AllMovie

As helmed by Renee Bergan, Paul Soldner: Playing with Fire constitutes an overt biographical portrait of modern artist Paul Soldner and an expostulation of Solder's guiding principles. Above all else, Bergan chronicles Soldner's life and times, asserting that he stood at the veritable nexus of two historical trends in pottery: a trend that employed pottery for utilitarian purposes, and one that treated pottery as fine art. Soldner, Bergan argues, virtually carried pottery into the fine art sphere and thus earned the sobriquet "The Miles Davis of Ceramics." At the same time, Soldner evolved into a teacher among teachers - a Zen-like guru whose philosophies celebrated the importance of flexibility in the life and mind of the consummate artist, and helped teach students the vital importance of embracing "accidents" - inspirational philosophies discussed at length in this film.