We are generally fascinated with boorish, self-adulating filmmaker/artist Julian Schnabel. Much like Vincent Gallo, you love to hate his pretentiously awesome, hilariously arrogant and douchey ways (must be a downtown New York artist thing).
There’s many things to love about the director of “The Diving Bell & The Butterfly”: he’s a big hairy teddy bear that loves to wear pajamas under his blazers; he has a mousy effeminate voice; he’s a notorious blow-hard name-dropper, he built a large pink eyesore building in the middle of New York City named the Palazzo Chupi; he’s got a litter of kids he can barely remember the names of; and as Intelligencer points out, he appears to have no internal monologue filter whatsoever.
He’s always spouting off some deliciously churlish and audacious bon mot – he also once famously declared that he was “as close to Picasso as you are going to get in this fucking life.” (you’ll remember at the New York Film Festival he claimed the 2006 Cannes Film Festival Palm d’Or award was rightfully his and he was robbed). His latest? His thoughts on ‘Diving Bell’ not earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture (though he did get a Best Director nod and the film took a bunch of nominations).
“Do I think that I made the best picture? I’d be lying if I said I didn’t. But does it mean you win an Academy Award? No. How long did Martin Scorsese wait to get an award for best director? Years after making ‘Raging Bull,'” he told the Hollywood Reporter comparing himself to Marty.
He also just recently told a London Telegraph reporter about the glowing ‘Diving Bell’ reviews. “Have you read them? If my mother wrote them they couldn’t be nicer.”
Man, he rules. Every unfiltered phrase that comes out of his mouth is a joy to behold. We’re rooting harder for ‘Butterfly’ than any other film at the Oscars this year (it’s a wonder of nature that this guy can make something as beautiful as that film) aside from “There Will Be Blood,” and the few nods that “The Assassination of Jesse James” got.