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Popular Culture Review
bus. The man then launches into a speech lambasting conformity and hailing the
role of the artist as “keeping the last bits of intelligence and beauty going.”
When he learns that Jean too is an artist, the unnamed man tells him “weTl turn
this world around yet,” but by then, Jean, having no interest in him or his
proposition, is already boarding the bus. As Jean leaves, the man breaks into a
brief song that proclaims “he is so beautiful, so intelligent, so humorous; he is
divine.” In this case, the man’s effeminacy and interest in Jean is enough to
aggravate him and send him running.
In one of the film’s final scenes, the one which follows his break with
Beatrice, Jean is walking in a dark alley and is asked by an old bag lady for a
kiss goodnight. When Jean, obviously revolted by the old woman, asks at first if
she is crazy, and then tells her that he is not her type, the old woman then tells
him that she is a fairy princess who is under a spell, and that if he kisses her
good night, she’ll grant him every wish. When Jean kisses her, she turns into a
beautiful fairy princess. They exchange a long kiss, she grants Jean a wish
although he didn’t request one, and then she disappears. As he leaves the alley
Jean finds that money has magically appeared everywhere; he collects the
money and almost immediately buys a car with it. This scene, coming after one
in which Jean’s sexual prowess or interest in white woman might be called into
question by his rejection of Beatrice, only serves to drive home his power over
white women. In this case, Jean not only breaks a spell to turn an old bag lady
back into a fairy princess, but he also gets to kiss the epitome of white female
beauty in the final scene.
Critics of Downtown 81 such as Dave Kehr acknowledge the
documentary potential of the film and how “the fictional character’s life bears a
powerful resemblance to Basquiafs own at the time” (1); no critic, however, has
considered the sexualized image of Basquiat that emerges in this film. In
Downtown 81, Jean—and by implication Jean-Michel Basquiat—is placed
clearly within the category of heterosexuality; we see him desiring and being
desired by several white women and, just as important, we see him shun male
desire. Jean’s decision to not pursue either Beatrice or Mrs. Calvacanti does not
serve as a commentary on his sexuality but rather on his position as a bohemian
artist in a state of crisis. Not only does he wake up in a hospital for reasons that
are unknown to him and the audience, he returns to his apartment to find that he
has been evicted. When Jean sells one of his paintings to Mrs. Calvacanti for
several hundred dollars, it seems that things are looking up; however, he finds
out soon after out that his band’s equipment has been stolen. In this regard,
Basquiat might be too preoccupied on that day to fulfill his desires, but
Downtown 81 implies that, on any other day, he can and does get any white
woman he wants.
Like Bertoglio’s film, the white women in Schnabel’s Basquiat “are
seen essentially in relation to the male artist, are there to serve him, to save him,
and ultimately to seduce and betray him” (Adams 3). Like Beatrice in
Downtown 81, Gina, a fictional character based on one of Basquiat’s actual