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DOWNTOWN 81 |
| Edo Bertoglio's "Downtown 81"
"Downtown 81". Director: Edo Bertoglio. Cast: Jean Michel Basquiat, Deborah Harry, David McDermott, James White and the Blacks, Kid Creole and the Coconuts & Tuxedomoon. USA 2000. Bertoglio’s troubled production finally hits our screens after 19 years in limbo, thanks to the restoration work of the films producer Maripol. This fictional film introduces us to the New York underground art-scene of the early ‘80s The story follows a pre-fame Jean Michel Basquiat through one winter day in 1981 as he gets evicted, wanders around New York tagging the walls as legendary graffiti artist SAMO, short for ‘same old shit’, and finally sells a painting. Along the way he encounters a super model played by a pre-blonde Debbie Harry and a number of up-and-coming bands of the time including ’ James White and the Blacks’ & ‘Kid Creole and the Coconuts’. Despite its fictional protestations Bertoglio still allows us to see into the early life of one of pop-art’s finest proponents. The 21 year old Basquiat is shown before his first exhibition and before his legendary meeting with Andy Warhol, although apparently Warhol visited the set and can be seen in one of the shots. The hard-times you have to survive to make it in the art world have never been so ably captured on film. According to Maripol, Basquiat’s starring in the film was a lucky coincidence, the original star McDermott who appears as Basquiat’s best friend in a few scenes was unwillingly to continue with the production at which point Basquiat jumped in and offered to take over as the star. Basquait’s youth and energy are infectious; Harry and McDermott barely register with their minimal support as Basquiat steals the show. The inexperienced actor manages to effortlessly draw us in and makes the audience sympathise with him, making his tragic death, from a drug overdose, just 7 years later seem all the more disturbing. The film was lost for 19 years when the original production company went bust and the film stock was lost. But with the recent resurgence of interest in the life of Basquiat following Julian Schnabel’s 1996 bio-pic ‘Basquiat’ starring Jeffrey Wright as the young artist and David Bowie as his mentor Warhol, Maripol saw the opportunity to revive the film. Maripol spent 4 years trawling around the film labs digging out the rushes and re-editing them together. The resulting film certainly shows it’s troubled development, it’s not as slicked and polished as it should have been but the unique content more than make up for these short-comings. The film provides a stunning insight into the New York’s early ‘80s underground art scene, taking us on a tour through the studios, rehearsal rooms and gigs of era. The photographic style perfectly encapsulates the rule-breaking ethos of the era. Well worth a look if only for curiosity value. |