Outstanding debut by Julian Schnabel, Basquiat is a glimpse in a quirky mind, one less understood at the time, but highly famed, no matter what. I never liked the color specification referring at Jean-Michel Basquiat as the most famous American black painter of all times. Some of this is also diluted somehow in the movie as well, in fictional interviews, with fictional characters, fictional happenings and dialogues.
gary Oldman, david Bowie, Dennis Hopper and Jeffrey Wright in Basquiat (1996)
[source for both pics: imdb.com]
Basquiat – Plot
Here, Basquiat is presented as a homeless Rasta like fellow who is sleeping in a carton box in a park. He has bohemian friends, he smokes joints, he meets Andy Warhol and and Bruno Bischofberger and he dares to become famous in four years and rich in six. He is 20 or so. The movie is mostly inspired by his actual deeds, so it is an artwork on its own.
I don’t know if the women are real, beside Annina Nosei and Mary Boone, two of his art gallery owners. Someone named “Big Pink” may be the aspiring Madonna, who dated Basquiat for two weeks or two months, when he became famous overnight. He was friend with Andy Warhol and was helped in his career by a lot of other people, including the Swiss Bruno Bischofberger, and René Ricard. He burned down as a flame, at only 27.
Cast
Jeffrey Wright is Jean Michel Basquiat. Michael Wincott is René Ricard. Benicio Del Toro is Benny Dalmau, a friend. Claire Forlani is Gina Cardinale, an aspiring artist herself, his first girlfriend in the movie. David Bowie is Andy Warhol. Dennis Hopper is Bruno Bischofberger, a Swiss art investor, Warhol’s friend. Gary Oldman is Albert Milo, a fictional character inspired by Schnabel’s persona. Christopher Walken is an interviewer who can actually be anybody. Willem Dafoe is an electrician with a line in the script. Parker Posey is Mary Boone, a famous art gallery owner. The Jewish-Romanian Elina Löwensohn is Annina Nosei, another art gallery owner. Paul Bartel is Henry Geldzahler. Courtney Love is “Big Pink”, possibly Madonna or Debbie Harry, doesn’t really matter, she’s a metaphor in Basquiat’s bisexual existence. Tatum O’Neal is Cynthia Kruger, a client, a patron.
Trailer
Facts
Jean-Michel’s father, Gérard Basquiat, came from a Haitian bourgeois family; he escaped Papa Doc Duvalier’s ire, after his parents were jailed and his brother was killed. In America, he became an accountant, married a woman of Puerto Rican descent and had three children. He worked hard and prospered, he drove a Mercedes. Jean-Michel’s home leaving was his own choice.
When Basquiat approached Warhol in the restaurant, this one was eating with Henry Geldzahler, not with Bruno Bischofberger. He sold them a “baseball card”, a cut up photo laid down on graph paper, Xerox-colored and painted in a “limited edition” scribbling. He used to sell them on the streets for a few dollars. Geldzahler was an art curator and critic, Bischofberger was an investor.
Basquiat – Poster
He had that funny walking (never explained in the movie), because he was hit by a car when he was a kid. It’s fortunate because he eventually survived.
The paintings used in the movie were not his. Schnabel hasn’t got permission to use originals. He wasn’t famous enough at the time. It’s a wonder these lot of famous actors actually accepted to play in the movie. Wright was also at his first major role.
Samo stands for “Same old shit”. This was his signature under the messages he wrote on Manhattan walls around 1978. He wanted it to be his logo. He also added the copyright symbol ©, near “SAMO”. I particularly liked this somehow poetic stance: PAY FOR SOUP, BUILD A FORT, SET IT ON FIRE. It defines his meteoric life.
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