Julian Schnabel
Basquiat

"Basquiat" is a 1996 film by Julian Schnabel that depicts a segment of the life of Afro-Haitian artist Jean Michel Basquiat, a famous graffiti artist who died at just 27 years old from a heroin overdose.

At the service of this debut director is a first-rate cast and a breathtaking soundtrack.

Basquiat is played by the relatively unknown Jeffrey Wright, while the chameleonic David Bowie portrays Andy Warhol. Gary Oldman, Christopher Walken, Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe, and Dennis Hopper make appearances in peripheral but intense roles, with Claire Forlani, with her melancholic gaze and slender body, playing the artist's companion, being slightly more central to the story.

  In this relatively successful biopic, the film touches in broad strokes on a period in the artist's life, from ages 20 to 24, his complex and alternating relationships, and his sensitive introspection.

His visionary world is highlighted quite well, made up of surfers in the clouds and a love-hate relationship with New York, a city he wants to escape to live in Maui (an island of Hawaii), but where he is born, grows up, lives, and artistically explodes before finally dying of an overdose.

City as a means of communication, where Basquiat expresses what he sees and perceives and, through graffiti, communicates to the masses. Samo leaps from one wall to another like a monkey wandering in the jungle trees and apparently never has a destination.

  Only words on walls. Onto canvases, however, complex concepts are painted, and the director is keen to highlight the malaise that seeps from the works, as well as in Walken's imaginative interview with the artist, who is now at the peak of success and unable to express himself in words. His works speak for him. When the journalist asks, "But where do you find your symbols?" Basquiat replies, "Would you ask Miles where he finds his notes?".

 The complex, confused, and alternating relationship with gallery owners, who compete for him through international exhibitions, is well portrayed. Poorly portrayed, and this could have been amusing to explore, is the relationship with Andy Warhol. The audience is barely touched by the intimacy that forms between the two. The most the director does (or can do) is show a peaceful afternoon of artistic coexistence where Basquiat works on Warhol's pieces without any offense taken. Basquiat is depicted as being alone (in search of social placement, whether poor or rich), paying immensely for the disappearance of the artist friend, probably one of the few with whom he had formed symbiosis, one of the few "who didn’t need him".

Fantastic Bowie/Warhol, restrained and subdued. The actor-singer disappears behind the character, showcasing his art as an eclectic chameleon, presenting a complex and refined creature.

 An important soundtrack stands out with several tracks: the poignant Tom Waits in the classic "Tom Traubert Blues", "Hallelujah" by John Cale, and the great Miles Davis with "Kind Of Blue" constantly in Samo/Basquiat's ears. Also, Joy Division, PJ Harvey, Van Morrison, and all contribute to envelop the New York atmosphere, dreamy and muffled that Basquiat lived with insolent mental lightness.