6 August 2016

MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES. (2016) REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.




DOGWOOF PRESENTS: MAPPLETHORPE- LOOK AT THE PICTURES. (2016) A FILM BY FENTON BAILEY AND RANDY BARBATO. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©

Well, this documentary certainly livened up an otherwise quiet Saturday afternoon, I must say. There I was, glass of chilled white wine in hand, all nice and comfy at home and feeling good after a lovely civilised lunch with my mother, during which we hardly managed to annoy each other at all. That must be some kind of record, haha.

Next thing I know, I'm pressing 'PLAY' on the DVD machine and suddenly I'm up to my tonsils in photos of male buttocks and male genitalia presented as intimately and as revealingly as they might be in any good proctologist's handbook. What the dickens have I been watching, I hear you ask?

Well, it's the story of controversial American photographer Robert Mapplethorpe's life and work, and I must admit that it's simultaneously the weirdest yet also the most powerful and inspiring piece of documentary film that I've seen in a while.

It was released this very week (August 2016) by DOGWOOF, the UK's leading documentary film distributor and sales agent, and anyone even remotely interested in the world of art and celebrity will be utterly fascinated by it. Let's go in for a closer look, shall we, but I warn you, things will get extremely sexy at some point. Only adult readers from here on in, please.

Robert Mapplethorpe was born in Queens in 1946, in a place called Floral Park. How apt, considering that he loved to photograph flowers and was in fact famous for photographing flowers, among other things. It's these 'other things' that tended to arouse all the controversy.

If he'd just stuck to photographing lovely bunches of daffs and 'mums and whatnot, there wouldn't have been any trouble at all and his dear old dad wouldn't have had a problem with his son's job. 'He did a beautiful job on flowers,' his dad says of him in the documentary.

On the other hand, if he'd just stuck to snapping flora and fauna, then neither would we have had some of the most outrageous yet genuinely thought-provoking pieces of art the world has ever seen or is probably ever likely to see. For this reason, it's possibly best that he didn't just stick to photographing flowers.

Robert Mapplethorpe grew up a gay man in that pre-AIDS era when there seems to have been a lot of promiscuity amongst gay men in America. There's no mention of the word 'promiscuous' in the film, which was interesting, but Robert, a devastatingly good-looking man in the style of a Mick Jagger or a Jim Morrison, had a lot of sex with a lot of males. The film is upfront about that. Upfront and around back as well. Especially around the back...!

When he wasn't having sex with these mostly very physically attractive men, Robert Mapplethorpe was photographing them and hanging these intimate portraits in galleries. For people to see. With their eyes. Pictures deemed so shocking then that protests were held against the galleries that exhibited them. So now do you see what all the fuss is about...?

The film follows the trajectory of Robert's life (I can't call him 'Mapplethorpe,' it's too formal and feels wrong) from his childhood to the time of his relationship with singer-songwriter-poet-visual artist Patti Smyth to the gradual taking-off of his career as a photographer. Not just any photographer, either, but the one who seems to have single-handedly turned photography into an art form instead of just the poor relation of art.

The pictures of Robert and Patti together in the late 'Sixties are fabulous. They look just like what you'd expect a wildly sexy, arty free-spirited rock star couple to look like. Robert later photographed Patti's iconic album cover HORSES for her and, for a long time, she was his 'muse.'

We learn about Robert's homosexual relationship with handsome art curator and collector Sam Wagstaff who later died of AIDS, though not before he'd financed Robert's art and helped to further his burgeoning career. 

We find out about Robert's obsession with the gay BDSM lifestyle, something he could indulge freely and openly in places like The Mineshaft Club, a very naughty fetish club where gay men clad in bondage gear did very naughty things to each other in bathtubs. Oooh-er, Missus...!

The film covers other Robert's other obsession, black males, of which he photographed many, many examples. He even held an exhibition called simply 'BLACK MALES,' and certainly the pictures are deeply striking. The film doesn't flinch from showing us the good stuff, either, that is to say, the photos which are considered pornographic and obscene enough to be discussed by Congress. Yes, Congress...!

'MAN IN POLYESTER SUIT' is considered to be 'amongst the Top Ten most recognisable images in photographic history,' according to the film. Certainly, having seen it today for the first time, I'll never forget it if I live to be a hundred. I don't know if you can Google it, but if it's possible to do so, you should try to get a look at it. Be warned, though, it's very rude and may be considered pornographic by some of you, so watch out.

There are some very naughty homo-erotic photos of Robert's on display in the film. I'm not going to describe them, but I will say this. Have you ever seen a vet, either on television or in real life, put his arm halfway up a cow's insides? If you have, then you might have some idea of the- ahem- dark places to which these starkly gorgeous, black-and-white photographs go. And Robert was raised a good Catholic boy too...!

As the film winds its way towards the sad death of Robert Mapplethorpe in 1989 of AIDS-related complications, we hear from his former lovers, former photographic subjects, former colleagues and employees and from his younger brother Edward, who seems lovely and genuine.

Edward, also a photographer and one-time employee of Robert's, speaks honestly and movingly about the brother he loved but who was capable of hurting him sometimes too with his jealous or even egotistical behaviour.

We hear from celebrities such as Debbie Harry too, celebrities whom Robert photographed when he wasn't shooting flowers or nudie males. You could even commission him to take your photo, but only if you had a spare ten grand lying around.

 I mean it, ten thousand dollars in cash money for a portrait of you by the man himself. Ordinary folk like ourselves probably find paying that kind of money for a mugshot of yourself hard to understand, to say the least but hey, rich people are funny like that!

The film is really an extraordinary piece of film-making. It comes complete with extra features and a fabulous picture of Robert Mapplethorpe on the cover. He really was a fantastic-looking guy. He had the kind of looks of which women are always saying: 'Ooooh, it's such a waste he's gay!'


I imagine that plenty of women tried to 'convert' him in his lifetime. Whether too many of them were successful, we at home watching this will probably never know. What I do know is this: 

MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES is the most revealing and fascinating documentary I've seen in a long time. When you see it for yourself, I'm convinced you'll think the same.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.

Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO

 You can contact Sandra at:


http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com









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