Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Andrey Paounov
Cast
Christo
Genre
Documentary
An uncensored look into the artistic process and personal relationships of Christo, an artist known for his large-scale installations. For the first time since the passing of his wife and creative partner, Jeanne-Claude, Christo sets out to realize "The Floating Piers," a project they conceived together many years before.
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
Whether you deem this project an extravagant boondoggle or a masterpiece, you have to admire Christo’s tenacity in finally making it happen, as chronicled in the documentary Walking on Water.
Variety by Jay Weissberg
The artist’s forceful character does battle with technology, bureaucracy, corruption and the elements, resulting in an installation of stunning beauty and a documentary that delights in capturing the act of creation.
Boston Globe by Mark Feeney
The documentary has a pleasing offhandedness. The same cannot be said of its subject. Christo, who turns 84 on June 13, is precise and highly directed.
Film Threat by Lorry Kikta
Walking on Water is essential for any devotee of the arts, as this shows a project from fruition to dismantling, a full life cycle of an art installation if you will. I, for one, found it very fascinating.
Los Angeles Times by María García
It is when Paounov reveals Christo’s leonine qualities that Walking on Water achieves a rare authenticity.
The New York Times by Ken Jaworowski
We spy on an artist who races around like a mad scientist, and who seems comically befuddled by technology. His passion is genuine, as is his sense of wonder.
Washington Post by Michael O'Sullivan
The documentary might make you believe in miracles, considering how tedious — if not impossible — this interactive artwork comes across.
Movie Nation by Roger Moore
Walking on Water not only shows the artist in action, it gets at why these gimmicky and despite what he says (“We never repeat ourselves!”) repetitive thematic artworks are so popular with the public, and have been since the 1960s. Whimsy on this scale is hard to find.
Austin Chronicle by Steve Davis
The movie remains patchy as it continues to jump somewhat arbitrarily from day to day without fully realizing its subject matter. The one dependable constant in all of this is Christo himself. Smiling ecstatically one minute, despondently hangdog the next, he exhibits a genius lunacy on par with his life’s work.
RogerEbert.com by Glenn Kenny
What the viewer is not left short of is a whole lot of yelling and cursing in various languages as Christo’s collaborators and helpmates confront practically each and every crisis in a truculent panic. Art isn’t easy, we all know that. But does it also have to be this crazy?
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Though it starts uneventfully, the doc perks up in its second half, highlighting the kind of practical headaches nearly no other artist in the world has to contend with.
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