Pollock

For more than ten years, actor Ed Harris has been fascinated by Jackson Pollock and by the plan of turning his tragic life into a film. When at last the time came, he did not just direct, but also produced and played the title role.Pollock is a conventional artist's biography in certain respects, albeit that Harris does not attempt to unravel the mysteries of artistic creativity. He chooses to emphasise the physical side of Pollock's creative power. The scenes in which Pollock invents his famous action painting are among the strongest in the film. Stooped over the enormous canvas, the paint is applied in a choreography of movement. An explosion of energy, rapidly cut and filmed from unexpected angles, that was not however completed without the necessary concentration and discipline. Pollock was a manic depressive and drank too much. A tormented spirit with an unpredictable temperament. The film covers the period from his breakthrough in the forties until his death in 1956, when he was killed in a car crash. He was married to Lee Krasner: it was a complex but loving relationship that is portrayed more than convincingly.Pollock is more a sketch than a detailed portrait. The painter remains an unfathomable figure: we experience his passion, his creative and destructive power, more than being able to understand or explain it.