SLIFF 2018 Review – MAPPLETHORPE

MAPPLETHORPE screens Monday Nov 5th at 8:15pm at the Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE

Review by Stephen Tronicek

While Ondi Timonir’s Mapplethorpe fails among many, many, facets including depicting the lifestyle that Robert Mapplethorpe lead as some type of problem to be solved, chalking up a relationship straight out of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul or Get Out as something to be valued, or even so not providing an overall thesis on the man’s life itself, the film does manage to capture a certain excitement when it comes to the living of his life. There’s a sense of openness, of freedom, to stand in his shoes and think the way that he thought. A certain surface veneer to looking at a beautiful photograph of raw cathartic energy and luxuriating in it.

A film following the life of Robert Mapplethorpe, the photographer of excess that made his name on genitals and flowers, was always going to be excessive and it is in the excessive depiction of excessive creation that the film is at its strongest. Photography is a brutal, grinding, sweaty process of setting up lights and losing your mind in order to create a perfect image. An image that will move people…or not. Of course, some would just say that Mapplethorpe’s work is that of a masculine id, a display of genitals and flowers that can only bolster the surface level excitement that is spurred on from the meer image of beauty. That is what it often feels like to watch Mapplethorpe: a chance to wallow in surface level excitement.

The performances here are functional, if not necessarily comfortable. Matt Smith seems obviously exasperated by a role that’s all about excess and everyone around him gives off that vibe, except Marriane Réndon, who seems snug and comfortable in her role as Patti Smith. The stability shown in that performance may speak to the film’s biggest problem, but it’s a great performance all the same.

Mapplethorpe may not be the best film you see at this year’s festival, but there are still reasons for it to be explored. The energy of the piece is infectious and the way the performances support that energy is fantastic and on top of all that you also get to look at Mapplethorpe’s incredible photography.