Quote:
Jean-Michel Basquiat shot to fame in the early ‘80s as a painter with bright strong flashes of color, streaks of black, jagged, oddly angled heads and crossed-out words, then died of a heroin overdose at age 27. His story has been told many times before—in Glenn O’Brien’s loosely crafted 1981 fiction film Downtown 81 (aka New York Beat) about a Village artist struggling to pay the bills; in Julian Schnabel’s 1996 film Basquiat, with Jeffrey Wright’s alternately shambling and alert performance in the lead; and in at least seven books, including Phoebe Hoban’s journalistic 1998 biography Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art. Now he is the subject of friend Tamra Davis’s documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, which announces its intentions to uphold its subject’s legacy from the title onward.

The film is framed inside and between an interview Davis filmed with Basquiat a few years before he died, a neat structuring device that allows him to speak for himself. But Basquiat also proves inarticulate on many points (clamming up about what his work means, for instance), and so the movie intercedes on his behalf. Beginning and ending with the Langston Hughes poem “Genius Child” (choice line: “Nobody loves a genius child”), the film offers an image of Basquiat as perpetually misunderstood, discarded, and tormented. Much of this seems fair; for instance, the film rightly points out the irony of how Basquiat’s status as a black artist in a predominately white scene, which partly helped him make him famous, soon became an easy label—and one, furthermore, which he despised.

Yet the film’s salvation effort feels ironic. It would be absurd to say that any one book or film could present the true Basquiat, but in attempting to rescue Basquiat from other peoples’ labels, the film also applies its own radiant genius child label to him. Example: The film shows us many of Basquiat’s paintings (I didn’t count, but at least a hundred), often zooming into or out of them while music or voiceover plays on the soundtrack. It’s true that film is not painting, and that a moving art has to do something with a static art to make it its own, but what happens with Davis’s approach is that the viewer gets a brief introductory flavor of Basquiat’s art without having the time to consider it (I even wrote down many paintings’ names to look up online later). You see the paintings and hear people praise them, without the space to consider them in between.

Unlike many recent documentaries, though, which drown their subjects in platitudes, the movie does mix in actual biographical and critical material with its praise; you are instructed and informed on the life. But the quick painting shots do represent the film’s light brushstroke approach: a mention of Basquiat’s increasing heroin habit late in life, but little about his earlier drug use; anecdotes about his desire to please his father, but polite looks past alleged childhood abuse. The radiant child had some dark places, darker than the movie seems willing to admit. The film’s a decent introduction to a man who walked the world of SoHo, CBGB, and Andy Warhol’s final days, but the more you know going into the movie, the more you sense it leaving out.

Tamra Davis - (2010) Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 33mn
Size: 	1.48 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	716x480 ~> 853x480
Aspect ratio:  	16:9
Frame rate: 	29.970 fps
Bit rate: 	2 056 Kbps
BPP: 	0.200
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 224 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/A815F41C4F539AE/Tamra_Davis_-_(2010)_Jean-Michel_Basquiat,_The_Radiant_Child.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Tamra Davis – Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis
Episodic look at the life of Cuban poet and novelist, Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990), from his childhood in Oriente province to his death in New York City. He joins Castro’s rebels. By 1964, he is in Havana. He meets the wealthy Pepe, an early lover; a love-hate relationship lasts for years. Openly gay behavior is a way to spite the government. His writing and homosexuality get him into trouble: he spends two years in prison, writing letters for other inmates and smuggling out a novel. He befriends Lázaro Gomes Garriles, with whom he lives stateless and in poverty in Manhattan after leaving Cuba in the Mariel boat-lift. When asked why he writes, he replies cheerfully, “Revenge.”

3.88GB | 2h 13m | 1024×556 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/4CD146E2E18D1B5/Before.Night.Falls.2000.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English,Spanish

The post Julian Schnabel – Before Night Falls (2000) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Oscar winning director Sydney Pollack takes a sharp sideways turn with SKETCHES OF FRANK GEHRY, a documentary about the noted architect. Usually known for making grandiose productions such as THE FIRM and OUT OF AFRICA, Pollock adds a genuine curio to his filmmaking resume with this movie. Although the two men have been friends for years, Pollock thankfully bypasses the opportunity to pay a fawning tribute to Gehry, instead presenting a well-balanced portrait that offers both positive and negative commentators the chance to etch their thoughts into celluloid. But it quickly becomes clear that the biggest naysayer of all is Gehry himself, who is painted as a highly self-critical man, clearly ill-at-ease with fame and his own achievements. Pollock offers some screen time to Gehry’s magnificent creations, but not as much as a less experienced director might have done, instead choosing to focus on the man himself. People such as Gehry’s therapist, Milton Wexler, and garrulous artist/director Julian Schnabel (BASQUIAT) offer their thoughts, but the real magic occurs when Pollock and Gehry are on screen together. The series of interviews between the two men have the kind of relaxed atmosphere that could only exist after years of friendship, and Gehry comes across as an astonishingly normal and likeable fellow who keeps his ego firmly in check. Shooting mostly with hand-held digital-video cameras also brings a nice intimacy to the proceedings, creating a warm testimony to a great artist who has somehow managed to keep his integrity intact despite the ruthless nature of the industry in which he works.

Sydney Pollack - (2005) Sketches of Frank Gehry.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 23mn
Size: 	1.19 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	692x478 ~> 819x478
Aspect ratio:  	1.715
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	1 583 Kbps
BPP: 	0.200
Audio
#1:  	English 5.1ch AC-3 @ 448 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/3D6CCE217C1BD75/Sydney_Pollack_-_(2005)_Sketches_of_Frank_Gehry.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:French

The post Sydney Pollack – American Masters: Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Excerpt from the NFO:
Lou Reed co-founder of The Velvet Underground and the man behind such iconic rock songs as Sweet Jane and Walk on the Wild Side stars in one of the most satisfying concert films (Lee Marshall, Screen International) in decades. Oscar-nominated director Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) captures this historic moment in time, as Reed performed his legendary 1973 album, Berlin, live for the first time. Rocking horns, soulful guitar and the angelic voices of the Brooklyn Youth Chorus bring Reed s devastatingly honest lyrics to full life in this exceptionally strong performance.

699MB | 1:21:07 | 640×352 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/66421986D2D399B/Lou.Reeds.Berlin.2007.DVDRip.XviD-WRD.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Julian Schnabel – Lou Reed’s Berlin (2007) first appeared on Cinema of the World.