“Context is everything that isn’t physically contained in the grooves of the record. It includes your knowledge that everyone else says he’s great: that must modify the way you hear him. That he was a handsome and imposing man, a member of a romantic minority, that he played with Charlie Parker, that he spans generations, that he underwent various addictions, that he married Cicely Tyson, that he dressed well, that Jean-Luc Godard liked him, that he wore shades and was very cool, that he himself said little about his work, and so on. Surely all that affects how you hear him: I mean, could it possibly have felt the same if he’d been an overweight heating engineer from Oslo? When you listen to music, aren’t you also ‘listening’ to all the stuff around it, too?”—- Brian Eno
When I was thirteen and we had just come to America, I had never heard of drugs. I may have had some vague sense of them from the adult novels I read but they were very abstract. In Pakistan, in Israel, they just hadn’t been in my sphere of reference. I imagine my mother and stepfather smoked dope, it was the ’60s after all, but not around me.
A few months after I started in eighth grade, they showed us a black and white anti-drug film during morning assembly. The film began with the protagonist, a young Puerto Rican kid smoking some pot with his buddies on an abandoned car. Late he was introduced to coke, and finally to horse, smack, H, and became a junkie. He ODed twice, the final time in the shower.
That night I woke my mother and step father up at two a.m.
“I can’t sleep, I told them. Waking up my insomniac mother was about the most dangerous and forbidden thing I could do, but I was desperate.
“What is it?”
“I think I’m a junkie.”
“What?!” they both leaped at me, frothing.
My stepfather grabbed me. “Where did you get the stuff?”
“I don’t know!”
“Don’t lie to me, boy. Who’s your dealer?”
“I swear,” I started to cry.” I think I’m such a junkie, I don’t know it.”
I told them abut the film, and how my imagination had me convinced that I could be leading a split double life, one in which I was a nerdy hundred point bookworm with a faint moustache, the other in which I was a stone cold junkie.
“Go back to bed,” my stepfather said. Clearly I was going to get no sympathy.
All of which is a long way of telling you why I was sort of anxious when Russell, our guitar teacher, urged me to buy “Jimi Hendrix: Blues” to listen to with Jack. I have studiously avoided any sort of psychedelic, heavily distorted bluesy rock and roll classic rock for thirty years, ever since the scene in that black and white 16 mm. film in which the young Puerto Rican does coke for the first time. In the background, a portable gramophone is playing some sort of shrieking, wailing guitar track and that sound has been linked in my mind with the spiraling descent into oblivion ever since.
But the fact is, we are learning a lot of blues these days and Hendrix was the god so I had to check it out.
First off, the guy is unbelievably good. Once I had a beer and read the liner notes a few times, I steeled myself and hit play. Hendrix had enormous facility and seemed to know every sound the guitar could possibly make deep in his marrow. He’d been playing since he was five and had probably had the guitar in his hands most of the time since. His playing has incredible variety, eccentricity, and expression. I won’t try to explain here why but suffice it to say, though his playing is so far away from anything I can do, listening to that album was enormously inspiring and just made me want to play, any old way I can. More though, it made me want to draw, strangely enough, I pull out my dip pen and attack the page, drawing mad dogs. The dip pen seemed the most appropriate, the most out of control weapon to use to spray ink around, like a living thing in my hand, the stroke widening with my clutch, then backing off into spirally tendrils, squealing then whispering, throbbing and choking, like Jimi’s guitar.
I haven’t fully overcome my hard rock phobia. It is very deeply wired into me. But I am able to overcome that anxiety well enough to really listen to Hendrix and more importantly to feel it, to surrender to it and to be moved by it. Jimi said: “Blues is easy to play, but hard to feel.” Well, he made me feel it.
I don’t know if I’m ready for Hot Tuna or the Black Sabbath or Megadeath or all those other bands I ran from in my youth.But I did discover that in the end, Jimi is just a more joyous, exuberant, fuzzy and wah-wah version of Miles. And I dig Miles.
Overcoming your preconceptions is damned hard but it’s the only way to grow. I grew a little this morning. In fact, my pants are hard to button.
Danny Gregory 
Comments
How about Life with Picasso by Francoise Gilot?
Posted by: Lisa Ridolfi | May 3, 2004 05:15 PM
According to IMDB there’s a TV film called:
Pablo Picasso: Réminiscence
Is that the one?
What’s it like?
Posted by: Danny | May 3, 2004 05:19 PM
I love your top two documentaries. I just watched Love is the Devil about Francis Bacon, which I found very fascinating.
Posted by: debbie ann | May 3, 2004 05:28 PM
Then there’s “Surviving Picasso”, came out a few years ago.
Posted by: Clarity | May 3, 2004 05:42 PM
Benny and Joon has some wonderful scenes with Mary Stuart Masterson’s character creating directly on the canvas using her hands as well as drawing with more traditional materials.
Posted by: Andi | May 3, 2004 06:01 PM
‘Camille Claudel’ is a wonderful movie about the life of the sculptor that worked for Rodin and then later became his mistress. Of course its a tragic story , women artists didn’t really have a chance in those days . She ends up being committed by her brother the french poet Paul Claudel . I don’t think she was crazy just filled with a lot of passion for her art . Passion was not something women were allowed to feel in those days.
Posted by: erin | May 3, 2004 06:05 PM
what about Cavaragio by Derek jarman and there was a great documetary about that mail artist based in NY which I saw at the edinburgh film festival… but I can’t remember his name!
Posted by: m | May 3, 2004 06:39 PM
I recently saw Frida with Salma Hayek. Apart from the fact that she is much more gorgeous than the real Frida to look at, I thought the quirkiness of this movie was brilliant. It surprised me.
Posted by: Lise | May 3, 2004 06:46 PM
A friend of mine at work keeps INSISTING that I need to see “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” because of its art theme. Maybe that would be a good one to check into! Thanks for the listings!
Posted by: Linda M. | May 3, 2004 07:23 PM
As a documentary on the creative process and the techniques and aids used by the some of the great masters I highly recommend David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge – it is available in both video and book. I was absolutely fascinated when the documentary screened here in Australia, it opened many new insights and evolution of the creative process.
Posted by: Detlef | May 3, 2004 08:12 PM
i agree with the royal tenenbaums also because wes anderson’s brother did all the great illustrations (the ones that “Richie Tenenbaum” does) and all the “book” illustrations and also does a great job on the rushmore/royal tenenbaums special additions packages.
also : American Splendor about Harvey Pekar (!!!) with a little bit of Crumb (!)
Posted by: jeanette | May 3, 2004 08:24 PM
I must also cast a vote for Frida. What a beautiful movie! Each frame is an artistic composition with rich rich color. Also, I’m afraid Bill Murray’s Razor’s Edge, although I’m sure his intentions were good, cannot hold a candle to the book which was simply amazing. The problem with the movie is that the protagonist is just not supposed to be a funny guy! Another movie not to be missed is My Architect which is about Louis Kahn. It’s still playing at some theaters but I’m buying this one when it’s available. This from someone who doesn’t watch the same movie twice.
Posted by: Glo | May 3, 2004 08:53 PM
P.S. –
what about songs about art / artists ?
Posted by: jeanette | May 3, 2004 08:56 PM
how about “artemisia” about artemisia genteleschi (sp?)? struggle of women artists. love affair. torture by thumbscrews. pretty decent film.
Posted by: mary | May 3, 2004 09:15 PM
I loved a documentary on the building of the National Gallery of Art with IM Pei…showing a lot of the work with Henry Moore and Sandy Calder.
All of the work that went into every inch of the place….interesting.
Posted by: Carole Joy | May 3, 2004 09:56 PM
Movies: Sweet and Lowdown, Woody Allen, starring Sean Penn as brilliant guitarist best moment: when penn bashes his guitar against a tree crying “i made a mistake, i made a mistake”
Lady Sings the Blues, Diana Ross Billie Holiday. for the music alone and Ross ain’t too bad either ….
Shadowlands, Debra Winger and Anthony Hopkins, about C.S Lewis
Fiction: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , James Joyce…those last paragraphs/lines, i weep everytime
Sula, Toni Morrison, the artist without an artform
Oranges are Not The Only Fruit, Jeannette Winterton, evangelical upbringing + lesbian= writer
Einstein’s Dreams Alan Lightman, a mathematic/scientific poet….vignette dream meditations on Einsteins mind during his patent clerk days toiling on relativity by night.
Posted by: andrea | May 3, 2004 11:30 PM
whoops! guess i added books too….woolf/the hours made me do it!
sorry
Posted by: andrea | May 3, 2004 11:43 PM
How to Draw a Bunny – about Ray Johnson, mail artist (2002)
Goya: The movie (1999)
(Also liked Frida and Girl with a Pearl Earring)
“Angels and Insects” includes scenes of a woman who keeps an artistic nature journal … although there are definitely other themes …
I’ll keep thinking …
Posted by: Karen Winters | May 4, 2004 01:17 AM
My Architect – about Louis Kahn, got an Oscar nod this year, and well deserved too.
Rivers and Tides? I dunno. I felt like even more of an outsider to Goldsworthy’s work after seeing that. It would have benefitted from some serious editing.
That’s my $.02
Posted by: ben. | May 4, 2004 03:21 PM
It’s not totally about an artist’s struggle, but A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries, film by James Ivory, based on a novel-based-on-her-life by Kaylie Jones (her dad was James Jones, who wrote From Here to Enternity), is about growing up in a bohemian, artistic family.
Also, Un Coeur En Hiver, a French film about a violinist and the man who makes her the violin.
Posted by: Jen | May 4, 2004 03:49 PM
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould is a wonderful movie. About Glenn Gould.
Posted by: D. | May 4, 2004 04:33 PM
I’d nominate Pecker by John Waters – quirky, funny and very, very scathingly revealing about the machinations of the art world.
Posted by: Kirsty Hall | May 4, 2004 05:05 PM
Not to be missed is the PBS special on photographer Ansel Adams; I think it was from the series “the American Experience.” Available from the PBS catalog.
Posted by: Kathleen Piercefield | May 4, 2004 05:38 PM
“Agony and the Ecstacy” also has a wonderful score by Alex North. I often listen to it while I’m working.
Posted by: MG | May 4, 2004 09:41 PM
Tony Hancock’s comdey ‘The Rebel’ c.1960; an office worker goes off to live the artist’s life in Paris. Although Hancock was the best-loved sitcom star in Britain at the time he had a yearning to do a movie like Jacques Tati’s. Never quite pulled it off, tragically.
Posted by: Richard | May 5, 2004 12:15 PM
How To Draw a Bunny about Ray Johnson is really worth going out of your way to see.
Posted by: debbie ann | May 5, 2004 12:21 PM
La Belle Noiseuse by Jacques Rivette
Dream of Light by Victor Erice
Posted by: Chris | May 5, 2004 12:50 PM
A couple of months ago I saw back-to-back three films about artists:
Pandaemonium about poet Samuel Coleridge and his friendship with Woodsworth – and descent into drug-addled craziness – a rocknroll account of an interesting fellow.
Passion about composer Percy Grainger, another troubled artist, the story took me by surprise having thought him a “simple” sort of composer. I was very mistaken.
and The Pianist, the haunting Polanski film about Szpilman’s endurance through Nazi terror in Warsaw.
They were all exhausting and heart-wrenching stories. But man oh man, it was a good day.
Posted by: andrea | May 5, 2004 01:32 PM
The Fifth Element!
see – the part where bruce willis is listening to the diva sing – and it keeps cutting back to Leelo fighting the badguys over the stones.
see – there’s this pretty little moment when he believes everything is true. Art shows the way to love shows the way to love saves the universe.
i really need to write about this more coherently someday. 😀
Posted by: charity | May 5, 2004 01:39 PM
I have to second Stone’s Lust for Life…the movie made me want to find out more about Vincent…I saw it after hearing the song by Don MaClean–Starry Starry Night. (GREAT POET/GREAT SONG…ONE OF MY FAVORITES!!) By the way…I learned how to play it on my tin whistle Danny…how’s the guitar going????
I also have to second The Pianist. The compelling love and urge to play music touched my soul. His identity was more deeply embeded as a pianist, rather than a Jew. I feel my art defines me more than anything else as well.
Thanks everyone…I will have to visit the video store on some of these!!
Posted by: Nancy Patterson | May 5, 2004 01:57 PM
I haven’t seen this one added, it is fairly obscure. You seem to
be an enthusiastic Van Gogh fan like myself, and you would
definitely enjoy “Vincent and Theo”. It shows a lot of the darker
side of Van G.’s life, such as the time he took in a pregnant
prostitute. The scenes are brilliant and suffused with the yellow
light of “The Night Cafe”.
Directed by Robert Altman, it stars Tim Roth as a quiet, intense,
muttering painter. I love this film and watch it every few months.
Also someone mentioned “Surviving Picasso” and “Camille Claudel”. Camille is devastatingly sad, but casts a lot of light on the relationship between herself and Rodin.
I also would like to mention a great film that stars J. M. Basquiat as himself, “Downtown 81”. It is a musical and poetic romp through the art and post-punk scene of NYC circa 1981. It was recently released after 20 years on a shelf! Great fun film, also with amazing live music scenes and a cameo by Blondie.
Posted by: shelly | May 5, 2004 02:04 PM
A good movie about becoming an artist, against all odds:
“Dog of Flanders”
(the original 1959 version, with David Ladd, Donald Crisp, Monique Ahrens, Theodore Bikel,)
Posted by: Anna L. Conti | May 5, 2004 06:31 PM
The documentary Speaking in Strings about violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg profiles a very passionate and unorthodox musician.
Posted by: Kim | May 6, 2004 12:05 PM
i don’t have a film to add, though i did enjoy Pollack, but thank you Dan once again, for your unfettering vision. that’s what attracted me to your site initially, you take a stand for all those individuals who allowed themselves to be consumed, perhaps devoured by their passion for visual expression. you are truly a becon on this artists’ path.
Posted by: doug | May 6, 2004 05:57 PM
‘Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh’: the biography of Vincent using only his paintings, some locations and excerpts from his correspondence.It was powerful movie.
-Nandita
Posted by: Nandita | May 7, 2004 12:50 AM
For fictional: “The Legend of 1600.” Beautiful. The duel between the protagonist and Jelly Roll Morton is one of the most amazing scenes on film. Great score by Ennio Morricone (his last, in fact).
Posted by: TPB, Esq. | May 8, 2004 03:11 PM
henry and june!
Posted by: jean zaque | May 17, 2004 04:27 PM
Just in case anybody else is still checking out the comments on this post, here’s a hard-to-find but really great doc of an artist: Gabriel Orozco (that’s the name of the film and the artist). To crib from the Miami film fest: “Internationally recognized Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco uses found objects to instigate a dialogue into how meaning can be formed from the arbitrary and the ordinary.” Very inspiring.
Posted by: ajane | June 14, 2004 11:14 PM
i too was so totally mesmerized by Le Mystére Picasso, i think its a really long film, but both times ive seen it i cannot rememeber time. I can only remember at the end kind of waking up and realizing my mouth was open and i had a crusty line of drool leading from the side of my mouth.
How about an angel at my table – both film and book
Posted by: pantiesontherod | June 19, 2004 02:50 AM
i too was so totally mesmerized by Le Mystére Picasso, i think its a really long film, but both times ive seen it i cannot rememeber time. I can only remember at the end kind of waking up and realizing my mouth was open and i had a crusty line of drool leading from the side of my mouth.
How about an angel at my table – both film and book
Posted by: pantiesontherod | June 19, 2004 02:53 AM