Basquiat (1996) on Netflix
Jean-Michel Basquiat, a Brooklyn-born graffiti writer, sleeps in a box in Tompkins Square Park. His paintings bring him into the New York art world, where Andy Warhol becomes his mentor.
- Netflix3.6/5
- IMDb6.9/1024,102 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
Jean-Michel Basquiat is a Brooklyn-born artist. He starts out with graffiti and goes on to make collage-style paintings on canvas. He is homeless and lives in a box in Tompkins Square Park. He eats at a diner with his friend Benny, and there he meets Gina, an aspiring artist who works as a waitress. In the eighties he rises through the New York art world, helped by his association with Andy Warhol, who becomes his friend and mentor, and with the art dealer Bruno Bischofberger, the poet and critic René Ricard, and the fellow artist Albert Milo.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Basquiat (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Director Julian Schnabel wrote himself into the film as the fictional artist Albert Milo, played by Gary Oldman, and cast his own mother, father and daughter as Milo's family, while Schnabel himself appears as an extra playing a waiter.
- Basquiat's estate refused permission for his work to be used, so Schnabel and his studio assistant Greg Bogin had to create paintings in the style of Basquiat for the film.
- Bowie, who had met Warhol in life and went to the same parties, was able to borrow Warhol's actual wig, glasses and jacket from the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh for the film.
- Musician and actor Lenny Kravitz revealed that Schnabel had asked him to play Basquiat and later said he regretted turning the role down.
- After the film was released, Jeffrey Wright said his performance had been appropriated, and that Julian made Basquiat out to be too docile, too much of a victim and not as dangerous as he really was, aggrandizing himself through Basquiat's memory.
- Julian Schnabel, a painter himself, made his feature directorial debut with the film, which is reckoned the first film about an American painter written and directed by another painter.
- Joseph Glasco, a friend of Schnabel's who had a small acting role and provided some voice-over narration, died on May 31, 1996, before the film's August release, and Schnabel dedicated the film to him.
