I don’t know if it’s completely authentic to the topic, but Adaptation. I think is an interesting film about the artistry of being a writer. [I also say this as a fan of Charlie Kaufman]
Here are four that came to mind:
‘Girl With a Pearl Earring’
‘Lust for Life’
‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’
‘Pollock’
The Horse’s Mouth, Vincent & Theo and Moulin Rouge (John Huston’s, not Baz Luhrmann’s).
Naked Lunch
Barton Fink
8 1/2
Contempt
Ulysses’ Gaze
Blood Wedding
La Belle Noiseuse
In the Realms of the Unreal
Burden of Dreams
This is Spinal Tap
Bowfinger (may not be the most highbrow, but I love it)
These are ones I love:
Rivers and TIdes – Andy Goldsworthy documentary
Basquiat
Painted Fire – Ohwon
Hello guys, my first post on this interesting website and I would say Amadeus on Mozart by Milos Forman, Mahler by Ken Russell, Lisztomania by the same Ken Russell, Gaudi by Hiroshi Teshigahara, Great Ball of Fire on Jerry Lee Lewis by Jim McBride, Camille Claudel on the amazing french sculptress by Bruno Nuytten, Bird on Charlie Parker by Clint Eastwood, Love is the Devil on Francis Bacon by I don’t remember his name, Van Gogh by Maurice Pialat, Round Midnight with Dexter Gordon (not directly on his life but a similar one) by Bertrand Tavernier, Immortal Beloved on Beethoven by Bernard Rose, these titles are just like that on the top of my head.
In addition to LUST FOR LIFE, two others on Van Gogh:
VINCENT AND THEO (1990), Altman’s strangely forgotten film.
But better yet was VAN GOGH, Maurice Pialat (1991)
A truly fine film about an artist: The Sun of the Quince Tree [El Sol del membrillo], Victor Erice (1992). Not available on DVD in my zone so far as I know, but remarkable, the best.
A Soul Haunted by Painting, Huang Shuqin (1993)
La Belle noiseuse, Jacques Rivette (1992)
Michael, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1924)
To stretch the point: The Pillow Book, Peter Greenaway (1997)
And many more … let me ponder.
“Amadeus” for one. The documentary “Crumb” always comes to mind, but I’m a pen and ink fanatic. Not your average dysfunctional family portrayed in this one, but gifted. “Frida” with Salma Hayek is another. Would “F For Fake” fit?
The Hiroshi Teshigahara piece on ANTONIO GAUDI, released on Criterion. Loved it. It’s great to see a documentary with little or NO narration. I’m not even really a big fan of architecture, but this one is nice.
these 2 come to mind…
andrei rublev
portrait of jennie
Edvard Munch, Last Days (maybe), chihwaseon/painted fire (it’s okay, but the director told the story in a very similar fashion to a Pialat film and he won best director at Cannes for doing so) Topsy Turvy, and Pecker.
Hal Ashby’s BOUND FOR GLORY
Tarkovsky’s ANDREI RUBLEV
Welles’ F FOR FAKE
and, perhaps the best of all ….
Clouzot’s THE MYSTERY OF PICASSO, which, apparently we’re still not allowed to see.
Age of Consent by Michael Powell starring an older James Mason as an artist whose model is…the very young Helen Mirren. Not a ‘great’ film, but an interesting one, where Mirren has the obligatory nude scene – for an artist picture, I mean. I still think the original Moulin Rouge with Jose Ferrer wins hands down as the greatest of conventional artist biopics. Charles Laughton in Korda’s Rembrandt is also a contender. Lust for Life has a great attempt by Kirk Douglas, but fails to get inside the true enigma that was Van Gogh.
Both Basqiaut and Before Night Falls by Julian Schnabel are very good portrayals of artists. I saw Klimt last year, and if you are familiar with his works, it is a very interesting movie, but it may not be a good introduction.
Alexander Korda’s film “Rembrandt” starring Charles Laughton in a very moving performance.
La Vie En Rose, covering Edith Piaf.
“How To Steal A Million” is a petty good one. “Contempt” is about an artist. is it not? “Nostalghia” is also a great film about an artist.
I’ve always liked the Scorsese segment in “New York Stories” called “Life Lessons”. He really caught the atmosphere of an artist living in a loft, doing his art on a grand scale.
Edvard Munch really beautifully shot.
If it is about real artist and not fictitious, Andrei Rublev and Amadues come to mind and then as somebody already mentioned Frida also La Vie En Rose
I looked back and I did not add any new entries….shite
Bukowski: Born Into This/ Barfly
Charles Mingus: Triumph of the Underdog
Crumb
‘Round Midnight
The Horse’s Mouth
Camille Claudel
Andrei Rublev
Pollock
Le Mystere Picasso
Basquiat
I thought you meant visual artists, but others seem to be including musicians. So I will too.
There are so many good dance movies – let’s leave them out? Writers and poets too?
Savage Messiah, The Music Lovers, Mahler all excellent biopics by Ken Russell
The Horse’s Mouth (fictional painter – from Joyce Cary’s novel) an older British picture
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon by John Maybury — intense!
Caravaggio, by Derek Jarman (only if you’re into Jarman – some love it, others hate it. May I sit on the fence a while please?)
Main character, Charles Ryder, in Brideshead Revisited becomes a painter. Thought the movie was pretty good, preferred the mini-series.
Frida (also about Diego Riviera, her husband)
Pollock (directed by leading man, Ed Harris)
Persepolis (autobiographic tale of comic-strip artist)
Camille Claudel (Nuytten) about Rodin’s mistress, an artist herself
Round Midnight (more or less about Bud Powell) by Bertrand Tavernier
Bird by Eastwood (on Charlie Parker)
**Those are six movies I really liked! (So I repeat the names of some mentioned previously)
Surviving Picasso (only saw the last half, but enjoyed that quite a lot)
The Agony and the Ecstasy (on Michelangelo) was very big, but I can’t speak for its quality – haven’t really sat through it, only scenes in passing on the TV screen
filmmakers are artists – so, Day for Night? 8 1/2 ?
Gaudi by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Crumb (about Robt. Crumb, underground cartoon artist)
Some fine music documentaries:
Straight, No Chaser (on Thelonious Monk) (Charlotte Zwerin)
Artie Shaw: Time is All You’ve Got (Brigitte Berman)
Bix: Ain’t None of Them Play Like Him Yet (Brigitte Berman)
Twenty-two short films about Glenn Gould (documentary with actors)
I remembered some other important and absolutely terrific movies about art and artists. First and foremost there is LIFE CLASSES, by Bill MacGillivray. [for some detailed info on this very good filmmaker, please visit this site/page:
http://www.filmreferencelibrary.ca/index.asp?layid=46&csid1=45&navid=46
Life Classes is about a journey based in art education, and also about disappearing cultural landscapes. I recommend it highly to all persons interested in Art, Film, relationships, growth, death, shifting cultural sands…
SLAVES OF NEW YORK, director James Ivory, from the stories of Tama Janowitz, who also did screenplay. Stars Bernadette Peters in one of my fave movie roles for / by her.
There is an old film, perhaps not very good, made from Rudyard Kipling’s THE LIGHT THAT FAILED which stars Ronald Colman I think. [I didn’t think very much of the movie, but it was the late show and I was tired. Didn’t see it through.]
There is one more really wonderful (indie?) film from just a few years ago, and all my efforts to remember/research what it’s called are coming up short. Maybe one of you can assist. It was likened to Sideways, for being rather quiet, quirky, and daily life-ish. It was billed by one reviewer as a pleasanter, rather likeable type of “Happiness” picture. It takes place in the USA. There was a young, female video artist making a submission to a gallery (characteristically over-intellectualized art-snob curator type or types therein). There was a couple – white guy, East Indian-descent woman — they were breaking up? Was he a shoe salesman? There was young girl who bought a goldfish, that got left on the roof of the vehicle, I think. And an old man perhaps? Full of vignettes, and everybody’s story crossing with the others. It’s funny I don’t remember it better, because I think it wasn’t that long ago, and I really enjoyed the movie! (Guess I should see it again.) Anybody know this one? Please help!
Jane Campion’s An Angel at My Table is very good
Watkins’ Edvard Munch.
Adaptation/Synecdoche, NY
One Plus One
By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggelston
Opening Night
Forgot New York, New York and Life Lessons.
The Far Shore — by Joyce Wieland, 1975, English, 105 min, colour
(just pasted that in!)
I have also recalled a movie I saw about ten years ago by Canadian artist and filmmaker Joyce Wieland. I loved this picture. It is very slow and mysterious and beautiful. When it came to mind the other day, I said to myself: Oh, and there’s The Far Shore, that movie about Tom Thomson (Canadian landscape painter 1877 – 1917). Have just looked it up – maybe it’s not only about Tom Thomson, and maybe it’s not exactly a biopic, as I think the names are changed…
Here’s something written in a film fest program from 2005:
“The Far Shore is a consummate expression of Joyce Wieland’s artistic sensibility, a gorgeous painterly film, formal in conception, deliberate in its flagrant symbolism (the rigid imposition of WASP power on French-Canadian culture) and portrayal of Canadian myths (the mystery of Tom Thomson’s drowning in Algonquin Park), and exuding romantic naturalism. This northern love story, rooted in the landscape of the Group of Seven and the realities of the Canadian experience, is a tale of passion both carnal and artistic.”
“I think of Canada as female. All the art I’ve been doing or will be doing is about Canada. I may tend to overly identify with Canada.” — Joyce Wieland. (as quoted in same Sunshine Coast film fest program)
The movie is older than I’d remembered. I am always very impressed with Wieland’s work.
AT LAST I remembered the name of the movie I was struggling to recall (see my entry above a-ways, for description of same) Kept hoping someone else would think of it, but at last it came to me (unbidden) — during a movie I went to tonight! (great movie, C’est Pas Moi, Je Le Jure)
The movie about the video artist (and everybody else) was called Me and You and Everyone We Know.
Highly recommended, and of course, not only for those interested in artists!
Burden of Dreams
joseph
who has a list…?