Better to burn out than to fade away. This famous line from Neil Young's song Hey, hey, my, my might have been written for Jean-Michel Basquiat. When the young artist died of a drugs overdose aged 27 in 1988, he had already made an indelible impression on the New York art world. Like his idols, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Charlie Parker, he had crammed more into a few, incandescent years than most artists and performers achieve in a lifetime. From the very first moment he exploded onto the scene in the early 1980s until his death a few years later, Basquiat exercised a strange fascination over the media. Young, black, self-taught, he was treated as if he himself was some sort of exotic exhibit.
First-time director Julian Schnabel, a fellow lion of the New York art scene, knew Basquiat well, exhibited alongside him and even briefly shared the same art dealer. In making Basquiat, he sought not only to honour his old friend's memory, but to examine the peculiar, often strained relationship that exists between every visionary artist and his or her culture. Humans are hypnotised by those drenched with talent, Schnabel observes. They also can't take their eyes away from the violent accident that often occurs to these people.
Basquiat clearly relished his celebrity. Jean-Michel was planning to be a star, his father later recalled. Nonetheless, he was also a natural rebel, the art world's closest equivalent to James Dean, as the New York Times characterised him. He started his art career as a graffiti artist (his pseudonym was SAMO short for Same Old Shit) spraying subversive aphorisms on the New York subway. In his creative prime, he was hugely prolific: Basquiat painted on anything he could get his hands on; refrigerators, laboratory coats, cardboard boxes and doors.
This was a project very close to Schnabel's heart. Unhappy with the misleading, often malicious accounts of Basquiat's short life and untimely death churned out at regular intervals by newspapers and magazines, he was determined to set the record straight. I thought that if I told the story, it would be more accurate and give him his due, he says. Loosely based on a short story by Lech Majewski, his film is not a straightforward biopic. Although it sticks close to real events (most of the stuff in this movie happened), its approach is subjective: this is Schnabel's vision of Basquiat's life, not a documentary. Inevitably, there are moments of invention, but these, Schnabel hopes, are true to Basquiat's spirit.
An insider himself, Schnabel was ideally placed to portray the rarefied, incestuous and occasionally very vicious New York art world which fawned over Basquiat. This is about the arena I live in. I know all the participants and being near the eye of the storm, I have a close vantage point on Jean-Michel's life. Schnabel's script features many real-life artists, curators and hangers-on as well as an assortment of charac-ters loosely based on Basquiat's friends and colleagues.
Despite working on a relatively modest budget, he has assembled an impressive cast. Jeffrey Wright, a Tony award-winning Broadway actor, stars as Basquiat; Courtney Love, Gary Oldman (who is cast as Schnabel), Paul Bartel, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe all appear as part of the artist's magic circle; and playing the key role of Andy Warhol is David Bowie. (On the follicular level at least, this is an authentic performance he wears several of Warhol's old wigs.) The soundtrack features tracks from Basquiat's own record collection, as well as original music by John Cale.
Basquiat has already opened in the US, performing respectably in its first two weeks. Steve Klain, Miramax vice president of marketing, believes that its crossover potential will be even greater in Europe. He points out that Basquiat's reputation precedes him in cities like London (where there was a very successful exhibition of the artist's work at the Serpentine Gallery earlier this year), Paris and Rome. With Schnabel, David Bowie and Christopher Walken all in town for its festival screening, it is sure to create a stir at this year's Venice. Geoffrey Macnab
Prod Co: Miramax
Prod: Jon Kilik, Randy Ostrow, Joni Sighvatsson
Dir/ Scr: Julian Schnabel
Ph: Ron Fortunato
Prod des: Dan Leigh
Costume: John Dunn
Music: John Cale
Editor: Michael Berenbaum
Cast: Jeffrey Wright, Christopher Walken, Davoid Bowie, Gary Oldman, Willem Dafoe, Courtney Love, Paul Bartel, Michael Wincott, Benicio Del Toror, Claire Forlani
Running Time: 108 mins
Int sales: Miramax International
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