‘Pollock the painter’ at AC

Oscar nominee Ed Harris directed and starred in the biopic of legendary American painter Jackson Pollock to be screened at 6 pm on October 16 at the American Centre, Colombo-3.

Pollock whose stormy moods, drinking binges, manic depression, and turbulent marriage to fellow painter Lee Krasner (Marcia Gay Harden, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress) combined with his revolutionary abstract painting techniques dominated the New York art scene of the 1940s and 1950s, before he died in a 1956 car crash, at the age of 44.

An auspicious directorial debut from prolific actor Harris, 'Pollock' overcomes its occasional obscurity to become an effectively detailed look at the unruly soul of an artist.

At the end of the 1940's, this abstract expressionist was featured in Life magazine. Flashback to 1941, he's living with his brother in a tiny apartment in New York City, drinking too much, and exhibiting an occasional painting in group shows.

That's when he meets artist Lee Krasner, who puts her career on hold to be his companion, lover, champion, wife, and, in essence, caretaker. To get him away from booze, insecurity, and the stress of city life, they move to the Hamptons where nature and sobriety help Pollock achieve a breakthrough in style: a critic praises, then Life magazine calls. But so do old demons: the end is nasty, brutish, and short.