Photo by George Petrakes
Photo by George Petrakes
|
When a morally indignant admiral threw Paul Cadmus's painting of rowdy sailors out of a WPA exhibition in 1934, it was only the first scandal in the artist's unusual career. In this intimate film portrait, Cadmus, at 80, makes a nude drawing of his long time companion Jon Andersson, demonstrates his mastery of ancient painting technique, and candidly recounts his past as a prominent American scene painter and controversial social satirist.
PAUL CADMUS: ENFANT TERRIBLE AT 80 (1986)
60 minutes 16mm, Beta SP, 1/2 inch VHS
Broadcast nationally as a PBS special program.
David Sutherland's splendid 1986 documentary, a spare and to-the-point 60 minutes, [features] the works and reminiscence of Paul Cadmus. Now inching up to age 90, the artist was, in a sense, an enfant terrible to the extent that he painted by no rules but his own and had his 15 minutes of fame early on, not that he hasn't continued to produce sometimes quite wondrous paintings and drawings. The item that drew controversy to him, he surely didn't intend to be controversial even though his approach to portraying reality was, and to some extent long remained, distinctive, was a 1934 painting, "The Fleet's In!," which showed sailors, their tight whites leaving little to the imagination, cavorting with women of, shall we say, easy virtue. The Navy found this outrageous; the Works Project Administration (WPA), which had sponsored it, found it unacceptable; an admiral hit the roof, whence came national attention with its customary invective, excoriation, and dire prophesies of the desecration of art, the insult to the flower of American manhood and all the rest.
In this award-winning documentary, "The Fleet's In!" is given a half-minute or so, maybe a minute, no more. The artist, shown often with his favorite model, and, evidently, his lover, Jon Andersson, reflects on a wide range of his paintings and drawings, explaining that he often used himself in his paintings -- "I was the most available and least costly model" -- and also put his friends in his works. No surprise there. His symbolic models were often Renaissance and medieval paintings, which we see juxtaposed to his own works, and to the extent tht his sexuality is discussed it is often in the context of remarks about, and quotations from, letters from his friend E.M. Forster, and from W.H. Auden. We learn also what egg tempera painting involves. (I always wanted to know; didn't you?)
| |
David Brudnoy, Boston Globe
|
|
Painting by Paul Cadmus
|
"Cadmus is a consummate draftsman and a keen social satirist whose subjects of predilection have been gay male cruising rituals, sailors with bulging baskets, and the boys on the beach ... the director has sensibly let the ribald representational painter perform as a one-man band."
| |
Elliot Stein, Village Voice
|
"***"
| |
Carrie Rickey, Boston Herald
|
"The archival value of this film is tremendous and will certainly be appreciated in years to come ... intelligent, humorous and visually beautiful and represents documentary filmmaking at its best."
| |
Anthony L. Green, FLIC
|
"***1/2"
| |
David Armstrong, San Francisco Examiner
|
|
|
|
"Every once in a great while, a film comes along to demonstrate other possibilities, other approaches. One such production is PAUL CADMUS: ENFANT TERRIBLE AT 80. The portrait is remarkably compelling ... the intense close-up succeeds in illuminating something of the artistic process that, no matter the finished style, is always profoundly serious."
| |
John J. O'Connor, The New York Times
|
"As sensitive a portrait of a gay relationship as has been captured in film."
| |
David Bonnetti, Boston Phoenix
|
CINE Golden Eagle, 1984
Silver Venus Award, Houston International Film Festival, 1984
Best of Festival, Tyneside International Film Festival, England, 1986
Honored Filmmaker and Speaker, Roberty Flaherty Film Seminar, 1987
Finalist, Banff Television Festival, Banff Canada, 1987
|