New Trailer for Julian Schnabel’s Film ‘Basquiat’ B&W 4K Restoration
by Alex Billington
September 6, 2024
Source: YouTube
“How long you think it takes to get famous?” Janus Films has revealed an official trailer for a 4K re-release of Basquiat, the famed 1996 film about the iconic artist. It’s newly restored in black & white, made from a 4K scan from the original camera negative. Supervised by director Julian Schnabel. The film (firrst released in full color) originally opened in 1996 and played at the Venice Film Festival, before hitting US theaters in the fall of ’96. The brief life of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a world renowned New York street artist struggling with fame, drugs and his identity. Starring Jeffrey Wright in his very first big screen role as the artist who tragically died at 28. Cemented by David Bowie as a spot-on Andy Warhol, Basquiat’s supporting cast is a murderers’ row of Hollywood legends & art lovers (Dennis Hopper, Gary Oldman, Benecio del Toro, Parker Posey, Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe) all lending their talents to one of the “high points of 90s indie cinema,” an intimate elegy for a once-in-a-generation artistic phenomenon. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5/4 stars when it released, saying that Wright “gives a performance of almost mystical opacity.” Worth a watch.
Here’s the new 4K restoration trailer (+ poster) for Julian Schnabel’s Basquiat, direct from YouTube:
No painter electrified the 1980s art scene like Jean-Michel Basquiat (starring Jeffrey Wright), a New York street kid whose visionary blending of expressionism, pop art, and the radical new aesthetics of hip-hop & graffiti propelled him to international fame before a tragic early demise. Julian Schnabel’s stunning debut charts Basquiat’s dizzying rise and fall with an insider’s eye for authentic details of the downtown arts demimonde as well as a fellow postmodernist’s interest in the dream-like & surreal. Jeffrey Wright’s brilliant performance provides trenchant insight into the artist’s creative passions and personal demons. Basquiat is directed by the acclaimed American filmmaker / artist Julian Schnabel, his first feature film at the time (1996) before going on to make Before Night Falls (2000) and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007). The screenplay is also written by Schnabel, from a story by Lech Majewski / short story by John Bowe. This initially premiered at the 1996 Venice Film Festival this fall. Janus Films will debut the B&W 4K re-release of Basquiat in select US theaters starting September 13th, 2024 this month. Want to watch?
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