My inspiration

Someone ones gave me a horoscope of the exact date and time of my birth and a lot it said was true. The only thing I didn’t understand, was a statement of me being a voyeur. This stayed with me for some time and then it hit me… I am a voyeur, because I always read biographies and most of the movies and documentaries I watch are also. They inspire me.

The movie that took me by surprise and still is my favorite; Basquiat by Julien Schnabel. The first time I saw it, I cried, something I seldom do at the movies.

Jean-Michel Basqiuat was an unknown graffiti artist in New York, still sleeping in a cardboard box on Tomskin Square, when he saw Andy Warhol and a well-known art dealer entering a restaurant, followed them and offered to sell them some of his sketches. Soon after, Basqiuat became the talk of the town.

His paintings sold for huge amounts of money and Basquiat, the Jimi Hendrix of the art scene, started living the rock ‘n roll lifestyle with sex and drugs to the excess. He also briefly dated Madonna.

But Basquiat never came to terms with his fame and phenomenal success. He hated being the first black artist, who became famous and succesful. He started doubting his friends and his drug abuse got to the point everybody feared for his life. Andy warhol, who was his true friend, tried to convince him to get of drugs, but failed. At the age of 27 Jean-Michel died of an overdose.

Julian Schnabel, a friend of Basquiat, captured his life in a beautiful epic. Jeffrey Wright touches me deeply in the role of Basquiat. He really gets under my skin and that’s probably why the movie had (and still has) such an impact on me. The support cast features Gary Oldman,Dennis Hopper,David Bowie,Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe.  It’s first movie I noticed Benicio del Toro in. I must have missed The Usual suspects?!And the soundtrack of this movie is great,featuring P.I.L.,PJ Harvey,Joy Division,Tom Waits,David Bowie,The Pogues and John Cale.