This morning I finished reading an article on Peter Doig whose paintings are currently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Britain. In the article Doig says of his work 'I never thought of them as being particularly good paintings.' Well, they are very good actually. This one on the left is Lapeyrouse Road (2004) which Doig painted shortly after watching the 1953 Japanese film Tokyo Story. The artist describes the figure as: 'someone who is actually locked in his own thoughts...You don't really know what's up in his mind, and for this reason you become a drifter on your own just watching it in the painting.' Doig's paintings in this exhibition often reminded me of the unsettling stillness of Hopper's work. There's also a David Lynch quality going on here because what at first glance appears to be a fairly ordinary scene often turns out to have some sort of menacing undertow causing the viewer to look, look again and then look some more.In other news, I am struggling to finish The Idiot by Dostoevsky. I'm on page 422 of 652 pages and it's an uphill struggle to the end. Dostoevesky himself said that 'the main idea of the novel is to depict the positively good man.' Well, it might take a better man than me to get through it...but with a little dedication who knows?
Yesterday I watched the Spanish film The Sea Inside (Best Foreign Film 2005) which follows the story of a paraplegic man and his fight to die 'with dignity'. It doesn't sound like a bundle of laughs, but it is in fact an incredibly uplifting film, I am getting goosebumps from just recollecting some of the inspirational scenes as I write this. The film is directed by Alejandro Amenabar (who directed The Others). Take a look at the trailer: http://www.theseainside.com/ and if that doesn't make you want to watch it, then I don't think we're compatible and we should call off the wedding.
Feeling art-orientated after starting this art shaped blog, I also settled down to watch Ed Harris' wonderful biopic of the American abstract expressionist artist Jackson Pollock: Pollock. Ed Harris plays Jackson (he was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar in 2000 for this role) and Marcia Gay Harden plays fellow artist and wife Lee Krasner (Best Supporting Actress 2000). It's a brilliant insight into the mind of one of the most original artists of the last century and the scenes of the painter in action are so skilfully shot that you really believe you're watching the artist at work. Take a peekaboo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmdLPLNb7Es
Last week I watched Derek Jarman's Caravaggio which is a different kettle of fish altogether but enjoyable in other ways. What was the most striking aspect of that film - apart from the superb Tilda Swinton - was the incredible lighting which perfectly resembled the delicious chiaroscuro of Caravaggio's paintings. If you can bear the REM soundtrack then this is an excellent montage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8FlnTFAXZ8
Now I'm rambling.
