Basquiat as a biopic, a requiem even; (director Julian Schnabel talking to Charlie Rose 9th August 1996) is a labour of love, where the big name stars worked for 'scale' and the recording artists gave masters and publishing rights at 'unheard of' rates. The movie experience makes equal room to emphasize the soundtrack.
It begins as the credits roll with the back of a little boy and his mum walking down a corridor then arrive in front of Picasso's  Guernica .
A grown-up dreadlocked Basquiat comes out of a cardboard box in the bushes behind a graffiti-ised park seat. As he walks NY he sky becomes a massive wave a surfer is riding.
He gets thrown out of a cafe but makes friends with Gina, the waitress; then he visits his vague mum in an institution to tell her he's getting married; his love is obvious wheras the marriage is not.
He catches up with Gina on the street and asks her to come to Mudd Club and she says he can call her. Theyre now sleeping together.
When his park box bed collapses in the rain at night he visits Benny and they snort and get high. A prank call to a suicide line then set to music at the Mudd Club where he sees Gina through the crowd. They leave; he cant flag a cab so with a look to her she steps to the front and she can.
While in a gallery working with an electrician painter he walks out after being bossed around by the owner, then peers into the art show opening. He's the SAMO graffitist.
Surfing superimposition
As Benny and him are walking talking, a limo draws up and as they watch Andy Warhol and Bruno (art dealer) get out; Basquiat goes into the restaurant theyre in and sells them two of his postcards.
He's painting inside with black and white tv on when Gina wakes up and she loses her block; he's painted her dress and paintings but he comforts her back to happiness.
Snorting at a high-rise drug den where some of them check out passers-by with a telescope which is used to find him after he's left for Rene who runs down in admiration of his talent.
Sure enough, the art shows, dealers and gallery owners start to be fixtures in his life.
People are now coming by all the time while he paints and after he flirts with 'big pink' in the street he's nodding off then being slapped around to wake him up by Gina who sees a needle on the bedside table.
Benny is noticing a change in Basquiat's attitude with his new found art world niche and storms out the taxi.
The arty-fartyness of it all is coming out as dealers and gallery owners fight for him and his work and he gains in admiration from limosine drivers. Rene loses his block at Mr Chou's after an exhibition opening and is forcibly removed.
His positive nature shoes through being interviewed by a rather condesceding amateur reporter.
Bicycling around, visiting Andy who is now his friend.
He and Gina catch up at a posh restaurant where a table of businessmen snigger and he checks his drug face blotches in the mirror. Andy relays that the gossip is Basquiat is killing himself but doesnt like the idea of him going to Hawaii and opening a tequilla shop; because Basquiat is a painter. Basquiat sends Andy a dreadlock helmet.
Basquiat walking down the street, tries to join in with some graffiti-ists who take offence and bash him up.
More surf scenes   and blackness
Basquiat walks into a studio where paintings are being hung; the owner sees him and the artist being hung   Milo -invites him to visit and tells him Andy does care, does know about art, and is concerned about Basquiat's drug habit.
After Bruno tells Basquiat about Andy's death there's waterskiing footage with Basquiat writing TITA on what could be a skull or baseball   and footage of the real Andy and the acted Andy watched by Basquiat as tears start to come.
He tries to get his mum out of the convent in the middle of the night, then Benny finds him in his pjs and they drive through NY in an old jeep; we see his clogs are what he was painting : TITANIC.
We hear him tell a story his mother used to tell him about a prince locked in a tower who couldnt get out and would bang his crowned head on the window bars to no avail; but the sound of the crown on the metal bars created the most beautiful sound for miles around. It filled everything and everyone up with beauty.
Let's go to Ireland he says, stop in every pub and have a drink. The next screen gives his birthdate and that he died on August 12, 1988 at 27 years.
The movie is dedicated to Joe Glasgo 1925-96 who discovered Schnabel the director. While characters have been created for the movie story, so many elements   such as the crown   encourage further interest in Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Output: How old was Basquiat when he died?