Response to "Inspiration"

From the beginning of the film we already know one of the most major struggles Pollock will be forced to contend with for the whole story. He is drunk, practically being carried up the stairs by his brother, jealousy condemning another famous artist for his fame “Fuck Picasso!” It is no wonder that when his brother leaves for Connecticut Pollock is dropped out from under him. The person who was helping to carry him through life was no longer there to carry him. Thank god Lee Krasner showed up in Pollock’s life when she did, and thank god she was so willing to care for such a troubled artist. If not for his talent, he would have been left alone and quite likely died. Like his work, he doesn’t fit into any particular category and his behavior displays just how much he cares about adapting to any categories. He is at a high society party with a lot of upscale folks and he gets wasted and pisses in the fireplace. He may be drunk, but he doesn’t seem to particularly care about what anyone thinks about him (Kudos to Pollock for that).
There are a number of really interesting shots in the film. When the whole family gets together for dinner it is a very symmetrical image. Pollock and Lee sit on one side of the table, Pollock’s brother and sister-in-law sit on the opposite side facing them, and their mother sits in the middle like an blackbird on a fence post. In fact, shadows become a major motif in the film. As he stares at the unpainted canvas that is meant of Peggy Guggenheim’s apartment, his shadow is cast over the emptiness. In other scenes, the characters are surrounded by darkness, lit up by shards of light coming from unseen sources as if they were ghosts in a blank black canvas.
In the apartment there are a lot of shots down a hallway corridor. The first time Lee and Jackson make love, she saunters seductively down the hall into the room at the end, perfectly centered in the shot, and slowly disrobes in the shadow. Most of the settings in the urban environment are busy and chaotic like Jacksons’ mental state. This is contrasted by the shots in the natural setting which are set in open, un-crowded atmospheres like the field and the quiet marketplace illustrating the simple, calm frame of mind that Jackson finds. Also, when Jackson and Lee are walking down the beach deciding on their marriage, does that not strike anyone else as being a crucifix? I’m sure I’m reading into it, but it seems arbitrary for him to be holding anything, so there must be some purpose for it.
The music changes between these two atmospheres. In the city the music is upbeat jazz meant for dancing and inspiring high energy in its audience. The music in the rural environment is more blue-grassy and slow creating the mental image of someone on a rocking chair smoking a pipe and looking out at the world around them, takin’ it easy.
The scene where Pollock paints the mural for Peggy Guggenheim seems to relate pretty closely with Plato’s dialogue “Ion”. We watch the painter get struck with the divine inspiration. It begins with juxtaposition between his eyes and a blank canvas. Suddenly he’s struck and moves very quickly putting down his feeling as opposed to any carefully conceived idea. What form does it take? How does it happen? We don’t know, but our eyes are glued to the screen while his eyes are glued to the canvas, much like one magnet being drawn to another with an invisible force behind it all. It seems as though he doesn’t know what he’s painting until it’s done. He is simply filling space with color until there is no space left untouched. This is the divine act of creation, done perfectly on screen. The camera works like his mind. It cuts from shot to shot as he jumps from section to section. The camera seems to be free of a tripod and subtly swoops like a brush extending a straight line.
I really liked the scene in the farmhouse when we got to see different stages in his work. On the floor he had a canvas with lines. We got to see how his art started with lines creating multiple spaces, and how he created his painting was to fill in those empty spaces with color. He would go back and forth between accentuating the lines, and filling in the spaces. This is all before his splatter paintings of course, but it isn’t too difficult to believe that the same principles apply.
I think this film is the most accessible to an artist’ life for the average audience member. It didn’t go too deep into the art history, but it allowed the viewer to learn a little about it. It didn’t pretentiously act as though it understood the artist’ inspiration and instead let the actor express it as opposed to blatantly showing some sort of definition or, worse, telling how he did it. This film did an excellent job for both the life of the artist, and the world of art in general.