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Basquiat



Julian Schnabel's tribute to his friend and fellow painter Jean-Michel Basquiat is less a conventional biopic than an impressionistic, sensory immersion into the much-mythologized downtown-Manhattan art world of the 1980s. Jeffrey Wright, in his first lead film role, stars as the visionary artist whose rise from graffiti tagger to art star forces him to confront the glare of sudden fame, along with racism, his own struggles with addiction, and the difficulties of being self-determining and free in America. Bolstered by an ensemble cast that includes a sublime performance by David Bowie channeling Andy Warhol, Schnabel's directorial debut—presented here in the filmmaker's own luminous black-and-white remastering—is a profoundly expressive elegy for a radiant life cut short.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration of the 2024 black-and-white version, supervised and approved by director Julian Schnabel, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the 2024 black-and-white version of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary featuring Schnabel and writer and curator Giulia D'Agnolo Vallan
• New 4K digital restoration of the 1996 theatrical version
• New interview with actor Jeffrey Wright
• Interview from 1996 with Schnabel and actor David Bowie
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Roger Durling

Does anyone know anything about the B&W version? This is the first time I am hearing about it. I really like this film - I am having a hard time picturing it entirely in black and white though. Has this been screened in this way before?

nowhereisaplace wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 5:43 pm Does anyone know anything about the B&W version? This is the first time I am hearing about it. I really like this film - I am having a hard time picturing it entirely in black and white though. Has this been screened in this way before?

Opened in New York last September, has been circulating ever since.

Wait, only the revisionist black and white version is included?

domino harvey wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 5:46 pm Wait, only the revisionist black and white version is included?

No it states in the specs there’s also a 4K restoration of the 1996 version too but it’s not hard to see why someone would miss that.

Thanks, it’s a little confusing

but the 1996 version isn't included on the 4K, only states the B&W one is

this and a Wong title in the same month is peak revisionism stuff

Calling Schnabel Basquiat’s “friend” is fucking rich. Basquiat couldn’t stand him

Hilarious because the trailer on Criterion’s site features a line in which Basquiat, when asked if he considers himself a Black painter, says, “I use a lot of colors. Not just black.”

We, uh, can’t see them in a black and white version.

It is a weird choice to privilege the b&w version. I vaguely remember the film. It’s nothing to write home about.

denti alligator wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 11:58 pmIt is a weird choice to privilege the b&w version. I vaguely remember the film. It’s nothing to write home about.

I have an intense dislike of this film and how it portrays Basquiat. Phoebe Hoban’s excellent biography of him really eviscerates it, particularly the scene where he pays for a table of racist assholes’ food

I guess we can count on a terrible encode of the theatrical cut too since they’re cramming both cuts on one disc.

This is my biggest complaint about Criterion. Their features that are special features look bad (Texasville, Family Nest, etc) and are sometimes given lossy audio. Or they cram too much on a disc (Akerman).

denti alligator wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 11:58 pm It is a weird choice to privilege the b&w version. I vaguely remember the film. It’s nothing to write home about.

I thought it was mediocre, but Bowie's Warhol is amusing, and Courtney Love steals the film in what I recall as just one scene. Schnabel sticking himself into the movie is obnoxious, but what I found most annoying were the thuddingly literal music cues: characters doing coke montage = 'White Lines'; character waits for a friend = "Waiting on a Friend"; Basquiat becomes famous montage = "Public Image." Utterly amateurish.

Discussion of films turning into or from black and white moved here

Probably one of the most overlooked ensemble casts of the 90s.

This probably belongs in the black and white thread, but it peeves me that the theatrical version is essentially treated as a supplement, sharing disc space with the black and white version with a much lower bitrate (less than 15mbps) despite both getting fine restorations. Radiance's release of The Eel was guilty of this, although given the circumstances of that release it is much more forgivable than this one.