May
2002
Trenton
Public Library movie reviews:
Artists will find perspective at the library in April
By
Dan Dodson
Downtowner
readers know that Trenton is an arts town, but now we have movies
about artists too. The Trenton Main Library continues its themed
film series in April with "The Life of the Visual Artist:
Films about painters".
This
month’s schedule includes Pollock on April 4, Lust
for Life on April 18 and Goya in Bordeaux on April
25. All the dates are Thursdays with all show times at 6:30 p.m.
As always, there is great parking in the library’s side lot.
Pollock
paints the tortured story of modern art
As
a child I played Masterpiece, and of all the paintings in that
board game, I remember Jackson Pollock’s most vividly. Great
modern art has a way of leaving a lasting impression; Pollock,
the movie, has the same effect.
Ed
Harris has thrown himself into Pollock as director and
lead, and shown us once again that insanity is a sure way to have
your story turned into movie. Modern art searches for credibility
by intellectualizing the form. Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden)
constantly does this and therefore struggles against Pollock’s
natural instincts as an artist. It’s not clear how Pollock’s
mental illness and his drinking are related but it is clear that
his creativity and drive are part of the same strange soul.
The
more interesting character is Krasner. She needs the glow of Pollack’s
genius to feel important and keeps him alive seemingly to fill
that void. In the long run it’s an unworkable arrangement
as Pollock’s instinctual need for children and her denial
of that need erupts.
The
knock on Pollock is that it’s too clean a movie given
the random style of its subject. Movies shouldn’t be criticized
for being too crisp. The crispness of the film keeps the story
moving and served to paint Pollock on a canvas of normalcy. Art
biographies have become a popular form and Pollock is the
best of the subgenre.
Lust
for Life showcases the creative process
Unlike
Goya, Van Gogh had no patron and struggled through abject poverty
to paint. Van Gogh was a middle-class son of a preacher but lived
in constant poverty due to his inability to find a successful
career. Goya painted royalty and political topics while Van Gogh
labored with workers and pastoral scenes.
Director
Vincente Minnelli highlights the creative process by pairing two
of Hollywood’s most expressive actors: Kirk Douglas as Vincent
Van Gogh and Anthony Quinn, as Paul Gauguin. Other than James
McDonald, as Vincent’s brother Theo, the characters are one-dimensional
and the scenery is a mixture of cheap soundstage sets and stock
footage. Production values aren’t the reason to make a trip
to the library’s screening though, instead go to see Douglas
give a passionate performance about a favorite artist.
Is
there a Vincent Van Gogh frantically painting the Trenton countryside?
Can Trenton be the kind of artist colony Van Gogh imagines? Who
knows, however the movie makes one thing clear, artists in nineteenth-century
Paris struggled and needed support just like today. Artists laureate
Tom Malloy’s recent recognition from the city of Trenton
are a start.
Lust
for Life has shortcomings as a movie, but it does a great
job painting the picture of the artistic process. Goya
is stylish and Pollock has great performances but Lust
for Life tells us what it means to be an artist.
Goya in Bordeaux struggles with the essence of man
Goya
was a famous Spanish artist of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
century and is said to have been the first modern artist. Perhaps,
but his inspiration comes from Europe’s horrific tragedies
of the day. Like the eighteenth-century French painters, Goya
uses classical themes to make political statements. However, his
art shifts towards an exploration of man’s potential for
horror.
Director
Carlos Saura takes the approach that an artist movie should showcase
the texture and color of the subject. To do this on a European
budget, he relies on theatre staging to create shadows, color
effects and elaborate painted backdrops. Much of the film could
have been produced in a sophisticated playhouse. It’s not
so much a criticism as an observation of differing values in American
versus European filmmaking.
Goya
(Francisco Rabal) is deaf, dying and contemplative of life’s
meaning. In a series of flashbacks he notes that "life is
a spiral," never making progress. Goya finally finds purpose
through his political beliefs. However, the pain his political
allies suffer—in particular, his lover, the Duchess of Alba—haunts
him and his works. The aspiring artist will see this study in
romantic imagery as an education in role of artists.
Goya
observes, "The imagination joined with reason is the mother
of the arts and the source of marvels. Without imagination we’re
nothing more than animals. You have to know when to stop or you
could be devoured by the darkness…insanity."
This
sentiment sums up a popular artistic theme on life’s meaninglessness.
Look for scenes with cadavers and dead animals representing the
inanimate, much like a still life.
Overall,
Goya is a beautiful film that gives top billing to the
art. More artists were likely employed in its production than
by a year’s worth of government grants. If one wants to get
a unique understanding of the foundations of romanticism, Goya
in Bordeaux would be a good choice.
This
film series will inspire Trenton’s arts community
The
stories of Goya, Van Gogh and Pollock all contain elements of
artistic collaboration. In each period, artists found energy from
different sources: nationalism, nature or self. Where will the
future’s artistic energy come from? Can Trenton’s arts
community generate enough electricity to produce the next Pollock?
Is mental illness a prerequisite?
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Dan Dodson lives in Trenton and can be reached at dan@livingonthenet.com.
