BASQUIAT
A film review by Ivana Redwine
Copyright 1996 Ivana Redwine
(Miramax 1996) Starring: Jeffrey Wright, Michael Wincott, Benicio Del Toro, Claire Forlani, David Bowie, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman. Written and directed by Julian Schnabel. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes. MPAA rating: R.
WARNING: This review contains spoilers!
I find that the best movies touch me on an emotional level, and "Basquiat" moved me deeply. The film, a character study of artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, is a heart-felt masterpiece of innovative film-making. Jean-Michel Basquiat was a young black artist living a hand-to-mouth existence in New York when he was discovered by critic Rene Ricard and became a darling of the New York art world, skyrocketing to a Warholesque fifteen minutes of fame. Basquiat died of a drug overdose just a few years later. Unlike many artists who suffer because of the indifference of the public to their work, Basquiat's plight was one of too-early fame mixed with the exploitation of his talent by the art world of the 1980's. Writer-director Julian Schnabel, who was also a successful artist and darling of the 1980's art world, brought something to this film that few others could--first-hand knowledge of the milieu in which Basquiat moved. In my opinion, no other film made about an artist has the verisimilitude of "Basquiat." Most film portrayals of the life of an artist present stick-figure characters that seldom go beyond the mythic archetype of the artist as troubled genius. The title character in "Basquiat" is a much more complex, fully developed character than the Van Gogh in old Hollywood's "Lust for Life." Schnabel's skills as an artist make this a visually vivid film, using powerful images to tell the story of Basquiat's life. A particularly memorable example is the scene where Basquiat as a child is standing with his mother in front of Picasso's "Guernica." The painting moves his mother to tears as a shiny crown suddenly appears on the child's head. I interpreted this as a metaphor for the ability of a great painting to touch the deepest human emotions and transform lives. When the crown appeared on Basquiat's head, I felt that the artist was born within him. I thought that the film's greatest strength is Jeffrey Wright's superb performance as Jean-Michel Basquiat. Wright slips so easily into the role of Basquiat that there were times when I felt there was some Boswell-like videographer following the real Basquiat around. Yet, Schnabel's artistry is such that the film never feels like a documentary or even a docudrama. Basquiat had no contact with his father, and his mother was in a mental institution. He sometimes seemed to distance himself from the world by alienating people who were close to him. One of the first people he alienated was Gina Cardinale (played luminously by Claire Forlani). Gina was an early girlfriend who took him in when he was homeless and loved him with selfless devotion before he found fame and fortune. She saved his life once when she found him in their apartment nearly dead from a drug overdose. But Basquiat committed an infidelity with an art-world groupie (played by Courtney Love) and lost Gina soon after she found out. After losing Gina, he lives an increasingly solitary existence, and here the actor Wright is particularly effective in his use of body language and facial expression to portray Basquiat's slow withdrawal into himself. In spite of his isolation, Basquiat did have a rather strange friendship with Andy Warhol, and their friendship struck me as one of the more fascinating aspects of this film. Warhol became something of a surrogate father to Basquiat. Warhol was the only person who seemed to care enough about Basquiat to warn him about the perils of drug addiction. I thought that one of the best scenes in the movie was when Warhol and Basquiat worked collaboratively on a series of paintings. There was a sadness and a loneliness common to both men in this scene. They seemed to be two lost souls who found solace in each other's friendship for a while. I enjoyed David Bowie's low-key performance as Andy Warhol. Bowie's Warhol was soft spoken and introverted; it was Warhol as the private man, not Warhol's better known flamboyant persona as a diva of pop culture. Racism is another thread in the movie. All of Basquiat's genius and all of his art world success could not shield him from the racism that he confronted in his daily life. In one scene in an elegant restaurant, a table of white businessmen stare rudely at Basquiat. Basquiat does not openly confront them with his anger; instead he tells the waiter that he will anonymously pay their check. In another similar scene, Basquiat is in an upscale deli with Andy Warhol when a clerk treats him rudely because of his race. Basquiat responds to this by buying a thousand dollars worth of caviar from the clerk. In yet another scene, Basquiat reacts with open hostility when a long-time white friend says something about Basquiat becoming "uppity" since his success. Basquiat becomes quarrelsome, and to get away from him, the friend angrily gets out of the taxi they are sharing. However, Basquiat's race and his background as a graffiti artist made him chic with the hip New York art crowd of the 1980's. This is reflected in the scene where he is working on some paintings in his studio and is visited by a gallery owner, an art collector, and the collector's bimboesque wife. The gallery owner announces to the couple, "This is the voice of the street." Tatum O'Neal is hilarious as the art collector's wife, who indicates to Basquiat that she might buy one of the paintings if he will paint over a large area of institutional-looking green with a more pleasant color. There are many fine performances in the film, including Parker Posey as gallery owner Mary Boone, Gary Oldman as artist Albert Milo (Schnabel's fictional surrogate), Dennis Hopper as art dealer Bruno Bischofberger, and an exceptionally strong effort by Michael Wincott as the art critic Rene Ricard. "Basquiat" is a rare treat. Few films have performances of the caliber that Jeffrey Wright gives in playing Jean-Michel Basquiat. And even fewer films have the kind of original vision shown in this one by Julian Schnabel. A film like this comes around only once in a long while: it would be a shame to miss it.
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