HIGH ART

US, 1998, 101 minutes, Colour.
Radha Mitchell, Ally Sheedy, Patricia Clarkson, Gabriel Mann, Helen Mendes, Bill Sage, Tammy Grimes.
Directed by Lisa Cholodenko.

High Art was highly praised on its release in the late 90s. It focused on a photographer, based on the real-life photographer Nan Golden, played by Ally Sheedy in a very strong performance. Once famous, she has spent a decade out of the public eye, caught up in a drug world.

Radha Mitchell plays Syd, a young woman, an editor on the up, who encounters the photographer and falls in love with her. The film portrays both characters in some depth as well as portraying their relationship. Patricia Clarkson is highly histrionic but effective as a former lover of the photographer. Tammy Grimes is the photographer’s mother.

The film was directed by Lisa Cholodenko who went on to make Laurel Canyon as the award-winning Cave Dweller.

1.The title, the serious overtones, the pretentious overtones? As applied to photography? The variety of comments and discussions about photography, some pretentious, others serious?

2.The world of New York City, the magazine offices, the apartments, the streets? The countryside? The musical score?

3.Photography of film? Photography as a theme? Photography as art? The jargon of photography?

4.The New York art world: the magazines, the world of study, chatter and jargon, serious criticism, the art world and sales, reputations? The variety of lifestyles, drugs? The ever-presence of death? Exploitation and responsibility?

5.Syd, the young woman, seeing her at her desk, talking, her work? Ambitions? The interactions with Harry? With Dominique? Her job, the name, the menial work, her skills?

6.Syd and James and their relationship, the photos, the encounter with Lucy, Lucy’s lifestyle, the drugs? The beginnings of the infatuation? Her return to see Lucy? The party sequences? The drugs, sex, James? Lucy and her book, the truth about Lucy?

7.Lucy and the set-up, the lunch, her past life, ten years of doing nothing, her previous success, her waste of years? Her being energised by the relationship with Syd? The trip, not taking any drugs? The car and the photos, the sex and the photos? The gift of the photos?

8.Lucy and Ally Sheedy’s style, her attitude towards her photography, art, her retiring, having to cope? The significance of her mother and her relationship with her? The distant mother? Money? The past relationship with Greta, Greta and the drugs? The clique around Greta? The encounter with Syd, her response, the possibilities, going into the countryside, telling her mother? Discussions with Greta? Death? A strongly delineated character?

9.Greta, her personality, sexual orientation, age, drugs, the clique around herself, grief? Arnie and his being around?

10.The background work of the office, the production of the magazine, its success?

11.The climax, Syd and her grief? Her using her relationship with Lucy, the infatuation – and the questions of her future?