‘Screening” the Sexuality of Jean-Michel Basquiat
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flirtatious smile quickly leaves her face and she walks off. The decision on the
part of Jean to not accept this beautiful white woman’s offer may seem to
contradict the argument that Downtown 81 portrays him as a hyper-heterosexual.
In this case, wouldn’t the fulfillment of his role as a black stud include him
accepting Beatrice’s offer? Jean’s decision, when contextualized within the
film’s celebration of the bohemian artist, makes sense. For Jean, accepting
Beatrice’s offer would be selling out as it is both a sexual and financial
arrangement. Thus, Jean’s ultimate rejection of Beatrice is less connected to sex
and more an assertion of the integrity of the independent, starving artist.
Jean’s dealing with another wealthy, albeit older, white woman, Mrs.
Calvacanti, is also telling. When Jean is evicted from his apartment early in the
film, he grabs one of his paintings on the way out in hope of selling it. Jean later
goes to Mrs. Calvacanti’s because he has heard through a friend that she might
be interested in buying it. When he goes to her place, she greets him with a
“darling” and a kiss. They sit closely to each other on her couch, and when Jean
addresses her as “Mrs. Calvacanti,” she insists that her call her by her first name,
Vanda. Music, once again, sexualizes the scene. On the couch, she flirts with
him by touching his arms, chest, legs, and face; she flatters him by telling him
how flinny he is although he doesn’t seem to be telling any Jokes. While the
much older and presumably married Mrs. Calvacanti is clearly “enamored of
him” (Kelly 2), Jean is polite yet unresponsive to her advances. He seems more
concerned with selling her his painting. Her attraction to Jean’s black male
sexuality comes through as well in the way she admires and describes his
painting as “so strong, so savage.” In this sense, Mrs. Calvacanti is not just
buying a painting by a black man; she is consuming black male sexuality.
Despite Mrs. Calvacanti’s obvious interest in Jean and his painting, he does not
appear interested in her. As is the case with Jean’s rejection of Beatrice, this
decision should not be seen as taking away from his image as a black stud. Not
only does the image of the bohemian artist color his decision, he could also still
be thinking about Beatrice or that Mrs. Calvacanti is married and too old for
him.
Downtown 81 suggests as well that Jean has little tolerance for men
who could be perceived as having queer tendencies and mannerisms. In one
scene, an effeminate and perhaps too interested white man engages Jean in a
conversation while he waits for the bus. Although the anonymous man’s
conversation is not of an explicit sexual nature, the man tries to impress and
ingratiate himself to Jean and stands very close to him. The man instigates the
conversation by asking Jean if the “number one” bus stops here. When Jean
replies, “I don’t know, does it?” he tells Jean that it does and that he is “really
quite sharp, indubitably,” following his compliment with a smile. It is interesting
that the man compliments and smiles at Jean even though, rather than answering
his question, Jean gave him a rather curt and uninformative response. Jean
misses the man’s smile, however, because he is visibly agitated and
uncomfortable and eagerly looking up and down the street for the arrival of the