Downtown 81
March 21, 2018, by Peter
The most impressive part of Downtown 81 to me, was to express the less glamorous side of New York’s underground. In this film we follow Jean-Michel Basquiat’s character as he walks past burned out buildings. He also interacts with a landlord ready to kick him out.
I compare this to the 1996 “Basquiat” film directed by Julian Schnabel. In this film, Basquiat is seen living a lavish life alongside Andy Warhol. He is met with critics in this film who say he did not grow up poor and criticize him for living such a lifestyle.
Downtown 81 finds itself moving into increasingly bizarre territory, taking elements of fairytale all while using Lower Manhattan as the backdrop. There is a certain level of importance in use of the location, fostering a bizarre set of characters, which we think of as only possible in The Village in the 80s. Movies set in the Village today would take a completely separate tone.
One of the most famous filmmakers of the downtown Manhattan scene was Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch’s films no longer are set in New York and find themselves in places like Detroit and Paterson, New Jersey, which I presume are meant to emulate the effects of New York’s downtown. However these films are less based on a single scene of artists as Downtown 81.
New York’s art scene has become much less centralized, and is basically spread to wherever artists can afford. I wonder if it would be possible in this day, to be able to make a film, with so many famous faces, specific to one cities art scene, that is iconic of just one single place and time.