The longer you look, the darker it gets: reassessing Gustav Klimt's The Kiss

Is the woman unconscious? Could the man's embrace be violent? A new film invites us to challenge our preconceptions about the gilded masterpiece Some paintings become so iconic that it is difficult to remember that they are in fact paintings, not just posters on the walls of dorm rooms stained with Blu-Tack. Gustav Klimt's The Kiss is a prime example. Because we encounter it most often in tattered poster form, or on mugs or keychains or some other kind of tat, it has ascended (or descended) into...