Make a film about me??? No Means No, H-O!

For anyone like myself, who is absolutely fascinated by the NYC artworld scene from the mid 80’s to the nineties, ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’ is a nice treat. You get an inside peek in the life of a fairly reclusive artist, from the perspective of her ex-boyfriend, Paul H-O. I must say the doc does jump around a bit. At first, it’s about Paul Ho and the start of Gallery Beat, a NYC public access show that profiled artists and galleries within the scene. You could appreciate the DYI aesthetic and guerilla-style approach to this show. This contrasted nicely with the amount of money that was being thrown at artists, making rockstars out of people like Jean Michel Basquiat and Julian Schnabel.

Anyway, Paul H-O turns the film from the origin of Gallery Beat to a full-on examination of the life and work of Cindy Sherman, the avant garde self portrait photographer and artist. He even shows the evolution of their relationship from friend and curiosity, to flirtation, and finally a full-on romantic relationship. The viewer gets treated to Cindy’s way of working and her creative process, but one also get to see her control her image to the nth degree and her general obliviousness to her extreme wealth and how other’s perceived her. There’s a wonderful and telling anecdote, as told by Eric Bogosian, regarding a dinner with Cindy and lobster. After Paul H-O completes his full profile of Ms Sherman and her work, he delves into the difficulty of being the ‘kept man’ in their relationship. Thus the title, ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman’, was a prime example of how he was seen at all the high profile dinners and shows. Oddly enough, he also gets to talk with people who felt the same way he did, like David Furnish (Elton John’s hubby) and Panio Gianopoulos (Molly Ringwald’s beau), and personal effects of leading this type of life ‘in waiting’, so to speak. The film is not perfect. But it does get very interesting once H-O is done feeling sorry for himself and starts putting together the idea of him doing a documentary on what it is like to be in a relationship with a superstar. And, as you can guess, Ms Sherman grows more and more anxious the further this film is developed. Granted, towards the end, Paul gives you too much ‘Woe is Me’ when he seemed like he should be enjoying himself more and not belaboring the idea of him losing his identity within her celebrity aura. And the film ends on an ambivalent note that seems to reflect exactly what he thought of his relationship with Sherman before the breakup. But for anyone that shows an interest in the NYC artworld, this is a must see. From musing by Robert Longo to Julian Schnabel being exposed in quasi-tantrum mode, it gives a new face to how the art world has been portrayed, especially in fictional film, from montage scenes from Wall ST to Jeffrey Wright’s Basquiat.