Post 3

1. I really enjoyed the film Basquiat. I thought it was creative, the soundtrack added a lot of emotion to the film and by the end of the film I found myself feeling sorry for Basquiat, as opposed to the film Pollock where I found myself having no sympathy for the artist. You can tell by watching the film that Julian Schnabel really cared for his friend. Yes, Basquiat is a out there in his own world and we do not understand him most of the time, but at the same time he is portrayed as very human. He has dreams and aspirations and like anyone who is given their dream to quickly or thrown into something without warning, he struggles.

Picasso & Crown Sequence: In my last post about the crown sequence I suggested that the fact that his mother cries is foreshadowing the sadness in Basquiat’s life. Although this could be true, the ending of the film really defines what the opening scene symbolizes. Basquiat tells his friend the story of the little prince with the magic crown, a story that means something to him. The little boy is locked in a room with nothing but a golden crown upon his head. He bangs his crown against the barred window so someone would help him escape. The boy never does escape the room, but the sound of the crown resonates all over the world. The sound is so magical and beautiful that everyone who hears it is filled with joy and the world is filled with beauty. I find this story to be very beautiful and emotional. Basquiat sees himself as this little boy. All his life he was trapped in his own little world, never seeming to be fully happy. All he had was his gift of talent (the crown.) Although his crown didn’t help him feel fulfilled and happy in the end, it spread joy and beauty to others. Now I understand why his mother stopped crying when she looked at his crown in the beginning of the film.


The Surfer: The image of the surfer was a very interesting and an important part of the film. We learned from the class report and later in the movie that Basquiat had a deep passion and love for Hawaii. He often mentions that he wants to go to Hawaii and escape from it all. The surfer serves as his inspiration, almost his drive to live. After Andy Warhol dies, we see him quickly spiral downhill. He has a breakdown outside of the asylum his mother is in, and then we see an underwater image. Every other image of the surfer or the water skier is above the water. It is almost as if we are seeing the underwater image through Basquiat’s eyes. He is drowning. We later then find out at the end of the film that he no longer wants to go to Hawaii. “Fuck Hawaii,” he says. “Let’s go to Ireland and get drunk at the bars.” He no longer feels inspired or driven but just wants to be carefree and throw his life away. This kind of thinking seems to have led him to his demise, which was his drug overdose.

The Bird Eating the Frog: This was a harder image for me to decipher. The image appears while Gina and Basquiat fight about him painting her dress and over her paintings. The only link that came to mind is that Basquiat is frog and the bird represents his thirst or passion for art. The bird begins to swallow the frog whole, just like his artistic passion consumes him. It consumes his so much that he goes and paints on his girlfriends dress and paints over her work, which aren’t the best things to do to a person you care about.

Closing Scene: The closing scene depicts Basquiat and his friend driving around the city. Basquiat stands up in the car, letting the breeze take him in. It appears that he feels carefree without a worry in the world. He tells his friend the prince and the crown story and then proceeds to tell him he doesn’t care about his dream to go to Hawaii anymore. All of this is symbolic of him letting go. He gives up on his dreams and seems to be okay with accepting a fate like the prince received. I find it interesting that they did not focus on his overdose. I know Schnabel was a friend and probably didn’t want to end on a bad note in memory of him. In a way, I thought the ending worked better than if they had ended showing his death. We all know what was going to happen to Basquiat anyway and if we hadn’t known before hand, the ending is quite telling of his fate.


2. I found the Jamison reading to be astounding. I always believed that the idea of artistic talent (genius) being linked to madness was a stereotype. After reading this article, I truly believe there is a strong correlation between the two. The evidence presented alone in the reading is enough to make one believe it to be true. Madness and genius have been connected since the Greek times and the God Dionysus. Socrates even labels it “divine madness.” Traces of this idea have been seen all throughout history. However, the evidence that really swayed was the list of artists throughout time and the notation of if they had mental illness. Although some do not have any mood disorder prevalent in their lifetime, the number of those who did is outstanding. The Suicide rates of artists were also a very strong piece of evidence. After watching Pollock and Basquiat, it is clear that these two We see this through their bizarre actions throughout the film, and their tendencies to release rage out when it is least expected. Besides the actions of the characters, the films techniques display this connection as well. The best example that is prominent in both films is when we see the artist displayed in their own little world, separated from everyone around them. In Pollock, we see an example of this in the art gallery. As people ask for his autograph and take his picture, the background noises fade away and we are left with the camera focused on a the troubled face of Pollock. In Basquiat, we also see this in a gallery setting. As he leaves the gallery, everyone around him freezes. The camera follows him walk silently out of the gallery. The combination of character development and these film decisions reiterates the idea that madness and genius are one. The films show that with great talent can come great consequences