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Film Features

Rigour And Play: Laurie Anderson's Favourite Films
Mat Colegate , January 22nd, 2016 09:27

On a recent visit to London the performance artist, director and musician took time out to talk about her 13 favourite films with Mat Colegate

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Before Night Falls (Julian Schnabel, 2000)

I think he does such beautiful films about artists, starting with his first film which was Basquiat, with Bowie playing Andy. That was a very tongue-in-cheek kind of thing. You see him building his films as they go. They become much more visual and you think: “How can a painter be a film maker?” They seem like such separate skills, when you think of the painter alone in his studio and a film maker who has to be working with a lot of people and solving a lot of social situations. However, as soon as I spend some time with Julian in the studio I realise that there are 20 people involved with those paintings. It's an extremely social situation of which he is completely masterful. He's such a great lover of music so his scores are amazing. He's very intuitive with that. Both Lou and I did music for Before Night Falls and I was so happy with where he put it in the film.