I liked the film, but I didn’t love Guest of Cindy Sherman because I thought that the main problem was what made it great-the person making it was also the subject so he was too close to see that there were some terrific concepts that needed better organization in the documentary or perhaps needed to be two documentaries: one about the transformation of art from soul to commodity and about fame and relationships. Essentially Paul H-O is an unwitting treasure trove of a time period, New York life, the art world, celebrity, etc. but clothed in unassuming public access, unprofitable clothing. His gift is to unassumingly find greatness and just be casual and enthusiastic about it or vice versa (loved how he unintentionally enraged Julian Schnabel). Also it sounds like his art work had promise too & I feel like I saw his work in the past (study of frames instead of the work within the frames). The bigger story is his relationship with a great artist, whom he doesn’t disparage or turn into a dishy Tony Curtis so kudos to him for not being bitter just expressing his feelings and being introspective.
Even though people call him sexist for pointing out the problems of being the significant other to a great one because he says that he became a wife, he does highlight an actual problem: losing your identity, your ability to work independently by becoming supportive, pressure to be successful when you are in a relationship with a legend. Isn’t he just highlighting a problem that most women experience? The sexist part is that if he wasn’t a man in a relationship with a high-powered woman, the audience would be dismissive and say that the woman is too sensitive. He would be sexist if he asked her to become someone else or was unwilling to be in a relationship with her because she was successful. What I thought was interesting was that the only time that the more famous partner did the right thing was when Elton John put his foot down when it was brought to his attention.
Side note: the special features menu was frustratingly hard to navigate because it was so small and the differentiation between what was & wasn’t highlighted was indiscernible.