... you can learn from:
Basquiat (1996)
Rene: What is it about art anyway that we give it so much importance? Artists are respected by the poor because what they do is an honest way to get out of the slum using one's sheer self as the medium. The money earned, proof, pure and simple, of the value of that individual, the artist. The picture a mother's son does in jail hangs on her wall as proof that beauty is possible even in the most wretched. And this is a much different idea than fancier notion that art is a scam and a ripoff. But you can never explain to someone who uses God's gift to enslave, that you have used God's gift to be free.
Coming in a couple of days late on this because of those blasted dentist's appointments of mine but Criterion dropped Julian Schnabel's fabulously under-appreciated 1996 bio-pic Basquiat on 4K this week -- watching it now after I hadn't seen it since it came out it was even better than I remembered. Jeffrey Wright is of course amazing in it (he was viciously robbed of an Oscar nomination) but Schnabel fills his portrait of the '80s NYC art-scene that he obviously knew so well from personal experience to the rafters with pitch-perfect details in every corner. It really feels like you're there in it. So glad this movie's easier for people to watch now. They've also got it streaming on the Channel too!
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1 comment:
I watched it a few months ago and it holds up much better than I remembered esp Bowie as Andy and the snubbed Wright who should have had a spot on Oscars Top 5 list,he has a wonderfully acted scene infront of a Tv.
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