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£ 5.50

Films at the Festival

These films will be shown at the Royal Cinema, Royal Square or The Mariners Gallery

Basquiat - Wed 11 Sep 7:30

Introduced by UCF Film Studies Course Leader Karl Phillips

Basquiat (Julian Schnabel, 1996) 

The story of Jean Michel Basquiat differs from many more renowned biopics of great artists in that its subject matter is relatively recent.  This in itself raises issues around what might constitute the artists place in the canon of great painters, past and present.  However, we’ll never know what heights Basquiat might have scaled as his life (here convincingly portrayed by Jeffrey Wright) was cut short by a heroin overdose at the age of 27.  Would he have achieved great things; Andy Warhol (played with great humour by David Bowie) certainly thought so, patronising, and later collaborating with the New York artist.  Perhaps he was an artists’ artist, as evidenced by the fact that the director of this film, Julian Schnabel, is himself a respected neo-expressionist artist and contemporary.  Maybe the recent resurgence of interest in the ‘downtown’ art scene of eighties Manhattan means his work might just be due a reappraisal sooner rather than later.  And just maybe there’s some truth in the words of character Alfred Milo when he says to Basquiat, “Your audience isn’t even born yet”.

Basquiat will be showing at the Royal Cinema o­n Monday 11 September at 7:30 - Tickets £5.50 / £3.50

Love is the Devil - Wed 13 Sep 7:30

Introduced by UCF lecturer Mark Douglas

Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (John Maybury, 1998)

Love is the Devil is a disquieting portrayal of the relationship between Francis Bacon (Derek Jacobi) and his lover and model George Dyer (Daniel Craig). Set in 1960s and early 70s bohemian Soho, the film traces the tragic unfolding of the sadomasochistic relationship between Bacon and Dyer, the painter and the petty criminal.  By turns darkly comic, cruel and grotesque, the film also explores those connections central to Bacon’s painting between art, obsession and savagery. Refused permission to use Bacon’s paintings in the making of the film, writer and director John Maybury brilliantly recreates the motifs and moods of Bacon’s canvasses by the cinematic means of image distortion and refraction, strong directional light, and by the evocative handling of colour palette and tonality.  The film is distinguished by powerful performances, particularly by Jacobi in the central role, and as a study of the artist, Love is the Devil represents an important example of contemporary British art cinema. 

Love is the Devil will be showing at the Royal Cinema o­n Wednesday 13 September at 7:30 - Tickets £5.50 / £3.50

Pollock - Fri 15 Sep 7:30

PollockIntroduced by UCF lecturer Camilla Peters

Ed Harris' directorial debut Pollock, earned him an Oscar nomination for his starring role is this biopic about America’s first artist ‘celebrity’ Jackson Pollock whose pivotal contribution to Abstract Expressionism helped steer the focus of the art world from Europe to America after WW2.  The film traces the years 1941 to 1956 as Pollock develops his innovative ‘action’ or ‘drip’ painting and his struggle to understand and sustain the critical acclaim he received for his NY shows (and 1949 Life magazine appearance).   Ed Harris resembles Pollock and actually learnt to paint for this role as the tortured artist, haunted by the idea that he might be a fraud.  The film reconstructs known elements from the artist's life such as Hans Namuth 's famous short documentary and key relationships with Lee Krasner, (Marcia Gay Harden, Oscar winner) Peggy Guggenheim, Willem de Kooning and Clement Greenberg. Lee Krasner, is portrayed as pivotal and supportively tolerant in the angst-ridden development of Pollock’s creative process. Her own work, which she continued until her death in 1984 has since received serious critical re-evaluation

Pollock will be showing at the Royal Cinema o­n Friday 15 September at 7:30 - Tickets £5.50 / £3.50

The Rebel - Wed 20 Sep 7:30

Tony Hancock in The Rebel

Introduced by UCF lecturer Lucy Frears

The Rebel (Robin Day, 1961)

Included due to public demand we hope that the irony of screening Hancock's The Rebel in an art gallery will not be lost o­n the audience.  Scripted by the classic pairing of writers Galton and Simpson (Steptoe and Son, Hancock's Half Hour) alongside Hancock himself, The Rebel (originally released in America as Call Me Genius) pokes fun at elitism, existentialism and the myth of the artist in a light-hearted dig at the modern art establishment.  The eponymous 'rebel' is o­ne Anthony Hancock (played by comedian Tony Hancock at the top of his game after successes o­n radio and television), an aspiring artist who throws in his dull office career in order to relocate to a Parisian garret. Some success follows, albeit as a result of deception and the foibles of the art-world intelligentsia.  Yet for all its humour there is a more serious undertow to the film,  academic John A.Walker seeing it as autobiographical and in turn as an echo of the tragic lives of artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec and van Gogh.  Less than a decade after its release Hancock himself would have died from a drugs overdose, a lonely, ruined and misunderstood artist (and in hindsight maybe even a genius.).

The Rebel will be showing at the Mariners Gallery o­n Wednesday 20 September at 7:30 - Tickets £5.50 / £3.50

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