The long-held stereotype of the tortured artistmay or may not be true. Maybe perfectly happy people can make really amazing art. Maybe Shakespeare went around singing all day long, maybe Picasso didn’t let all those failed love affairs bother him, and maybe Caravaggio just preferred the dark
There has to be at least some truth to it, or we wouldn’t have quite so many movies about the acclaimed artists who suffered for their art. Whether the torture came from within the artist’s own mind (Vincent van Gogh, Henry Darger), from addictions (Jackson Pollock, Jean-Michel Basquiat), or elsewhere, it’s safe to say we might not have the art if the artists hadn’t gone through what they did.
10Vincent & Theo (1990)
There have been a number of acclaimed films (Lust for Life,Loving Vincent,At Eternity’s Gate) about Vincent van Gogh, who is now one of the most recognizable artists in the world, although in his lifetime he famously only sold one painting (The Red Vineyard). Robert Altman’s 1990film starred Tim Rothas Vincent, and Paul Rhys as his younger brother Theo, an art dealer, who provided the artist with financial and emotional support throughout his lifetime. They exchanged hundreds of letters when they were apart, and their tender, if sometimes difficult relationship is portrayed beautifully by Roth and Rhys. The film focuses on a number of key events, including Vincent’s bust-up with fellow painter Paul Gaugin and the subsequent mutilation of his ear, and his move to Provence, his eventual suicide. There were many similarities between the brothers, especially in terms of religion and sexual obsession. It’s a movie about beauty and despair at the same time, and the ways the brothers’ lives mirrored each other to the very end, when Theo died from a combination of syphilis, hereditary ill health, and depression.
9Basquiat (1996)
Julian Schnabel brought his considerable experience as an artist to his directorial debut, a biopic of Jean-Michel Basquiat, whom he knew from the ’80s art scene. Basquiat is portrayed by Jeffrey Wright, from his days of homelessness in New York City to his explosion into the downtown art world after becoming friends with Andy Warhol, an absolutely delightful David Bowie. Wright later expressed displeasure with the editing of his scenes, and the fact that Schnabel also inserted a thinly veiled version of himself into the film, played by Gary Oldman. Basquiat’s estate also didn’t allow his work to be used in the movie, so works in his style had to be created. In some ways, it’s a highly-stylized movie about glossy art culture, peppered with stars like Parker Posey, Christopher Walken, Dennis Hopper, Courtney Love, and more. But it’s Wright’s portrayal of a vibrant, immensely talented artist who suddenly plunged into a spotlight that came with all the trappings of a fame that he might not have been equipped for, who died far too soon (at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose), that generated a huge amount of interest in his work
8Camille Claudel (1988)
Isabelle Adjani was nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of the title character, a talented French sculptor whose sanity was undone by an affair with Auguste Rodin (Gérard Depardieu). Claudel was born in the 1860s, at a time when women were not encouraged to follow artistic ambitions. The film examines the time from her first meeting with Rodin in Paris and their initial entanglement, which led to her acceptance into the art world. But Rodin was already in a long-term relationship and refused to break it off, and once things had deteriorated between him and Claudel, she found herself both in financial straits (especially after the death of her supportive father) and cut out where she had previously been accepted, as Rodin was one of the most famous and influential artists in Paris at the time. Claudel had at this point already begun to display symptoms of schizophrenia, and her family took advantage of the situation and had her institutionalized, where she remained for the rest of her life. It was a cruel and tragic end for a woman who strove against blatant sexism to make a name for herself with her talents, and Adjani shines in an inspired, sensitive performance.
7Amadeus (1984)
Miloš Forman’s now-classic historical drama starred Tom Hulce as Mozart, and F. Murray Abraham as Salieri, his nemesis. The story is recounted by Salieri from a mental institution in the latter years of his life, still unable to understand how God could have bestowed such talent on a young man that Salieri deemed so undeserving, with his frivolous and often boorish behavior. It rankles him that even as Mozart is consumed by alcoholism, poverty, and domestic troubles, he still is a far more brilliant composer than Salieri could ever hope to be. Hulce has a star turn as the mercurial composer who keeps evading the older Salieri’s attempts to thwart him. After completing the masterpiece ofThe Magic Flute, Mozart dies from exhaustion, which should have made Salieri satisfied at last, but he loses his mind after years of a vengeful obsession suddenly deprived of its object. Is it historically accurate? Not really. But it’s a masterful portrayal of two artists utterly consumed by their art, albeit in different ways.
Related:Best Movies About Obsessive Artists, Ranked
6My Left Foot (1989)
Christy Brown, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning role, was born with cerebral palsy to a large, loving family in Dublin. Long thought simple, it’s discovered that he can both write and paint using his left foot, the only part of his body he can reliably control. In many ways, Brown is perfectly happy, with family and friends who ensure that he plays a constant part in their everyday lives. Family and relationship tragedies push him to the brink of suicide, but his family rally around him once again. Day-Lewis threw himself into the role withtypical method gusto, insisting that the film crew move him in his wheelchair and feed him.Roger Ebert’s astute reviewexplains: “It is not an inspirational movie, although it inspires. It is not a sympathetic movie, although it inspires sympathy.” Brown died at the age of 49, leaving behind nine books of fiction and poetry.
The one entirely fictional film in this list, this historical drama once again stars Daniel Day-Lewis in what is, at the moment, his final film role. He plays Reynolds Woodcock, an obsessive and highly strung haute couture fashion designer who is really only understood by his sister Cyril (a wonderful Lesley Manville). In an out-of-character turn of events, Woodcock falls for a waitress named Alma (Vicky Krieps), and the two begin an all-consuming but incredibly difficult relationship, as Woodcock is loath to give up so much as an inch of control over his finely-tuned habits. In this way, the film becomes almost more about Alma, and the ways in which someone who loves a tortured artist must sacrifice and negotiate to support them, and whether it’s actually worth it to give up so much of yourself for someone else.
4Gauguin: Voyage to Tahiti (2017)
Like his friend Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin’s work was largely unappreciated in his lifetime. In the 1890s, he abandoned his wife, five children, and life in France to live in French Polynesia, where he hoped to elude the strictures of civilization as he knew it. He falls for a young Tahitian girl named Tehura, and produces some of his finest work, which was well-received when sent back to France. The film does acknowledge that Gauguin’s affair with his young muse (who was in reality even younger than she is portrayed here) was toxic and predatory, even if it did result in some of the most famous paintings in the world. Cassel is great as Gauguin, a man rather tired and beaten down by years of illness and chasing success to no avail, who finally seems to have found the inspiration that he has been seeking.
3In the Realms of the Unreal (2004)
At first glance, Henry Darger was a janitor and perpetual loner living in Chicago. After his death in 1973, it became widely known that he was also an outside artist of epic proportions. Among his possessions, a manuscript of over 15,000 pages was found, entitledThe Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, along with a huge number of paintings and collages that went along with the text. The documentary filmmakers had to think outside the box to make a film about a man who was that solitary, who had spent much of his childhood and youth in an asylum for the feeble-minded. The movie thus focuses largely on the endless fascination of his mixed media work with pervasive themes of good and evil, childhood innocence vs. adult corruption. The film is narrated by seven-year-oldDakota Fanning.
Related:12 Documentaries About Artists That Will Inspire Your Creativity
2Pollock (2000)
Ed Harris’ depiction of modern artist Jackson Pollock doesn’t shy away from his troubles:mainly alcoholismand his dysfunctional relationship with his wife and fellow artist, Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden in an Oscar-winning performance.) Pollock’s shenanigans tumble from amusing to tragic as his addiction strains his relationship not only with Krasner, but his art world connections, and leads to his eventual untimely death in a car accident that killed him and the young artist he was having an affair with, as well as grievously injuring her friend. The scenes of Pollock’s creative process are a joy to watch, though, as Harris (a long-time Pollock aficionado) tears around his studio space flinging paint with elated abandon.
1Séraphine (2008)
Séraphine de Senlis was an untrained French painter born in the 1860s, who worked her whole life as a housekeeper. Inspired by a combination of mental illness and religious mania, she paints alone at night, by candlelight. When an art critic who employs her is captivated by her art, she enjoys a measure of outside success, but it’s overwhelming, and her psyche is unbalanced. Furthermore, her period of financial independence is thwarted by the Great Depression, and collectors stop buying her art. Acclaimed Belgian actress Yolande Moreau portrays the sensitive artist with subtlety and tenderness, and it is with sadness that the audience learns Séraphine is committed to an institution, and buried in a common grave, and her work was not widely known until after her death.
