Interview with Grayson Perry | VPRO Documentary
171Interview with visual artist Grayson Perry (1960). Due to copyright limitations we don’t show the clips mentioned, but instead we describe them below.
Perry is known not only for his colorful vases and wall hangings, but also for the TV shows he produces. The British know him as Grayson, but also as Claire - Grayson in women's clothes.
00:00 Signs of the Times
Signs of the Times is a British television series made by the BBC in 1992. The series examines the good and bad taste in the British home and the extraordinary range of emotions that lie behind Britain's household choices. Over 2,000 people were interviewed before BBC cameras entered 50 homes to assess people’s perceptions of 'good' and 'bad' taste in everything from cuddly toys to duvet covers.
We see a younger couple, who love antiques, on the gray couch in their living room. They talk about the interior choices that they have made and what they think is good and bad taste.
14:59 The Mona Lisa Curse
The Mona Lisa Curse is a 2008 British documentary by art critic Robert Hughes which discusses the transformation of art into commodity. Hughes investigates how the world’s most iconic painting, the Mona Lisa, has influenced the world of art and traces the way money has distorted the market for art, starting in 1962 when the Mona Lisa made its historic first and last appearance in America. He explores the radical change in museums, art production and perception over the past fifty years, describing the rise of modern art and reflecting over a lifetime of writing and speaking about the art that he admires and detests. It explains how art superstars came about, why art’s monetary value skyrocketed, and the effect of these phenomena on the way we relate to art now.
26:20 Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Won't You Be My Neighbor? is a 2018 American documentary by Morgan Neville about the life and guiding philosophy of Fred Rogers, the host and creator of children’s tv show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. The trailer for the film debuted on what would have been Rogers' 90th birthday, March 20, 2018.
We see the beginning of the movie, where the birth of the show is explained. Fred Rogers is sitting at the piano and explains that he sees it as his duty to guide children when they find all kinds of obstacles in life. Rogers: ‘Love is at the root of everything. All learning, all parenting, all relationships. Love, or the lack of it. And what we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.’ Furthermore we see backstage footage of the early days of the show. Fred explains that a lot of the creativity was born out of necessity. At the end of the clip we see an animated tiger walking through a landscape and hear the voice of Fred explaining how in his childhood he suffered from many diseases, which made him use his imagination while laid up in bed.
38:33 What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? is a 1962 American psychological horror-thriller film directed and produced by Robert Aldrich. It follows an aging former child star tormenting her paraplegic sister, a former movie star, in an old Hollywood mansion. In this scene the former star Jane (Bette Davis) gets a call from the police and rushes upstairs, where paraplegic Blanche (Joan Crawford) is tied to the bed.
46:00 Big Mouth
Big Mouth is an American adult animated coming-of-age sitcom created for Netflix by Andrew Goldberg, Nick Kroll, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett. The series centers on teens based on Kroll and Goldberg's upbringing in suburban New York, with Kroll voicing his fictional younger self. Big Mouth explores puberty while "embracing a frankness about the human body and sex."
The clip Grayson shows was taken from the episode The Pornscape (season 1). We see Andrew Glouberman, a young boy who spends most of his time masturbating. Maury, a raspy-voiced monster who follows Andrew around and is responsible for his brooding sexual desires, which frequently occur at inappropriate moments, introduces Andrew to porn. At first he keeps getting distracted, seeing his high school crush Missy in between every scene, but eventually Andrew spends the whole night masturbating, in the morning his room is full of socks he used to masturbate.
55:15 - Another Year
Another Year is a 2010 British comedy-drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh.
The movie is about an older married couple, Tom and Gerri, who have a comfortable, loving relationship. Tom is a geologist, Gerri is a counsellor/therapist. The film observes them over the course of the four seasons of a year, surrounded by family and friends who mostly suffer some degree of unhappiness.
The scene Grayson chose is when Mary comes to visit. She seems drunk when she arrives, as usual, but gets even more drunk over the course of the evening. Mary is too drunk to drive home, so she stays over. In bed Tom and Gerri reflect on the evening.
We see Gerri and Tom together in bed, each reading a book, and later they cuddle.