“A good painter must depict two principal things: mainly, the person and the intentions of their mind.” The first words said in Ken Burns’ upcoming documentary, Leonardo da Vinci, don’t only ring true of the film’s subject, but I can attest it rings true of any storyteller. Especially the man responsible for bringing Leonardo’s life to film this November.
On a Sunday afternoon FaceTime call with Ken Burns, I wouldn’t expect to be talking to a revered documentarian about his upcoming docuseries on Leonardo Da Vinci. The beginning of the call is more similar to that of a call with my friend’s dad, hijacking the phone to show me the great Colorado mountain scene outside his house (Burns is in Colorado for the call, preparing for the Telluride Film Festival). Before we dive into his career, we briefly chat about the high altitude.
During our 45-minute phone call, I found myself consistently forgetting not “who” I was speaking to, but who I was speaking to. That’s when I realized the two ingredients that are consistent in Burns’ films, are also evident in his interview with me: empathy, and no ego. When he talks about his films in such a high regard, he isn’t talking about his talent or his storytelling – but he’s just that in love with the material and what he does. Burns has loved the craft of filmmaking since he was 12, but it wasn’t until he began his studies at Hampshire College, where his photography professors taught him “…that there is as much drama in what is and what was…”. Burns has always had a deep interest in history, and this realization brought on by his mentors gave him the opportunity to mix his fascination with the past with the art of visual storytelling.
Burns’ documentaries are famous for having many installments. The Civil War, Burns’ five-part series on the American Civil War, premiered on September 23, 1990, showing one episode per evening until September 27.
When discussing his editing process, he mentioned another documentary subject of his, Ernest Hemingway (Hemingway premiered in 2021 in a three-part series). “You would think that making something would be addition, but it’s actually subtraction. For (Hemingway), it’s getting rid of the adjectives and the overly floral descriptions and being spare and lean. I find this process exhilarating. The film is always made in the editing room…I have in my editing room a neon sign that says, ‘It’s Complicated’ in lowercase cursive.”
For a man who has so little ego when creating a documentary (and knows to keep his own opinions out of his work), it gives him that much space and time for the stories he chooses to tell. Whether it be from any of his past works, or his upcoming topics: The American Revolution, Henry David Thoreau, or President Lyndon B. Johnson. Burns’ selflessness allows him to establish fully who a person is with all of their layers – good or bad. “A good story, inevitably, has undertones, that the greatest of heroes always has flaws, the worst of villains always has an interesting side. So, you’re constantly having to be nuanced and complex about storytelling…It has to have an antagonist and a protagonist..There’s enough conflict in the stories that we tell that you’re actually telling things that sort of short-circuit always being certain.”
In our talk about the complexities of humans, we mention Thomas Jefferson, one of the country’s founding fathers. Though he was responsible for declaring our country’s independence, Burns gives a great example of the multitudes within Jefferson that he yearns to study and share. “(Jefferson) said all men are created equal, but he owned other human beings and didn’t see the contradiction, the hypocrisy, or more importantly, didn’t see fit in his lifetime to free any of them. That’s interesting. And our desire to come down with a judgement to cancel or to eliminate or to remove from sight…no one will be left if you have a standard of absolute perfection.” The documentary on the American Revolution will air next year on PBS, Burns’ trusted and supportive affiliate for the last few decades.
Given our current climate of short attention span and instant gratification, there doesn’t seem to be a better time for Burns’ two-episode documentary series on Leonardo da Vinci, a man whose life was filled with nothing but curiosity that turned into idea and invention. (Though we commonly would refer to the artist as Da Vinci, Burns educated me during our call that it’s more proactive to say “Leonardo” as opposed to the last name. “Da Vinci” means “of Vinci”. It would be like saying ‘Bob’ in the United States).
The series begins with a context of the time Leonardo was born into –evolving into a more humanistic era – where questioning became encouraged instead of simply saying “God’s will” and moving on. In his years of research and production on the documentary, Burns found way more than admiration for Leonardo. “(Leonardo) makes you want to be a better person. He had such focus and attention and analytical and observational and experimental chops.” Burns’ claim that Leonardo is “the greatest painter of all time” is supported not only by the paintings shown in the documentary, but by the numerous historians and artists Burns interviewed. There’s one painting where Leonardo noticeably excelled more than his mentor, even beginning to challenge the art of movement and shadow within the piece. He was not older than a college student. The documentary unfolds that behind the “genius” that many claim Leonardo to be – more aptly called a “Renaissance Man”, was a young man who found himself filled with so much curiosity about the world and all its parts (artistic, anatomy, astronomy, biology, and so forth), that he became the most progressive inventor of all time.
One of Leonardo’s most famous works, Mona Lisa, has long been the subject of conversation in the artistic world. It’s also been the punchline and parody in many jokes in pop culture. After seeing it in person at the Louvre, Burns feels the painting is way more than anyone can simply describe. I spoke with Burns before I saw the documentary, so in the interview, he revealed to me the moment the painting has in his series. In a heartfelt moment, Burns tells me that within the Mona Lisa, it is way more than a woman staring at you with a smile. “You realize that enigmatic smile is about the whole meaning of life.” In the final moments of his documentary, Burns gives Leonardo’s painting its true moment of praise, free of comedy and judgement that’s shrouded it for centuries. “You suddenly realize what a wonderful gift it is to the rest of us.”
It’s fair to say that Burns and his films are exceptional gifts to us, too.
Leonardo airs on PBS November 18.