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Most of us remember Dennis Hopper for “Easy Rider,” the ultimate drop-out picture of the sixties, and as Frank Booth, the unhinged sadist in David Lynch’s 1986 “Blue Velvet.”
Between these high points, Hopper lived through a long period of alcoholism, drug addiction and mostly futile attempts to find backers for his projects. “Nobody had more trouble with Hollywood,” said the 72-year-old actor-director at the Cinematheque Francaise on the eve of a retrospective of his work.
The movies are only the backdrop of a show that portrays Hopper not just as one of the founding fathers of the “new Hollywood” outside the major studios. It also pays tribute to Hopper the photographer, painter and art collector.
“In 1963,” he told his Paris audience, “the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts bought its first painting by Jackson Pollock which was promptly denounced by the trustees as communist propaganda. Los Angeles was a cultural backwater then.”
Thanks to Hopper and like-minded artists, we are given to understand, this has changed.
The show includes excerpts of movies by fellow mavericks such as Nicholas Ray, Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola. Most of Hopper’s photos are closely related to his film-making.
When we see him shooting “Colors,” his 1988 movie about Los Angeles’s barrios and slums, he is surrounded by members of the Crips street gang.
Pop-Art Waiter
Although his own paintings tend to be abstract, pop art has clearly influenced him: In front of the Cinematheque stands one of his sculptures — a giant waiter in Mexican garb, complete with sombrero, moustache and a tray full of spicy food.
Hopper the collector is no less catholic in his taste. A graffiti-style painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, who was all over the place in the 1980s, hangs alongside an assemblage by Robert Rauschenberg and Hopper’s portrait by Julian Schnabel with a halo of broken crockery.
Other artists in the show such as George Herms are little known outside California.
The organizers try to set the movies and artworks in a political context, reminding you of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, the civil-rights movement and the sit-ins against the Vietnam War. Still, the result looks more like a fair of anecdotal tidbits than a coherent survey of the “New Hollywood.”
If you leave the show convinced that Hopper is your archetypal Hollywood leftie, you are mistaken. At the news conference, he outed himself as a lifelong Republican who voted for Bush father and son. Next month, however, he will vote for Obama. “It’s time for a change,” he said.
The exhibition “Dennis Hopper & le Nouvel Hollywood,” including two film showings a day, runs through Jan. 19, 2009. For details, go to http://www.cinematheque.fr or call +33-1-7119-3333. (Bloomberg)
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Slipstream
Friday 17 October 2008
Dennis Hopper is amazing! He has done so many films and seems to never stop. This month alone I believe he had at least 4 movies come out. That’s not even taking into consideration the fact he goes and promotes all these films, paints, plays poker and likes to attend all the coolest events. He just doesn’t let up! I have him on my GPS even. I got his voice from a company called Navtones.com and I love it. It is the real him and they do other voices such as Mr. T, Kim Cattrall, Gary Busey… all the real celebrities. Dennis Hopper, go take a holiday!