Downtown 81
by Edo Bertoglio
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DVD details
Actor: Eszter Balint, Jean Michel Basquiat, John Lurie, Ted Bafaloukos, Tom BakerDirector: Edo Bertoglio
Brand: Zeitgeist Films
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Unknown; English (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-10-22
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
DVD Reviews of Downtown 81
DVD Review: a holy grail film
Summary: 5 Stars
Boy, If I was happy when this film came out in New York a few years back.
I believe, the director made the effort to release it, 20 years after it was made, as an alternative to Julian Schnabel's film "basquiat". Back in the New York 80s, there were two type of artistic world. The Soho type, which followed the Andy Warhol's double edge philosophy: "Making money is an art",and the East Village type, which followed the tradition of the Beat poets.
Ofcourse, the legacy Warhol left when he produced the Velvet Underground as an "art form" and also films of conceptual ideas,( 1960s) were not part of the "making money" image of Soho.
This phase in Warhol's career ( before he became really rich) was the source of the east village bohemians, the so called "Children of Andy Warhol",
Those hipsters, were the one producing the art films and punk bands.
Noone was painting in the east village at the time. One was either a film maker or a member in a punk band. Cool art was graffiti, because it was not considered art by the status quo, and that was precisely what the scene of the east village was looking for: anti-art.
It was not so much wealth what we were after, but be part of the pantheon of die-hard hipsters.
Punk musicians were more and more expressing themselves through film. Basquiat was a member of Gray.(a No Wave Band)(NO Wavers was the underground within the underground in those days)
Debby Harry a member of Blondie. It was said at the time that what made Basquiat truly known within that underground was his encounter with Blondie, who got him into the film. IT is true that he was known as Samo, but that was something else.
Why is this film a holy grail? well, se how many films Picasso did about himself; only one Le Mystere Picasso. In Downtown 81 we not only see the legend, we see the neighborhood and the bands. It is an historical documentary. Something that the author himself ( Im sure) never had in mind when filming it. That is the reason why it was lost for so long. They never thought it was important.
That brings to mind the words of Picasso: "Art is stronger than I, because it makes me do what she wants"
They worked on one more punk film, when in fact it was a jewel in the making, something beyond their grasp. They were merely the instruments that help create a documentary that was destined to exist.
I think this film is as important as the "in the Horse's mouth" by Alec Guiness and Le Mystere Picasso by Claude Cluzot.
These three films about artists, could become the unholy trinity
for those who listen to the beat of a different drum.
Description of Downtown 81
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