Backbeat film (2003)
A review by John A. Walker, the author of Art & Artists on screen.
This docudrama and rock ’n’ roll film is about two years in the life of a young British art student and bass guitar player called Stuart Sutcliffe (1940-62), who was of Scottish origin, and his participation in early manifestations of the Beatles before the group became world-famous and wealthy. Although Sutcliffe was a gifted visual artist, he died at such an early stage of his development it is extremely unlikely that a commercial feature film would have been made about him had he not been the “fifth Beatle”. He died from a brain haemorrhage on 10 April 1962 shortly before his 22nd birthday and so it is impossible to judge how good an artist he would have become. Even so, the evidence of his extant work is impressive; he was undoubtedly a promising painter.[1]
Several characteristics of the romantic myth of the modern artist are associated with Stuart Sutcliffe: a precocious talent, youthful beauty and cool style, and a tragic premature death. Furthermore, he took part in one of the most vibrant mass culture phenomena of the 20th century and his German girlfriend— Astrid Kirchherr— was an accomplished photographer and so produced moody black-and-white photographs of the intense bohemian isolated in his studio-garret and posing with other members of the band. In fact, these photographs inspired the future director of Backbeat to begin researching it.
Stuart Sutcliffe went to Liverpool College of Art in 1956 and it was there, some time later, that he met John Lennon. They became close friends (so close some commentators have detected homoerotic overtones). His student paintings inevitably reflected the influence of fashionable British and European painting: an early life-room nude was constructed with the slab-like impasto of Nicolas de Staël (Sutcliffe dubbed himself “Stu de Staël”); later abstracts with incised graffiti-like oval shapes bore the trace of Jean Dubuffet and 1950s’ Matter art; a muscular study of students in their common room was reminiscent of portraits by John Bratby. He also produced portraits in the style of Modigliani, a self-portrait in the style of Vincent van Gogh and a sinister, mask-like portrait of Lennon. Sutcliffe was attracted to both figuration and abstraction; which he would have finally chosen had he lived is an open question. At college, he wrote essays on the role of technique in art, on the symbolism of doors, and life drawing. His sketchbooks included a complex, colourful design paying homage to Elvis Presley that was almost post-modern in style. Presley was one of his heroes and he was to sing a version of Love me tender while performing in the Beatles.
The American actor Stephen Dorff played Stuart Sutcliffe and another American (though German-born), Sheryl Lee, played Kirchherr. Both gave credible performances but the outstanding performance was by Ian Hart, a British actor, as the abrasive, foul-mouthed and cynical— “It’s all dick”— Lennon.
Reference:
[1] See: Kay Williams & Pauline Sutcliffe. Stuart: The life and art of Stuart Sutcliffe. (Guildford: Genesis, 1996). This limited edition volume includes a facsimile sketchbook.
Stuart Sutcliffe - Backbeat: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
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