In the short film Visualization eyes are both a tantalising and upsetting glimpse into the conflicts and struggles of an artist’s mind and an unnerving indication of a doctor’s malevolence. Or is that just how her patients see her? Written and directed by filmmaker Raman Irman, there’s a very 1960s sensibility to Vizualisation, from the… Visualization (short film) Read More
Portrait of a elderly art thief: The Duke trailer
*** New UK release date: 25 February 2022, at cinemas across the UK *** Critics were definitely bowing down to British comedy The Duke when it had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Jim Broadbent is Geordie taxi driver Kempton Bunton, who steals a Goya painting of the Duke Of Wellington (the Duke… Portrait of a elderly art thief: The Duke trailer Read More
Portrait of a Lady on Fire 5 stars
A love story set in the 18th century about Marianne, a painter, and the aristocratic Heloïse, whose pre-wedding portrait she has been commissioned to paint. Heloïse, unwilling to marry, has consistently refused to sit – so Marianne paints her secretly, having been introduced as a hired companion. Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a… Portrait of a Lady on Fire Read More
Mrs Lowry & Son 3 stars
It’s 1934, and LS “Laurie” Lowry’s debt-ridden father has been dead a few years. Laurie, rent collector by day and attic artist by night, is slowly paying those debts off, while still living at home with his belittling, bed-ridden mother Elizabeth. Adrian Noble’s film, adapted by Martyn Heasford from his own play, is a fascinating… Mrs Lowry & Son Read More
INTERVIEW: artist Frank Gray on painting Lowrys for Mrs Lowry & Son
Painter and photographer Frank Gray recreated six “Lowry’s” for the film Mrs Lowry & Son, starring Timothy Spall as the artist LS Lowry and Vanessa Redgrave as his mother. The film starts in 1934, when Lowry was in his late 40s – a rent collector by day and an attic painter by night, still living… INTERVIEW: artist Frank Gray on painting Lowrys for Mrs Lowry & Son Read More
Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa 2.5 stars
Da Vinci died 500 years ago this year, and I can imagine plenty of children googling him after this, to check out the original Renaissance Man’s full invention inventory. You’ll probably find them surfacing hours later, an expert in ball bearings and 16th century robots. I had no idea he’d invented a diving suit (tested… Leo Da Vinci: Mission Mona Lisa Read More
Velvet Buzzsaw 3.5 stars
Art See Devil is the suitably overblown anagram I managed to get out of Vetril Dease. He’s the mysterious dead artist whose haunted paintings drive this satire targeting the self-perpetuating greed of the art world. I may well have been seeing things that aren’t there, not unlike Morf Vandewalt (Jake Gyllenhaal) who starts noticing movement… Velvet Buzzsaw Read More
Velvet Buzzsaw Trailer Gives Splatter Painting A New Meaning
*** Read my Velvet Buzzsaw review now *** If you’re the kind of person who thinks most modern art is horrific, well cheer up because after years of being mocked for not understanding a picture’s deeper meaning, or being convinced it’s been hung the wrong way up, you may finally have the last laugh. A… Velvet Buzzsaw Trailer Gives Splatter Painting A New Meaning Read More
Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected) (New York Film Festival 2017) 4.5 stars
“Maybe he’s undiscovered for a reason,” says Matt (Ben Stiller) about his sculptor father Harold. But for his half-brother Danny taking away the myth of their dad’s undiscovered greatness will destroy their excuses for Harold’s terrible parenting and four marriages: “if he isn’t a great artist that means he was just a prick.” This is a… Meyerowitz Stories (New & Selected) (New York Film Festival 2017) Read More