Pollock

After your further reflections on "Pollock" and thoughts on how it relates to "Basquiat," choose a scene from "Pollock" and try analyzing it according to exercise # 2 in your textbook on p. 86 (briefly discussed in class Sept. 8).

The major similarities between Basquiat and Pollock were represented in their characters and flaws in personality. These were shown in either minor details within the film or more broad on going themes that highlighted their specific character. They both had an obvious mental illness, whether being from addiction or the cause of addiction that affected their well being and played a major role in their art. Their addictions also had a major effect on their art, even though for Basquiat it was represented as an inspiration and for Pollock a downfall. At points they both even trade their art in order to keep with this addiction. Their relationships with women and the way in which they treated them were quite similar and both had a specific female character that played a large role in their well being, but whose relationship was destroyed both by their mental illness and addiction. Both Basquiat’s and Pollock’s relationships with their mothers became a highlighted subject matter in the film, and although more obviously spoken about it Basquiat, played an underlying reason for why they were the way that they were. In both films there is a scene showing an interview of their opinion of their art and/or modern art as a whole. Their answers can be reflected as similar in what it means to them specifically: Basquiat says, “When I speak no one listens, when I write it down people believe me,” and continues, “ Beauty is possible even in the most wretched… god’s gift to be free.” Where as Pollock says, “Painters today work from within,” and states that modern art is nothing more than the expression of the contemporary age. They both see art as their expression; their chance to get what they have to say across and that comes from within.

Even further there are similarities in the very minor details of the film from split second color choices to types of dialogue. Within the first couple of scenes Picasso is alluded to, whether being spoken about or shown through his art. They are both shown smoking cigarettes while making artwork. They both have a break down in a street alleyway or sidewalk. They are both shown looking up to the sky various times throughout the film, as if inspired. They both tell their close friend of a dream they had that relates to their family and link with getting back into their addiction.

Sound played a major role in the scene in which Pollock is having dinner with his family and Lee Kasner for the first time. Specifically the diegetic use of jazz music creates a tense mood that would not have been presently the same without this specific use of sound. The way in which they are passing the food and moving their hands goes to the rhythm of the music as if a dance. This pattern would not have been presented the same if the music had not been there. Then, Pollock blasts the music as he gets more upset intensifying this tension in the scene and matching his particular emotion. Then to highlight this “fit” that Pollock has and to intensify the emotion even more Pollock begins adding to the music, making his own music with his silverware. The fact the film connects Pollock and the jazz music as the most prominent sounds connects the effects of both and links the two as to highlight one another, and most greatly the distress, sadness, and heated emotion within Pollock.

The composition of this scene is related much to the sounds that are present in creating more of the rhythm, or pattern, that was created by the physical movements of the characters. At first we are looking right on at the table seeing all of the characters, as the tension rises the camera begins to have quick, sharp movements focusing in on one character, then another, matching the tense, chaotic emotion of Pollock. Even the way that the characters are sitting at the table: Pollock on one side, his brother on the other matches this tension as the drama of the scene is caused by his brother announcing that he is moving away. His mother is directly between both, matching her direct role in the argument – placed between two sides in which she cannot really side with one.

The editing of the scene is done beautifully starting in which the characters are already sitting; starting their meal, but it is obvious that it is the beginning of the meal. The end of the scene cuts suddenly to the silent room in which Pollock has been placed, cutting the viewer away from the tension, emotion, and distress of the scene as if to feel it and understand it, but not placed them under it for too long to make them feel all together uncomfortable and disturbed. This editing is key in making sure that the emotion comes across, but not in a way that would turn the viewer away.

It is important to realize the ways in which theses aspects of the film, the sound, composition, and editing, effect one another and how each plays such a large role. In this particular scene the music plays the largest role in creating the emotion, but the composition caters to this by building the tension. Above all none of this could be possible without the keen insight in when to cut off.