High Art

One of the best lesbian films of the 1990s, High Art is an emotional, thought-provoking drama set in New York’s downtown lofts which centers around a young (hitherto straight) woman’s sexual interest in a slightly older woman. Syd (Michell) is a vanilla-flavored, blonde-haired woman working as an intern at a high-powered photo magazine. But she’s far from happy just quietly climbing the corporate ladder by day and living with her sweet boyfriend at night. For she (much like a pretty fox stalking a chicken coop) finds her ticket to fame and lesbianism in the person of Lucy Berliner (Sheedy), a burned-out coupon-clipping ex-photographer living a decadent, druggy life with Greta (Clarkson), a German actress wafting through life on a cloud of drugs, cigarette smoke and memories of her fast-paced life as a Fassbinder actress. Syd’s repressed lesbian urges, are kicked into overdrive as she becomes entranced with the cool, thin Lucy. Their relationship sparks Lucy’s creative juices and offers a career opportunity for Syd. The only losers are their ex’s. A film that deserves to be seen twice although (or because) director Cholodenko sends out mixed signals on what love is and can be. Is love the close bond between two people, insular from outside influences (Lucy and Greta), or is driven by economic (capitalistic) forces (Lucy and Syd)? For this writer, the relationship of a burned-out Lucy with her nearly somnolent girlfriend Greta is far more romantic and in, an odd way, nurturing, than the career-oriented affair between Lucy and Syd, a relationship built on dishonesty (advance Syd’s career by signing her for the mag), deceit (get rid of the other woman), manipulation (get Lucy to stop drugs and reenter mainstream life, Lucy gets a second chance with a freshly-scrubbed young lass), and callousness (Syd’s use of her trying-to-be understanding boyfriend and Lucy’s painful indifference to Greta’s insouciant approach to their love). A film which offers intriguing ideas on the nature of love.