’s works, organising models and finding him connections in the art world. It led to Schiele’s first inclusion in a Sezessionist exhibition in 1908.
In 1909 he left the Academy and got together with other disgruntled former students to form the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group). Freed from the constraints of the Academy and exposed to works by other artists including Oscar Kokoschka, Edvard Munch and Jan Toorop, Schiele’s works became more avant-garde.
In 1910 he began painting more nudes, which became increasingly explicit. Among his models was his sister Gertrude, with whom he had a close relationship when they were younger. He also hired prostitutes and in 1911 met one named Valerie (Wally) Neuzil who became his live-in lover, causing a scandal.
Seeking an escape from Vienna, Schiele and Neuzil moved to the rural town of Neulengbach, 35km west of Vienna in 1912. One day a teenage runaway camapproached the couple asking if they could take her to her grandmother in Vienna. When they arrived the girl ran away back home to Neulengbach, but her father concocted charges that Schiele had seduced her.
When police came to arrest him they found his home filled with explicit art. The seduction charge didn’t stick but Schiele spent time in prison because his art was displayed in a place where the children who visited his home could see it. He spent 24 days behind bars, using the time to produce artworks about being locked away. It didn’t harm his career, he had solo exhibitions in Munich in 1913 and Paris in 1914.
While in Vienna in 1914 he fell in love with Edith Harms and married her in 1915. Schiele hoped to maintain his relationship with Neuzil but the former prostitute didn’t like the idea of being his mistress. She never saw him again.
Just four days after his marriage he was called up for service in WWI, but he served his time guarding Russian prisoners of war. After his release from service in 1917 he returned to Vienna and had a burst of creativity. In 1918 50 of his works were included in a Sezessionist exhibition. But just as he was beginning to sell more of his works, for higher prices, and received more commissions, tragedy struck. The flu pandemic that killed both Schiele and his wife, killed millions of others around the world.
エゴン・シーレとヒトラー
by ダメオ
https://pione1.hatenablog.com/entry/2019/08/06/104034
不思議な縁（えにし）とでも言うか、エゴン・シーレの父はアドルフという名だった。
14歳で父を喪ったエゴンは1906年、16歳の時にウィーン美術アカデミーに見事入学。
翌年９月、18歳のアドルフ・ヒトラーもウィーン美術アカデミーを受験。
受験者は113名だったがヒトラーは不合格。
その理由は「作品見本不可」。
つまりは試験用に持参するべき絵を持って来なかったことが原因らしい。
シーレはというと、親子ほども年の違うグスタフ・クリムトとこの年に出会い意気投合。
二人の友情は終生変わらなかったが、1918年、クリムトは脳梗塞で倒れ肺炎を併発、2月6日55歳で死去。
この年、世界的に大流行したスペイン風邪でシーレの妻も妊娠6ヶ月で10月28に死去。
その3日後、シーレも同じ病で他界。
まだ28歳の若さだった。
然し、若しヒトラーが合格していたら、彼は画家の道を進み、第二次大戦は起きなかったのだろうか。
Egon Schiele, Woman in Black Stockings, 1913
Egon Schiele, Portrait of Wally, 1912
Egon Schiele, Wally in a Red Blouse Lying on her Back, 1913
Egon Schiele’s Muse Wally Neuzil – Woman in Black Stockings
https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2017/03/17/egon-schieles-muse-wally-neuzil-woman-in-black-stockings/
In 1911, Egon Schiele met a woman. She was seventeen, bright eyed, fun, amiable, not a bit shy or innocent. Her name was Valerie ‘Wally’ Neuzil, and she was just what both Schiele and his art needed. In that short period of time, Schiele’s art blossomed, and Wally was his muse, his lover, his friend. Their story is the one of obsession, love, betrayal, erotic exploration, and death – death of an artist, death of a muse, death of a whole empire and death of an era.
When you spend hours looking at portraits of people who have been dead for years, or portraits of people who never existed, you start to feel that you know them, but that’s just an illusion. Likewise, when you look at Schiele’s portrait of Wally in black stockings and white lingerie, with bare shoulder, and her head leaned on the side, with that gorgeous yellow hair, you feel that she’s so close to you, that you know her. She’s looking at you with a friendly gaze that invites you to come closer. In the portrait below, Wally’s big doll-like blue eyes seem like windows into her soul, and yet for the art world she is a woman of mystery, secrets and speculations are wrapped around her life and character like a spider’s web so the only thing that’s left is to guess and daydream.
What was Wally’s family life like, her childhood, her education? We don’t know. The circumstances surrounding their first meeting also remain shrouded in mystery. All we know is they met in 1911, when she was seventeen and he was twenty-one, already drawing his erotic Lolita-esque fantasies and provoking the public of Vienna. Wally was first Klimt’s model so it’s possible that Klimt send her to Schiele, and it’s also possible that he saw her in Schönbrunn Park or somewhere on the streets of Vienna, and approached her because her appearance suited his aesthetic visions. So young and her life already revolved around art and her artistic journey was that from Klimt’s canvas to Schiele’s, from Klimt’s bed to Schiele’s.
A first Wally lived in her own flat and Schiele paid her for her modelling services, but as their relationship progressed, she moved in with him. It’s safe to assume Wally was an amiable, good-natured, eager to help and please, but also very pretty, fun, charming, witty, close to Schiele in age and interests. She really was everything Schiele, as an artist and a man, needed; she posed for him, she did household chores, and she acted as his messenger, carrying his erotic drawings to his clients who, even though she wasn’t timid, often managed to reduce her to tears with their sharp cruel remarks. As Vienna was getting more dark and oppressive for Schiele, his thoughts wandered to the forests, meadows, morning mists and sunny afternoons of his imagined countryside paradise where his art would flourish. And so they moved to Krumau, a picturesque little town south of Prague, and later to Neulengbach, near Vienna.
Imagine their days in Krumau and Neulengbach as their little hippie getaway; a place where bright sunflowers grow by the wooden fence, grass is fresh and green, and air is exhilarating after spring rain, houses are small with little windows with flowing white curtains, letting in the sunshine and the gentle breeze, a place where birdsong is the only music, and butterflies are dancers. There, Wally would sit or lie on the bed, wide smiled, with rosy cheeks and a spark in her eyes, dressed in her lingerie and stockings, with maybe a ribbon in her hair, throwing inviting glances to Schiele and now to us viewers. These drawings of Wally seem so alive, so full or ardour, passion, adoration, they’re not as twisted and strange as his nudes tend to be, on the contrary, they seem to tactile, so full of warmth, colour and richness; you can feel the idyllic mood of their days in the countryside, you can feel Wally’s gaze filling you with warmness, you can see her eyes radiating playfulness. In the first painting, her golden hair stands out, but the one below is harmony of rich warm tones of yellow and orange which presents us with a brighter side of Schiele’s life, away from gloom and conviction of Vienna. These drawings had shifted Schiele’s role from that of an observer to that of a participant: ‘These drawings are the expression of a physical passion so unequalled in Schiele’s life. Earlier drawings of similar subjects are, by comparison, those of a voyeur. These speak with delight of participation.’* Picture of Wally wearing a red blouse, lying on her back, with her hand under her chin, looking directly at us, made quickly and then filled with colour, tells us that once, for a moment, everything was perfect.
If you enlarge the picture, you’ll notice her eyebrows painted in one single stroke, and the hints of dark blue around her eyes, which are brown all of sudden. The position of her right hand and her hair colour are just adorable to me. I wish I could tell you that this is where their happy story ends, that they dissolved into that beauty, died and became sunflowers in the garden, but the reality dipped its wicked fingers into their lives. First came the infamous Neulengbach affair; Schiele was accused of seducing a girl below the age of consent and his ‘pornographic’ drawings were condemned, but that’s for another post, and then there was another woman – Edith Harms.
The end of their artistic and love affair is as bitter as it gets. Wally was the one who introduced Schiele to Edith, and now he is leaving her for that woman. Ouch… As time passed, Schiele and Edith got romantically engaged, and he planned to marry her, but what of Wally, where is her place in the story? Well, Edith wanted a ‘clean start’, as she wrote to Schiele in a letter, and demanded that he broke all connections to Wally.
Schiele and Wally met for the last time in the Café Eichberger. Schiele spoke not a word, but instead handed her a letter in which he proposed this arrangement; he marries Edith but gets to spend every Summer with Wally, alone. Wally was disgusted with the idea and declined. Schiele resigned ‘lit a cigarette and stared dreamily at the smoke. He was obviously disappointed. Wally thanked him for the kind thought… and then departed, without tears, without pathos, without sentimentality.‘*
Wally and Schiele never met again. First World War was in the full swing, and Wally, who never married, became a nurse, went to care for soldiers near Split in Dalmatia, part of today’s Croatia, where she died from scarlet fever just before Christmas 1917.
ウィーン、光と翳りとアドルフと
by 尾関章
https://ozekibook.com/2022/04/29/ウィーン、光と翳りとアドルフと/
今週の書物/
「クリムト 接吻」
外岡秀俊執筆
『世界 名画の旅4 ヨーロッパ中・南部編』（朝日新聞日曜版「世界 名画の旅」取材班、朝日文庫）所収
あのころに見ておきたかったなあ、という絵がある。19世紀末から20世紀初めにかけて欧州の画壇に新風を吹き込んだオーストリアの画家グスタフ・クリムト（1862～1918）の作品群がそうだ。1990年代のロンドン駐在時代、ウィーンに出張する機会は幾度かあったが、仕事の合間に美術館をのぞく時間はなかった。夏休みや冬休みに見にゆく手もあったが、家族旅行の立ち寄り先としてクリムトの絵は優先順位が高くはなかった。
クリムトの絵と言えば、女性のエロティックな姿が目に浮かぶ。ただし、それは解毒され、気品が漂っている。あの沈潜した色調のせいだろうか。あるいは、捻りがきいた構図がもたらす効果なのか。いずれにしても、従来の絵画世界にない何かがそこにはある。
この画家が「ウィーン分離派」創始者の一人とされていることも、彼の絵に心惹かれるようになった理由の一つだ。「分離派」と聞くと、私は建築をすぐに思い浮かべてしまうのだが、この用語は実は分野の垣根を超えた一群の芸術家を指すものだった。美術作品であれ、建造物であれ、旧来の様式から離れて新しいものをつくろうというのが分離派の芸術運動だ。19世紀末、オーストリアやドイツで台頭した。その源流にクリムトがいたことになる。
建築について言えば、分離派の作品群はギリシャ、ローマ、ロマネスク、ゴシック、ルネサンス、バロック……と続く歴代の建築様式が国際様式と呼ばれるモダニズム建築にとって代わられる端境期に現れた。型にはまらず自由、重厚というより軽快――そんな印象を受けることが多いので、私は好きだ。それは、クリムトの絵画にも通じる。あの沈潜した色調も、捻りがきいた構造も、絵画界での様式離脱の産物と言えるのだろう。
で、今週は、そのクリムトの絵について書いた文章を読む。『世界 名画の旅4――ヨーロッパ中・南部編』（朝日新聞日曜版「世界 名画の旅」取材班著、朝日文庫、1989年刊）所収の「クリムト 接吻」（外岡秀俊執筆）だ。朝日新聞日曜版1985年8月4日付紙面に載った記事の文庫版再録である。著者は1953年生まれの朝日新聞記者（当時）。去年暮れ、病に倒れて死去した。その人となりは今年2回、当欄で触れている。（＊1、＊2）
中身に立ち入る前に「世界 名画の旅」という企画について説明しておこう。これは1980年代半ば、朝日新聞が日曜版の目玉商品として始めた連載。日曜版がカラー刷りだったことをフルに生かして、世界各地の美術館などに所蔵された絵画を大きく載せ、その作品にまつわる話題を掘り起こして記事にするというものだった。執筆陣は、筆力がある名うての記者ばかり。バブル経済崩壊前のことなので海外出張にも潤沢な予算がついたようだ。
「クリムト 接吻」の書き出しも紀行文風だ。ウィーンの町並みを見物するには市電の環状線に乗ればよい、という話から始まる。約40分で旧市街を1周。この路面電車の通り道が「リング通り」だ。「窓からは、ハプスブルク帝国期に建てられた荘重な建物のシルエットを眺めることができる」。劇場、大学、市役所、議事堂、王宮、博物館、美術館……。この道路は1857年、当時のオーストリア皇帝の意向を受けて建設が始まった。
皇帝は何を望んだのか。もともとリング通り一帯には「旧市街を囲む城壁」があった。それをあっさり取り壊して「強大な帝国の威光を示す建物」を次々に配置していく。30年ほどかけての大事業。中世の城郭都市を近代の帝都につくりかえたかったのだろう。
このリング通りのことは、私も『ハプスブルク三都物語――ウィーン、プラハ、ブダペスト』（河野純一著、中公新書）を紹介したときに触れている。この本は、それを「分離派」と関係づけていた。ここでは、拙稿のその一節をそっくり引用しよう。
《当時の帝都はフランツ・ヨーゼフ皇帝のもとで市壁が壊され、環状のリング通りができてネオゴシックやネオバロックなど懐旧的な様式建築が並んでいた。これに反発したのが分離派の建築家だ。オットー・ワーグナーは著書『近代建築』で「われわれの芸術的創造の唯一の出発点は近代生活」と宣言したという》（＊3）。皇帝の近代はしょせん、旧時代の様式をなぞるものだった。そうではない本当の近代を分離派は求めていた。
では、分離派クリムトは画家として、どんな近代をめざしたのか。「接吻」という作品に沿って考えてみよう。この絵では、肩を露わにした女性が花園に立ち、男性の接吻を受けている。目を閉じてうっとりした表情、体にぴったり合った着衣が官能的だ。不思議なのは、男性の足が地についていないことだ。そう思って見ると、女性は横たわっているようでもある。二人をくるむように描かれた模様がベッドを覆う布の柄にも見えてくるではないか。
「接吻」記事はこう読み解く――。絵が「官能を大胆に描きながら、不思議にみだらさを感じさせない」のは「『死』のイメージ」が「放逸な悦楽」を粉砕しているからだ。「悦楽に沈む女性」は「つま先を絶壁の端にかけ、かろうじて現世に踏みとどまっているかに見える」。ここで「絶壁」とあるのは、花園が画面右側で途切れているからだ。「途切れる先に広がる金色の奈落――それは、ウィーンが置かれた現実そのものだった」とある。
「接吻」が描かれたのは1907～1908年。そのころ、ウィーンは華やかさの陰で「死の病に侵されていた」。帝国の支配は民族主義のうねりを受けて崩れそうだった。帝都にも経済格差の亀裂が走り、リング通りの外側には、内側の繁栄と隣り合わせの貧困があった。
「接吻」記事は、クリムト作品の「官能」が19世紀末～20世紀初めに「もてはやされた」理由を探っている。着目するのは「性に対する意識」だ。記事によると、帝都には表向き「性」に触れない空気があった。その裏で、街には売春行為など「性」があふれていた。リングの内外に繁栄と貧困があるように、「性」にも二重性があったのだ。クリムトの絵は、上流階級の気品漂う世界にも実は官能が潜むことを強調しているように見える。
記事のもう一つの読みどころは、この時代にこの都市で画家を志した二人の青年を対比させていることだ。二人には、ウィーン美術アカデミーの入試を受けたという共通点がある。一人は1906年に合格した。後にクリムトの弟子となるエゴン・シーレだ。「死と少女」などの作品で知られる。もう一人は1907年と1908年に受験したが、合格できなかった。その人物の名はアドルフ・ヒトラー。やがて独裁者となるあの人である。
記事の筆者外岡がすごいのは、シーレ青年とヒトラー青年がウィーンで住んだ場所をすべて見てまわったことだ。どちらも転居を繰り返したようで、居住先はそれぞれ6カ所ずつ。1908年には、二人の住まいが300mの近距離だったこともある。面識はなくとも「人込みの中で視線を交わしたこと」くらいはあっておかしくないという。もう一つ興味深いのは、二人とも最初と最後の住まいがリング通りの外側にあったことだ。
実際、「リングの外」は二人に影響を与える。ただ、その方向はまったく異なっている。
シーレは美術アカデミーを退学して「リングの外」の労働者街に住み、貧しい人々をモデルに絵筆をとった。ウィーンの世情は、リング内側の虚飾が剥げ落ちる時代にさしかかっていた。そこで「当時の美術の主流だった装飾的な要素を捨て、切り込むように赤裸々な人間を描いた」のである。これは、クリムト作品がリング建設期の余韻を漂わせているのと対照的だ。「接吻」でも、官能は装飾性のある衣服や花畑に包まれていた。
ヒトラーも、「華麗なウィーンの幻影の裏に潜む悲惨」を目の当たりにしたところまではシーレと同じだ。だが、そのウィーンに憎しみを募らせ「腐敗の根源にユダヤ人がいる」という妄想にとらわれる。これが人類史に刻まれる残虐行為の駆動要因となった。
この記事には、ヒトラーの絵画作品が1点載っている。1907年ごろ、リング通りをやや上方から見通した水彩画だ。遠近法に従っているのに平板。陰翳がほとんどない。このありきたりな絵の描き手が、世界をあのような悪夢に陥れたとは――。一瞬、背筋が凍った。
Wally Neuzil
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wally_Neuzil
Walburga “Wally” Neuzil (19 August 1894 – 25 December 1917) was an Austrian nurse who was the lover and muse of the artist Egon Schiele between 1911 and 1915.
Early life
Neuzil was born in Tattendorf, Lower Austria in 1894, the second child of Thekla Pfneisl, a day labourer, and Josef Neuzil, an elementary school teacher. Thekla and Josef married in March 1895, and had three more daughters (Berta, Antonia and Mari) before Josef’s death in 1902 (1905 in some sources). In 1906, Thekla and her five daughters (Wally had an older sister named Anna) relocated to Vienna, some 30 kilometres to the north of Tattendorf.
In contemporary records, Neuzil is registered variously as a sales assistant, cashier, or storefront model. By the age of 16 she was sitting as a model for Gustav Klimt, and was rumored to have been his lover, though no documentary evidence of this has come to light. Art modeling and prostitution were closely associated in Vienna at this time, providing fertile ground for rumor.
Relationship with Egon Schiele
Neuzil met the Austrian artist Egon Schiele in 1911; she was 17 and he was 21. The circumstances under which they met are unknown, although it has been suggested that they were introduced by Klimt, of whom Schiele was a protégé and Neuzil was a model. They became lovers, and Neuzil soon moved into Schiele’s Vienna home, and over the next four years modelled regularly for his paintings; they were also lovers for much of this period. Neuzil featured in several of Schiele’s most well-known paintings, including Portrait of Wally (1912), Wally Neuzil in Black Stockings (1912), and Wally in Red Blouse with Raised Knees (1913).
After struggling to fit into Viennese society, Neuzil and Schiele moved to her mother’s hometown of Krumau (now Český Krumlov) in Bohemia. However, their lifestyle choices, including their unmarried status and Schiele’s alleged employment of local girls as models, led to criticism from locals and the couple soon moving to Neulengbach, near Vienna, in 1912. There, Schiele was dogged by similar rumours, and was arrested for seducing a twelve-year-old girl; while this charge was dropped, Schiele was charged with exhibiting erotic art in a place accessible to children. During his time in prison, Schiele wrote how Neuzil was the only one of his friends and acquaintances who continued to offer him support.
In 1914, Schiele set up a studio in Hietzing in Vienna’s suburbs, where he first met the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms. Around this time, Schiele wrote in a letter to Arthur Roessler that he was “planning to marry, advantageously, not Wally” (“habe vor zu heiraten, günstigst, nicht Wally”). In 1915, Schiele became engaged to Edith, and informed Neuzil of his intentions at the Café Eichberger. Evidence at the time suggested Schiele intended to carry on some relationship with Neuzil despite his marriage; a letter he wrote to Neuzil mentioned them continuing to holiday together without Edith. However, Neuzil ended the relationship immediately after Schiele announced his engagement, and the two did not see each other again, although a letter by an acquaintance of both Neuzil and Schiele suggested he continued to offer her some financial support as late as 1915. After Neuzil’s departure, Schiele painted Death and the Maiden in response to the end of their relationship.
Later life
Following the end of her relationship with Schiele, Neuzil trained as a nurse and found employment in a military hospital in Vienna. By 1917, she was working in Sinj in Dalmatia, where she died of scarlet fever on 25 December 1917 at the age of 23.
Legacy
Schiele died in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic, three days after the death of his wife Edith and their unborn child.
Portrait of Wally is currently on display at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. It was subject to a protracted legal battle in 1998 following its display on loan in the USA after The New York Times reported that the painting had been improperly acquired by the museum via Nazi looting of Jewish-owned art during the Holocaust. In 2010, the Leopold Museum reached a $19 million settlement with the family of Lea Bondi Jaray, an art dealer who had originally owned the painting before being forced to sell it and flee Austria in 1939 following the Anschluss and subsequent Aryanisation of Austria.
In 2017, Neuzil’s grave was located in Sinj. In Neuzil’s hometown of Tattendorf, a square is named after her.
In 1980, Excess and Punishment, a biographical film about Schiele, was released. In it, Neuzil was portrayed by Jane Birkin.