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More Art, Less Matter

Today on Tablet

by
Marc Tracy
March 25, 2011

The biggest problem with Julian Schnabel’s new film, Miral, argues Rachel Shteir today in Tablet Magazine, isn’t the subject matter or point of view, as some critics have alleged, but rather a highly imperfect matching of artist and subject.

All of Schnabel’s previous films succeeded to the extent that they did because they harness highly subjective moments of suffering to one character, who in turn drives the story. In Miral, the suffering is spread among four characters in four different eras, and none is highly individuated.



And none of them are artists. As filmic subjects, Schnabel is mostly drawn to men driven to make art as a way of speaking.

Maybe someone agrees? Page Six reports that Schnabel and his girlfriend, Rula Jebreal—the author of the novel on which the film is based—had a shouting match at a television studio yesterday.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.