Artist’s lives seem to be necessarily intense and challenging - maybe part of the reason why they can create their work. The films about their lives tend to try to put us into their mindset - painting the whole world of the film in their own style.

This week’s two films centre around key moments in artists’ lives, helmed by an artist in his own right.

Happy choosing, happy viewing

Bry

FILM ONE: AT ETERNITY’S GATE

2018 Dir Julian Schnabel
1 hr 51 mins

Willem Dafoe’s performance makes the icon of Van Gogh tender and fragile. An artist you want to give a hug, I never thought I’d want to give Van Gogh a hug. And yet here we are. He’s the kind of character that is immensely talented but almost completely isolated because of that. Then throw in the the mental health factors that also contribute to his obsession with painting and you’ve got a man on the precipice - wanting nothing more than a friend. Luckily, he has his wonderful brother played by Rupert Friend. But even her can only do so much.

Schnabel plays the film beautifully simple, but with lovely flourishes of expressionism. The frame is filled with the icons plucked from Van Gogh’s works. The vibrant yellows, the purity of the natural world he so perfectly captured in his paintings bring us closer to the world as seen by Van Gogh. The imperfections in the lenses fracture the light, blur sections of the frame in Vincent’s most fragile moments. And like Diving Bell and The Butterfly - he plays key moments as direct, intense POV shots. Especially when the world is judging Van Gogh. We start to feel like a specimen, much like what Vincent must have felt. And oddity whose paintings went largely unappreciated during his lifetime. All he had, was his own faith and the encouragement of this brother and the spurring challenges of his friend Gauguin.

It’s during a scene with the latter that makes us feel most towards Van Gogh, suddenly an icon of the art world is reduced to a little child - who just wants a friend to stay with him.

TL;DR: Van Gogh comes to life in Schnabel’s touching film that leaves us feeling sorry for the portrait of a man behind the genius.

*Available for a small rental fee on Apple, Amazon, Google and YouTube in the US, and the UK.

Fact: Willem was Vincent Van Gogh’s middle name.

FILM TWO: BASQUIAT

1996 Dir Julian Schnabel
1 hrs 47 mins

The first time I saw this film, as I’ve chatted about with various others here, was on BBC 2 late at night. At that age I had no idea who Basquiat was, or if he was even a real person. But I loved the feeling of the film from the start and was hooked into the quiet, ambling, effortless creativity of this anonymous guy who sleeps rough in a box in a park in New York.

He was cool, did what he wanted despite what others told him and expressed himself every chance he got, through any medium. Chalk on a boxing bag included - if that’s all there is, then yes that is what his canvas and paints will be. Like the first film, Schnabel presents the film simply with the occasional flourish that brings the artist’s concealed inner world outward for us to see.

The cast is crammed with talent, all of which fill out the rich canvas of this young artist’s life. Watching the film, it’s almost ridiculous how many a-listers are there. It makes the insular art world directly parallel the walled garden of Hollywood. If you want to peer into the art world of 80’s New York - Schnabel’s film takes us intimately behind the curtain.

TL;DR: Basquiat’s art world experience is captured perfectly by Schnabel’s portrait of a young man taken in through the guarded back doors.

*Available for a small rental fee on Apple, Amazon, Google and YouTube in the US and Apple in the UK.

Fact: Chris Rock was originally offered the title role but declined as he didn’t know who the artist was at time.

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🎬 #126 Artists, Framed.