Basquiat Page #13

He starts to pick at his face.

INT. PALLADIUM – HUGE ROOM – NIGHT

Jean and Albert Milo sit on a banquette

A huge white painting of Jean's with a dragon's head hangs on one

wall to their left. On the opposite wall in back of the bar hangs

another huge painting with a lot of heads, mostly black.

Lots of PEOPLE mill about a huge room.

A GIRL – another Gina look-alike walks through the crowd. Jean's

eyes follow her momentarily..

BASQUIAT:

(re:
the paintings)

What do you think?

ALBERT MILO:

I like the one with the dragon's heads a

lot. But the black one's filled up with

too many heads...

(beat)

I'd take some of them out.

(beat)

I think you're painting too fast. I

wouldn't put in so many heads. Let it

breathe a bit.

BASQUIAT:

It's always how you would do it. This is

my version.

ALBERT MILO:

You're right. It's your version. You

should come over to the studio sometime.

BASQUIAT:

Why, so you could humiliate me?

ALBERT MILO:

No, I wanted to make a painting of you.

EXT. UNION SQUARE PARK – DAY

Jean rides his bicycle through the park. He's looking up at the

birds flying in the trees.

ANGLE ON:

The birds. We see the statue in the middle of the park, but we

have no idea where we are until we see the Mays Dept. Store sign.

The birds circle in flocks, never lighting on the trees.

EXT. THE FACTORY (ENTRANCE) – DAY

Jean presses a buzzer. He's admitted. He carries his bike on his

shoulder.

INT. THE FACTORY – DAY

Jean enters a broad, high-ceilinged studio. It's neat. Paintings

lie on the floor.

Andy's back is turned to him. As Jean gets closer, he sees that

Andy's assistant FRANK is peeing on canvas covered with copper

pigment. We hear the SOUND of the piss.

Frank holds a bottle of beer in his hand.

ANDY WARHOL:

A little more to the right, Frank. OK...

Good. Now up... You got a little more?

Jean notices a bunch of Andy's wigs on a desk.

BASQUIAT:

What's with the wigs?

ANDY WARHOL:

I'm going to send them to my friends for

Christmas presents.

BASQUIAT:

You think those are good presents? Who

wants an old wig?

Jean makes a grimace. He walks up to the painting Frank's peeing

on.

BASQUIAT:

Piss painting?

ANDY WARHOL:

I wanted to make a few more of these.

Frank's been drinking this Mexican beer.

It makes a good green.

BASQUIAT:

How come you're not peeing on them

yourself?

ANDY WARHOL:

I don't like beer.

Looking down at the painting –

BASQUIAT:

If you ever want me to sh*t on 'em, just

ask. You could finger paint.

INT. THE FACTORY – LATER

Jean and Andy collaborate on a large canvas. Andy outlines a Mobil

Oil winged horse.

Jean paints it out. To the side he paints a penguin with a hat.

ANDY WARHOL:

That was my favorite part!

BASQUIAT:

We can do better. It needed more white.

Andy watches as Jean lights a joint and continues working on his

penguin.

ANDY WARHOL:

Jean, you make me feel worthless. You're

so famous.

Andy paints an Amoco logo next to the penguin.

BASQUIAT:

I don't even have any friends anymore

besides you. And everyone says "Warhol?

That death-warmed over person on drugs?

He's just using you."

ANDY WARHOL:

Gee. You shouldn't take it so seriously,

Jean. That's why you can't stop taking

drugs. You always think people don't like

you. Everyone likes you.

BASQUIAT:

People are only interested in you because

you're famous, not because they know a

f***in' thing about your work.

Jean paints out part of Andy's logo.

ANDY WARHOL:

Bruno called. In Europe, people are saying

you're gonna die from drugs. They think

they can cash in on your death.

BASQUIAT:

When I was poor, everybody doubted I could

make it. When I got rich, everyone said,

`yeah, but he'll never keep it up.' Now

everyone says `he's killing himself.' So I

clean up, and then they say `Look. His

art's dead.' I don't take drugs, anyway.

I'm healthy now.

Jean obliterates Andy's logo.

ANDY WARHOL:

If you say so. You sleep until 5:00 p.m.

You call at four in the morning. You never

show up anywhere on time – if you show up.

You're painting out everything I do!

Andy paints back in part of the horse.

BASQUIAT:

That's better.

Jean adds some letters on top of Andy's logo.

ANDY WARHOL:

I can't even see what's good anymore.

Jean Michel obliterates the rest of the logo with some white.

Andy steps back and squints as he examines Jean's work.

ANDY WARHOL (CONT'D)

Yeah, I see what you mean about the white.

It's better.

Jean quits painting.

BASQUIAT:

After the show we should take a nice long

vacation. Maybe go to Hawaii. That's what

I'm gonna do. I'm going to give up

painting and start playing music again. I

wanna sing.

ANDY WARHOL:

That would be a pity because you're a real

painter.

Frank arrives.

FRANK:

Here's the poster for the show.

He presents them with a yellow poster of Jean and Andy facing each

other with boxing gloves.

INT. FACTORY – NEXT DAY

Shenge hands Andy a box.

Andy opens the box. Inside is a football helmet with Jean's

dreadlocks glued to the outside.

CLOSE UP:
Andy in mirror wearing helmet.

CUT TO:

INSERT:

The screen is filled with the cover of the New York Times

Magazine. Jean is featured on the cover, without his dreadlocks.

INT. GREAT JONES ST. LOFT – NIGHT

As Shenge opens the door, a CROWD of people spill out. They pour

into the loft. The studio is crowded with PEOPLE. (Many of them we

recognize from earlier scenes in Mudd Club, Jean's opening, etc).

On the wall there is a portrait of Jean by Andy. The background is

a piss painting.

Inside, Jean kneels on the floor in the corner of the loft with a

bunch of people around him – girls, mostly. Twenty-five copies of

the Times Magazine lay stacked on the floor.

Crouching on one knee, Jean signs a copy for a BRUNETTE.

Looking up –

BASQUIAT:

Name?

BRUNETTE:

Elke.

BASQUIAT:

Number?

BRUNETTE:

505-0236.

A BRUNETTE walks up –

BASQUIAT:

Name?

BLONDE:

Monica.

BASQUIAT:

Number?

BLONDE:

477-0258.

Andy's assistant, Frank, arrives with CHRISTINE, 25, a model.

BASQUIAT:

Yo, Frank.

FRANK:

This is really great. What a nice place.

Jean is taken with Christine.

FRANK (CONT'D)

Have you met Christine?

BASQUIAT:

I don't think so.

He's thrown off his rhythm.

CHRISTINE:

Would you sign one of those for me?

TOXIC (seen with Rene at loft party earlier) spots Jean and steps

in.

TOXIC:

YO! Jean, this is Ramellzee.

RAMMELLZEE:

Yo... You know why Rammellzee's here,

don't you?

TOXIC:

Uh-oh!

RAMMELLZEE:

I'm here for an interrogation. You've been

called a graffiti artist and I wanna know

why. All I see are scribble scrabble

abstractions!

BASQUIAT:

Boom.

RAMMELLZEE:

Boom? As in ordnance? Are your letters

armed? What is the prime directive of

graffiti culture? Do you know, black man?

Jean likes Rammellzee enough to be patient... Toxic grins and

rolls his eyes to Jean. Jean watches Christine as they go on.

TOXIC:

(to Ram, re:
Jean)

Man, I was up on him years ago on the IRT.

RAMMELLZEE:

You're selling and ending the culture. Not

one bit of information. Only to get the

money and growl with the power, man.

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