#lech j. majewski

[90smovies]

[toiich]

Wojaczek (1999), dir. Lech J. Majewski

[iliketowatchmoviesalot]

12-18-2016 Basquiat (1996) www.imdb.com/title/tt0115632/

Jean-Michel Basquiat has lived an eventful life, a life that most filmmakers couldn’t do justice in a single biopic. It would make sense then for a fellow painter to make a film about him: Julian Schnabel, who still considers himself a painter first and foremost although most people remember him for his films, directed Basquiat, and I’m glad he did. I don’t think many other people could depict the scene SAMO and Schnabel were in as well as Schnabel did. This film does not contain Basquiat’s original artwork, but features Schnabel’s work that closely represents that of Basquiat’s.

This film, written by the director, Lech J. Majewski and John Bowe, focuses on the time Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright) rose to prominence in New York City starting in 1979. By then, Basquiat was living in a box and was in a band with his best friend Benny Dalmau (Benicio Del Toro). His life changes drastically after Basquiat sees Andy Warhol (David Bowie) having lunch in the city, to whom Basquiat sells some of his art. Like that, Basquiat kind off rolls into this quasi-elitist world, but he has a hard time adjusting.

While on an elementary level Basquiat is your typical from-rags-to-riches-to-rags-again story, on a higher level it is much more than that. The directing, editing, music, production design and costume design make this one of the funkiest movies I have ever seen. Like so does the story become a warped kind of fairytale with vivid colours and vivid dreams. The Radiant Child, the 2010 documentary by Tamra Davis about Basquiat offers a more complete and true version of his life as an artist, but as an experience by itself does Schnabel’s film stand out.

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