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Basquiat [1997]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

In his writing and directorial debut, Julian Schnabel's film Basquiat depicts the life of graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, aka SAMO, and the turbulent period from the late 1970s to 1988, as his life was catapulted into fame and notoriety. As Jean-Michel's work gained favourable attention from New York's elite art community, he went from a street punk living in a cardboard box to the first black artist to succeed in the all-white dominated art world. Tony Award-winning actor Jeffrey Wright does a brilliant job portraying a man tortured by self-doubt and thoughts of suicide, struggling to survive and be acknowledged as an artist. The film's use of dream-like imagery and rhythmic pace tells the story from the perspective of Jean-Michel's eyes as he manages to "float" through relationships and gallery showings,until his impending death in 1988 from a heroin overdose. Brimming with talent, the film also stars David Bowie as pop-artist Andy Warhol, Michael Wincott as poet Rene Ricard and many others, including Gary Oldman, Benicio del Toro, Dennis Hopper and Courtney Love. --Michele Goodson


Fantastic movie! Horrible release!
Review date: 2008-02-18 Rating: 4 out of 10

The movie itself is great I really enjoyed it.
But I was very disappointed with the picture quality - this Pathe "TV release" is horribly weak, speak nothing of even English subtitles absence..., waste of money...


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Reviews


Fairy-tale fable of the life of 1980s cult artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
Review date: 2007-12-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist of Puerto Rican and Haitian descent, who first found fame as an eighteen year-old graffiti artist in the 1980 Times Square Show, a multi-artist exhibition in New York. In the following year, art critic René Ricard wrote a glowing promotion piece on him in Artforum magazine ('The Radiant Child'), which helped propel Basquiat's career onto an international stage. Subsequently he showed his "neo-expressionist" paintings in collaborative exhibitions in New York and solo exhibitions in major European capitals. Most well-known are probably the collaborative works he undertook with pop-artist Andy Warhol between 1982 and 1987.

Myths about his character and art quickly thickened after his premature death from a heroin overdose, aged 27, in August 1988. The dionysian excesses of his private behaviour, his mixed-race heritage and his phenomenal comet-like success helped elevate him into cult status. This film based on his life does not - and does not try to - demythologise him. Rather, we see a rather romantic dramatisation of his life. Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) is shown as a boy in the opening scene, standing in front of Picasso's Guernica with his mother, and a shiny halo shimmering on his head. Basquiat is frequently depicted sleeping in a cardboard box in Central Park; in real life, however, his background was middle-class. He invites his father to his first solo exhibition in this film and he proudly introduces him to others; according to Phoebe Hoban, who published a biography of his life in 1997, he actually despised his father. Andy Warhol presents him in his diaries as much more of a happy-go-lucky womaniser than is shown here. Although director Julian Schnabel - himself a famous artist of the New York art scene in the 1980s - knew Basquiat personally, he nevertheless makes him into a fey sort of soul here. Some critics have suggested that Schnabel wanted to settle old scores with the scene that ultimately rejected him: the art dealers, gallery owners and patrons Bruno Bischofberger (Dennis Hopper), Mary Boone (Parker Posey) and Cynthia Kruger (Tatum O'Neal) are certainly presented as villains, who exploited and sought to handsomely profit from Basquiat's talent. Most controversial has been Schnabel's rather romanticised dramatisation of himself by Gary Oldman (Oldman is for starters a good deal thinner than the rather chubby Schnabel).

Yet in spite of these inaccuracies Basquiat is a very good film. This is partly due to the dreamlike sequences that allow the audience to enter into the artist's imaginative perceptions and partly because of the tremendous cast and soundtrack. Willem Dafoe and Vincent Gallo - who was a friend of Basquiat's and formed a band with him in the early 1980s - appear in side roles; Benicio del Toro puts in a stellar performance as composite character Benny. And David Bowie - even if his accent is still recognisably British and his own voice is so well-known - portrays Andy Warhol very well and very wittily. The film should also be given bonus points for refusing to portray Basquiat's drug-induced death; this is, as Schnabel has said, a celebration of his life rather than a dramatisation of his death. If the ending is a little mawkish and Basquiat remains in Warhol's shadow even in death, this film nevertheless goes some way towards recognition that Basquiat be no longer seen as an egocentric junkie, a glorified graffiti artist or demeaningly as Warhol's "mascot", but rather as a serious, prolific and prodigal artist of lasting creative influence.

One of the Best ...
Review date: 2006-06-11 Rating: 8 out of 10

One of the best... well done, well acted, doesn't drag. Certainly gives one a feel for what it was like in the late eighties, if possible to be there in New York for one of the most productive art periods in the last century. Look for great performances by David Bowie, Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman... and even Courtney Love is in this movie!
If you loved this movie, also see Before Night Falls, by the same director..

below "Before Night Falls" above "Pollock"
Review date: 2005-04-21 Rating: 8 out of 10

Really enjoyed the movie - not a extraordinary experience, though, but it's quite well made. The actors are quite good, Bowie manage to be a credible Andy Warhol, Dennis Hopper a very good Bruno Bischofberger (maybe the best in here), 'Del Toro is quite well as well - in the other side I didn't like much Jeffrey Wright, it seemed he didn't give much depth to Basquiat character. Schnabel later "Before Night Falls" is undoubtly better, but Basquiat it's NOT a waste of time. In it's essence it manage to deliver what this kind of movie suppose to, although technically has a few problems (in my opinion, of course), being some lack of depth the main one.

abysmal twaddle about egocentric junkies
Review date: 2004-05-21 Rating: 2 out of 10

Good performances can't save this self-indulgent tale of yet another artist whose out of control ego is supposed to be interesting to the viewer. Even the scenes of his "creative process" are meaningless, and no better than watching a wall being defaced by spray paint; somehow we are made to assume Basquiat is an inventive genius, when what the screen shows us is a man who has no respect for anyone (for instance, there is a scene where he goes to a lovely home for dinner, and urinates in the hallway), no gratitude to those who help him become famous, and is more interested in self-promotion than art.

It has a stellar cast of character actors, among them David Bowie, who shines as Andy Warhol (and is sporting one of Warhol's actual wigs), and Gary Oldman as "Albert Milo", which is an alias for artist and writer/director of this film, Julian Schnabel, and uses Schnabel's paintings, including one he made for Basquiat (the one he shows Jeffrey Wright/Basquiat saying he painted it for a friend who died).
The reproductions of Basquiat's work were also done by Schnabel.

Will Basquiat's work be known 100 years from now ? I doubt it; though it is lauded now, I believe time will reveal it to be no more than glorified graffiti.
For superior films on other self-obsessed, but far better artists, see "Pollock" or "Surviving Picasso", for a humorless depiction of substance abusing bores, an aimless script, and jumpy editing, this is your film. Total running time 1 hour and 46 minutes.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Michael Wincott
Claire Forlani
David Bowie
Jeffrey Wright
Benicio Del Toro

Creators:
Jeffrey Wright (Primary Contributor)
Michael Wincott (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Pathe Distribution
Manufacturer: Pathe Distribution
EAN: 5060002831991
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2003-06-30
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 106 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1996-08-09
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Original Language)

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