Films about artists tend to be pretentious and dull. Even though Basquiat doesn't belong to the worst category of the mentioned type of films, it's not a masterpiece either. What disappointed me about the film is it's recycling of almost every theme that we expect from a film about an artists. The artist has a troubled relationship with his girl. The artists turns out to be a genius, sometimes a misunderstood genius. The artist has a conflictual attitude towards the conventional world of artists and art dealers. However, there's a few unexpected elements here that made me sit through the entire film. Unlike most films about art, this film (for obvious reasons) discusses the widespread racism in art circles. What this shows us is that as soon as art starts to be about the artist or the role of an artist, we are already situated in yawn city. I'm not sure this point is something the director (Schnabel) would acknowledge, but the film is clear enough.
And it is hard NOT to like any performance by Dennis Hopper.
No comments:
Post a Comment