the list of 9 for july 18, 2003:
NINE MOVIES ABOUT FAMOUS PAINTERS
Cinema has long held a fascination for telling the stories about celebrated artists. I'm not sureif this has much to do with the visual thrill of watching someone paint, or the scandalous,tragic lives artists often live, but it certainly does have something to do with vain movie starswho simply must channel the spirits of their tortured heroes to the big screen (whilepreferably winning an Oscar in the process) and so can get the biopics about their vaguelylookalike subjects greenlit. Tellingly, the films themselves are almost never hits: the averagemoviegoer still couldn't give a hang about them silly long-hairs. But as long as history providesus with unhappy, abusive, depressive, suicidal and alcoholic painters - some of whom managed to dobrilliant work - filmmakers and actors will continue to exploit their sad stories.
- SURVIVING PICASSO (1996, James Ivory). Anthony Hopkins asPablo Picasso. Other onscreen artists: Joss Ackland as Henri Matisse. By the way, Hopkins has played nearly 20 historical characters on film and TV, possibly the most of any actor. He's also played Hitler, Nixon and Mussolini.
- FRIDA (2002, Julie Taymor). Salma Hayek as FridaKahlo. Other onscreen artists: Alfred Molina as Diego Rivera, Ashley Judd as Tina Modotti, AntonioBanderas as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Omar Rodriguez as Andre Breton.
- LUST FOR LIFE (1956, Vincente Minelli). Kirk Douglas asVincent Van Gogh. Other onscreen artists: Anthony Quinn as Paul Gauguin, David Leonard as CamillePissarro, Jerry Bergen as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. There have been over a dozen depictions of VanGogh in the movies; the most notable other example is Tim Roth in Robert Altman's Vincent &Theo.
- THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY (1965, Carol Reed). CharltonHeston as Michelangelo.
- POLLOCK (2000, Ed Harris). Ed Harris as JacksonPollock. Other onscreen artists: Marcia Gay Harden as Lee Krasner, Val Kilmer as Willem DeKooning,Stephanie Seymour as Helen Frankenthaler, Tom McGuinness as Franz Kline.
- BASQUIAT (1996, Julian Schnabel). Jeffrey Wright as JeanMichel Basquiat. Other onscreen artists: David Bowie as Andy Warhol. Notable as the one film about afamous painter actually directed by a famous painter.
- MOULIN ROUGE (1952, John Huston). Jose Ferrer as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Other onscreen artists: Christopher Lee as Georges Seurat.
- THE WOLF AT THE DOOR (1986, Henning Carlsen). DonaldSutherland as Paul Gauguin. Other onscreen artists: Yves Barsacq as Edgar Degas. Trivia note:Sutherland's son Kiefer stars as Gauguin in an upcoming film called Paradise Found.
- MODIGLIANI (2004, Mick Davis). Coming soon: Andy Garcia as Amedeo Modigliani. It keeps on going, folks.
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