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The fiction films of Terry Zwigoff have all had a dark satirical bent to them that I love. What makes the comedy so special is the honesty that lies underneath. From GHOST WORLD’s look at high school grads entering the “real world” to BAD SANTA’s skewering of Christmas greed, there is a bite to his work that stings as only hard truths can. Now with ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL, Zwigoff, reteaming with his GHOST WORLD screenwriter Daniel Clowes, takes a stab at art education and the larger modern art world in general.

Jerome (Max Minghella, SYRIANA) has lived in his art this whole life. He dreams of gaining fame and fortune through his paintings. But harsh realities set in when he arrives at college. His teacher Prof. Sandiford (John Malkovich, DANGEROUS LIASON) is a struggling painter himself, trying desperately to get a new show off the ground at every moment of the day. He tells Jerome that it has taken him 25 years to reach his current triangle period. Perpetual dropout Bardo (DODGEBALL) shows Jerome the collection of art school stereotypes from art chicks to hippies to butt kissers. Jerome’s view of his own future only gets dimmer when he meets former art school grad Jimmy (Jim Broadbent, IRIS), who now wallows his life away drunk in his filthy rent controlled apartment in the ghetto. The only bright spot for Jerome is Audrey (Sophia Myles, TRISTAN & ISOLDE), a beautiful daughter of a popular artist who poses nude for the aspiring artists. However, the world seems to spiral out of control as a serial murderer stalks campus and Audrey and the rest of the university fall in love with the crude paintings of pretty boy Jonah (Matt Keeslar, WAITING FOR GUFFMAN).

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The first time I say MY FAIR LADY I did not like it. Henry Higgins pretentious snobbery infuriated me. I felt that the film was as elitist as he was. The parts that I enjoyed were the ones where Eliza fought back. Later I would read Roger Ebert’s Great Movie review of the film and he made a key point that made me want to rewatch the film. The point is — Eliza chooses to better herself. She wants the finer things in life and is willing to take Henry’s abuse to achieve it. Since reading his review I have seen the 1938 adaptation of PYGAMALION, which is the George Bernard Shaw play that MY FAIR LADY is based on. And now that I have seen the musical a second time, I see the brilliance of MY FAIR LADY more fully.

Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn, BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S) is a poor flower girl with a thick cockney accent. One night as the opera lets out she runs into Prof. Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS), a linguist who can determine exactly where someone was born just by their speech. He brags that he could teach Eliza proper English so she could get a job as a proper shop girl. The next day Eliza comes to Henry’s house and asks to pay for lessons. Always ready for a challenge Henry takes a bet from his fellow linguist Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White, THE THIRD MAN) that he can pass Eliza off as a princess at a royal ball.

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Set in the bayous of Louisiana in 1962, the film launches with a voice over about memory and murder. The whole film is the reflection of a grown up Eve on her life as a ten-year-old girl — the year she killed her father. This admission sets the tone simmering with family secrets woven together by sex and violence. Just like her confession though, nothing is simple in this family drama, because the truth lies somewhere between various points of view and is clouded by the haze of time.

Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett, ROLL BOUNCE) was named after a slave who saved her master’s life and then gave him 16 children. Her family has lived on a vast plantation for decades since. Her father Louis (Samuel L. Jackson, PULP FICTION) is a doctor, who makes house calls to the lonely women in town. Eve is jealous of the way her father favors her teenage sister Cisely (Megan Good, WASTE DEEP). Louis’ philandering creates a volatile storm with his beautiful wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield, THE JOSEPHINE BAKER STORY), who is good friends with her husband’s sister Mozelle Delacroix (Debbi Morgan, COACH CARTER), who has the gift to see the future, however it has never worked for her, whose three husbands have all died tragically. The way Lenny Mereaux (Roger Guenveur Smith, DO THE RIGHT THING) discovers that his wife Matty (Lisa Nicole Carson, TV’s ALLY MCBEAL) has been sleeping with Louis will change the family forever.

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