Never Met Picasso, 1996
Editor
Running time 96 minutes
Starring Alexis Arquette (Scream) and Margot Kidder (Superman). Winner of Best Screenplay Outfest '97 (Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival).
Andrew (Arquette), a gay 30-year old live at home artist is in the midst of a creative funk. Rejected by countless art schools and lacking romantic prospects, he looks to his charismatic aging uncle Alfred (Alvin Epstein) for inspiration. Vexed by her son's lack of direction, his self absorbed actress mom Genna (Kidder) is equally adrift, working in a frightful avant-garde theatrical production. At a premier party, Andrew's best friend Lucy (comedian Georgia Ragsdale) a neurotic sculptor begins to fall for Genna while Andrew is chatted up by the sexy but mercurial art scholar Jerry (Don McKeller). Later when Alfred suddenly dies, Andrew discovers a secret cache of old photographs of Alfred's deceased male lover. It's a transcendent revelation that forces them to reckon with the complicated nexus between art and life, and the difficulties encountered by past gay and lesbian artists who have been lost to history. A wry and sharply drawn look at contemporary gay bohemia that's filled with romantic possibilities, idiosyncratic characters and the transformative power of art.
Andrew (Arquette), a gay 30-year old live at home artist is in the midst of a creative funk. Rejected by countless art schools and lacking romantic prospects, he looks to his charismatic aging uncle Alfred (Alvin Epstein) for inspiration. Vexed by her son's lack of direction, his self absorbed actress mom Genna (Kidder) is equally adrift, working in a frightful avant-garde theatrical production. At a premier party, Andrew's best friend Lucy (comedian Georgia Ragsdale) a neurotic sculptor begins to fall for Genna while Andrew is chatted up by the sexy but mercurial art scholar Jerry (Don McKeller). Later when Alfred suddenly dies, Andrew discovers a secret cache of old photographs of Alfred's deceased male lover. It's a transcendent revelation that forces them to reckon with the complicated nexus between art and life, and the difficulties encountered by past gay and lesbian artists who have been lost to history. A wry and sharply drawn look at contemporary gay bohemia that's filled with romantic possibilities, idiosyncratic characters and the transformative power of art.