Students Choice Film

or this post, find a film about a visual artist that you'd like to watch for the "students' choice" movie on Nov. 17. Explain why you chose the film and what you think it would contribute to the course. You may not have seen the film you choose, but do your best to express why you believe we should watch it in this class. A good place to start is the Internet Movie database: http://www.imdb.com/ (link to the right of the page).

While looking through IMDb I came across a title that seemed interesting, although I have never heard of it and am honestly a bit questioning of the credibility of the film, but could play an interesting role in the class. Art School Confidential (2006), could do a lot of things for our class from looking at the way in which they choose to depict the art students and what cliché characters come into play. The reviews seemed to have enjoyed the film, which is always a plus, but what I also found interesting was the way that the viewers mentioned the film created a definition of what art is. This could be a major interesting topic of discussion for us in figuring out how the film stereotypes not only the artist, but also art in general and its role in our society. Since the film is based upon a real life art school, Pratt Institute, we could also look into how the film does a job of depicting this school and its setting.

Similar to the reasons Art School Confidential interested me I would also be curious about how Factory Girl could take part in our class. Displaying the cliché “surface” of the art world surrounding Andy Warhol it would be a good case study for looking at the most simple stereotypes that film makers create when trying to appeal to a greater audience than those that may know a lot more about these artists, their lives, and their true stories. What I like most about this film is the way that it really depicts Andy Warhol as an icon, and for this class it would be interesting to really pick out how the filmmaker was able to do this. What worries me about the film is the fact that it does emphasize more Edie Sedgwick’s life than Warhol’s, but with this we see interaction with other types of artists, such as Bob Dylan. This film would bring more depth in examining the stereotype of the “art world” as a whole, rather than looking at individual artists.