Big eyes (2014)

Watched ‘Big eyes’ (2014) on Netflix.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

A Tim Burton biographical drama about American artist Margaret Keane of the 1950s and 60s who famously drew pictures and portraits of people with big eyes, and whose husband Walter Keane took credit for the creation of those paintings and their phenomenal success, until the lawsuit and trial, after which the truth was revealed and Margaret found freedom from years of oppression by a revoltingly unscrupulous man.

In 1958, Margaret (Amy Adams) leaves her husband and moves to San Francisco with her daughter Jane. She initially finds a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory.

One day, while creating portraits at a street art show, she meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) who happens to be selling his paintings of Parisian streets.

He proposes to her and they marry.

When asked why all the children in her paintings have big eyes, she says, ‘When I was little, I had surgery that left me deaf for a period and I couldn't hear so I found myself staring. I relied on people's eyes’

It is not easy to sell her paintings and they struggle but Walter uses his sales and marketing skills besides not so honourable tricks and connivances to sell her art. She is overjoyed at the sight of dollars, and when he says she can stay at home and paint while he will go out there and sell them, she readily agrees. But when she finds out he has been selling her art as his own work, she is upset. 

But the arrangement continues, because the money comes pouring in and it’s too late to let the world know the truth, says Walter.

To keep their secret, she locks herself up in her room while painting and even lies to her daughter about what she does in there.

One day, she finds out that even the Parisian scenes were not painted by Walter, but by another artist, that Walter is a bag of lies who knows nothing about painting.

He is awkward for a while when he is found out, but gets back again to intimidating her to paint for New York World’s Fair.

One day, when Walter drunkenly starts throwing lit matches at her and daughter Jane, the two run away to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Margaret asks Walter for divorce but Walter demands he will sign the papers only after she has given him the rights to every one of her paintings. And he doesn’t stop at that. He wants her to paint a hundred more of the Big Eyes!

Margaret agrees and begins mailing him the paintings.

One day, they are visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses who talk about truth and honesty. Both mother and daughter are impacted by the talk and keep mulling over the subject.

The next painting Margaret sends Walter is signed MDH Keane instead of the usual Keane. Also, Margaret goes on a Hawaiian radio show and reveals the complete truth of her paintings, making national news.

Walter gets a newspaper to print a story to claim Margaret has gone nuts.

Margaret sues both Walter and the newspaper. 

‘17 million dollars. The art world is abuzz. Today, at federal court, lawyers will present their opening arguments in the case of Margaret Keane vs. Walter Keane and Gannett Newspaper, a trial that could produce the largest libel and slander reward in Hawaiian history’

The newspaper is acquitted by the court since Margaret had herself stood by Walter’s claims of being the painter of Big Eyes, before her separation from him. 

However, Walter must still defend himself. 

Walter becomes his own lawyer and defendant and witness and makes a spectacle of himself.

‘I cannot stomach one more wild tangent or shaggy dog tale. You're not testifying, you're filibustering’, says the judge to Walter.

He then asks both to paint a Big Eyes painting in the courtroom in one hour to provide conclusive evidence of their claim. Margaret completes her painting, but Walter just sits there ‘waiting for inspiration’.

The closing credits state the following.

‘Walter never accepted defeat, insisting he was the true artist for the rest of his life. He died in 2000, bitter and penniless. He never produced another painting. Margaret found personal happiness and remarried. After many years in Hawaii, she moved back to San Francisco and opened a new gallery. She still paints everyday’

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All those who thought America was always progressive and cannot stop smirking at our Indian society, just read this.

‘I have never acted freely. I was a daughter, and then a wife, and then a mother’, says Margaret.

‘You were raised Christian, you know what we are taught. The man is the head of the household. Perhaps you should trust his judgment’ says the priest to Margaret when she confesses their ‘big lie’ to him and seeks his advice on right action. 

‘Sadly, people don't buy lady art’, Walter persuades Margaret when she is upset that he takes credit for her work.

‘We don't use my name since people don't take women's art seriously’, Margaret assures someone, perhaps her daughter or friend who finds out the truth.

‘Jehova's Witnesses. They don't celebrate Christmas, can't salute the flag. They won't even let Janie go to the prom’

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Lines noted…

‘I am not very good at tooting my own horn’

‘Walter filled the void in my life’

‘Walter has filled a lot of things. He's diddled every skirt on the art circuit’

Diddle – to cheat, swindle; hoax

(Slang) – copulate with

‘What can I do for you?’

‘I am just looking at the John (loo)’ 

(Masterpiece) 

‘Da Vinci has his Mona Lisa, Renoir has his Boatman's Lunch. Michael Angelo, Sistine Chapel’

‘Art should elevate, not pander’

‘Why does someone become a critic? Because he cannot create’

Kitsch (critic referring to the painting) 

Kitsch - something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste

‘I am concerned about my old pal. The Hawaiian heat may have cooked his brain’

#westerncinema