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<< Previous   of   Next >> Seethink Productions photo  (click to enlarge) Alice Neel in 1944, from her grandson's documentary about her.   ADVERTISEMENT   "Alice Neel" Fallout: A documentary look at portrait painter Alice Neel, by her grandson Andrew. Along with the intimate portrait of its subject, the movie raises fascinating questions about the cost of living a bohemian life -- something with which the artist's two sons have clearly struggled. Rated: not rated; probably PG-13 for nudity, language Now showing: Northwest Film Forum, 1515 12th Ave., Seattle; 206-329-2629   CONTACT THE HERALD Melanie Munk, Features Editor munk@heraldnet.com   Published: Friday, May 16, 2008 'Alice Neel': Fascinating film examines cost of living an artistic life By Robert Horton Herald Movie Critic Any documentary that succeeds on two key fronts is rare. "Alice Neel" is both an entirely personal look at a public figure, and a thoughtful essay about the costs of leading a commitedly artistic life. The subject of the movie is portrait painter Alice Neel, grandmother of the filmmaker, Andrew Neel. But the movie is not a simple love letter, by any means. Director Neel lays out the basics of his grandmother's life. A child of the century, born in 1900, Alice Neel was a painter who spent much of her life -- she died in 1986 -- in relative obscurity (and frequently on welfare). Because portraits were highly unfashionable in the serious art world of the mid-century, when abstract expressionism held sway, it took her decades to find widespread appreciation of her work. In the meantime, nevertheless, she led a life completely devoted to her art, and to a certain kind of freedom. She married a Cuban painter and went to live in Cuba in the 1920s, and gave up their daughter as the marriage broke down. Other men came along, and political causes, and two sons by different fathers. The sons are very present in "Alice Neel," and while both bear affection for their mother, they clearly carry the scars of being kids in a bohemian household (though this might have a lot to do with one particularly abusive father figure). Alice Neel appeared to put her art above all else, which is something most substantial artists do. But the movie does a fine job (without seeming to grind an ax) of evoking the fallout from that kind of life. Perhaps a grandson has enough distance from the subject to cast a cool eye on it -- this would have been a very different movie if made by one of Alice Neel's sons. They became, respectively, a lawyer and a doctor. Both are keenly aware that their decisions to lead organized professional lives probably have a lot to do with the chaos of their childhood. The film offers plenty of looks at Neel's paintings, which throb with vitality and emotional sharpness. This film should set up some good arguments about its central subject, but not many about the talent that she refused to compromise.

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