Life Lessons. [episode from New York Stories]. 1989. USA. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by Richard Price. With Nick Nolte, Rosanna Arquette. 35mm. 45 min.
“Set at the end of the 1980s, when new, large-scale paintings were once again lining gallery walls, Life Lessons is a comedy about an artist who needs to be miserably jealous to overcome what could be called ‘painter’s block.’ Nick Nolte is effortlessly grand and hilariously self-destructive as the painter, and Rosanna Arquette, as his former girlfriend who wants to hang on to her job as his assistant, is almost his match” (Amy Taubin).
Painters Painting. 1972. USA. Directed by Emile de Antonio. With Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Leo Castelli, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and others. 116 min.
“Simply the best filmed history of American painting from the 1940s to 1970, when New York was the center of the art world. De Antonio had a remarkable rapport with the artists in their studios. Moving from Abstract Expressionism to Action Painting to Minimalism to Pop, while blurring the boundaries of those categories, De Antonio’s film details the processes and ideas of 14 major painters. Among the most articulate: de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Frankenthaler (the only woman in the bunch) Rauschenberg, Johns, Warhol, and Frank Stella. Watching the film today, we are aware that there is an adjacent history that was entirely omitted. At the very least, Painters Painting could be a model for bringing insufficiently visible art and artists to light” (Amy Taubin).