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Downtown '81 [DVD] [2001]
 
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Downtown '81 [DVD] [2001]

DVD ~ Jean Michel Basquiat
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Downtown '81 [DVD] [2001]
61% buy the item featured on this page:
Downtown '81 [DVD] [2001] 4.0 out of 5 stars (2)
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Product details

  • Actors: Jean Michel Basquiat, John Lurie, Ted Bafaloukos, Tom Baker, Eszter Balint
  • Directors: Edo Bertoglio
  • Writers: Glenn O'Brien
  • Producers: Glenn O'Brien, Maripol, Michael Zilkha, Patrick Montgomery
  • Format: PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Region: All Regions
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: 4digital Media
  • DVD Release Date: 6 May 2002
  • Run Time: 71 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00007JGJA
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 32,829 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Special Features

Wide Screen
English
Region 0
Dolby Digital English
Dolby Digital

Synopsis

This film is just as much a tribute to New York's Lower East Side in the 1980s--a grimy, crazy, bohemian "paradise" where drug-peddling street junkies, super models, post-punk rockers, and hustlers in stretch limousines all stand on equal ground--as it is about the artist Jean Michel Basquiat. The film follows 19-year-old Basquiat during a 24-hour period as he wanders the streets aimlessly. Reciting poetry in voice over, Basquait sprays graffiti art on alleyway walls, flirts with beautiful women he sees on the street, charms a rich collector into buying one of his paintings for $500, smokes joints, and drifts from club to club all night long. In fact, the second half of the film takes place almost entirely in smokey clubs, and unrolls like a rock video capturing some excellent, unmistakably '80s, rock performances. Debbie Harry of Blondie, and bands DNA, Tuxedo Moon, and the Plastics all make appearances. Basquiat died in 1991 at age 29. The film was shot 10 years prior, in 1981, under the title "New York Beat," but the production was left unfinished until 2000, when its title was changed to DOWNTOWN 81. In 2001, it received a theatrical release in New York City.

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars a bit pretentious but has artistic and experimental merit, 8 Dec 2004
This review is from: Downtown 81 [DVD] [2000] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
an interesting glimpse of the world of the artist Jean Michel Basquiat. Following a pretty poor story line, we are introduced to characters from his world while he provides a voiceover narrative; he encounters fellow artists, musicians, DJs..etc while walking the streets of 80s NYC. Some interesting parallels to his art and artistic life, as it is in essence a film collage of scenes, grafitti art, music and New York in the 1980s. I'm not sure what genre of film it would fit into; although it appears to be basically fictional at least some of it could be a documentary.
There's also an amusingly bizarre appearance from Debbie Harry as some kind of bag-lady/fairy godmother near the end.

Quite pretentious and sometimes bizarre with some horrible experimental jazz music in places, the film can seem a little dated and self ingratiating, but it has at least some artistic merit, and its worth seeing the artist in the flesh so to speak, creating and showing us a glimpse of his scene (although with perhaps rather less drug usage than in reality!)

I quite enjoyed it, but its not everyone's cuppa tea! If you like his work its probably worth seeing.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars New York nostalgia, 2 Jun 2007
This review is from: Downtown 81 [VHS] (VHS Tape)
This is an art-film rather than a movie. If you like the work of Basquiat, then you will appreciate it for this reason alone. Some good NY new wave bands and early hip-hop culture. A glimpse of a world now gone for good, nostalgia for those who remember the excesses and creativity of the late 70s/ early 80s.
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