Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman (Robert-Adrian Pejo, 1997)

This documentary is not for the faint at heart. I had never heard of Joe Coleman until I saw this film, although his paintings look familiar. His life could be classified as an ongoing freak show. And yet his is a torn and confused life. Torn between the mythologized figures of his departed parents and a perverted perception of Jesus Christ. The image of Joe in his quietude, meticulously decorating his painting of murderer Ed Gein whilst surrounded by oddities usually reserved for Ripley's Museums and traveling side shows in his New York apartment says much about his person. How does a person become mired in the world of murderers, the macabe and masochistic tendencies? His story is presented in meticulous detail through his paintings. Each work of art that he produces is deeply personal. Coleman is vocal both in speech and in his work speaking out against the cancer he calls cities, sexual perversion, divorce and violence; and yet these are the very things which infect his own existence. In the movie Taxi Driver, Betsy (Cybill Shepard) calls Travis (Robert de Niro) a "walking contradiction." In many ways Coleman is this as well; and yet he is not - for he exists amidst the oddities. Ironically, Coleman played a de Niro look-a-like in a recent film. As a film the Coleman documentary flips between interviews, archival footage/photos, and staged sequences with Coleman as the star. There are several segments with Coleman and director Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law, Stranger Than Paradise) in a Catholic Church. I think the goal was to have the two discuss the role of faith and the church in Coleman's life. Unfortunately Jarmusch, sporting his Route 666 tee shirt, knows nothing about Catholicism, faith or Jesus Christ. The discussion on faith is thus lackluster, lowering itself to talk about spitting on church grounds and faked confessions. A better look into Coleman's own twisted perceptions of Christ can be found in his book the Man of Sorrows in which he illustrates a variety of apocryphal and Biblical texts to which he has chosen to ascribe. I found this portrait of an artist interesting because of the faith element in it. Coleman wants to be a Job-like figure who is tormented in life and yet retains some semblance of faith and belief. While his exploits push him to the fringe of darkness and despair; he still has a lingering attachment to the church. This dichotomy between corrupt and Christian; sacred and profane is something he portrays in his paitings (dad/mom; sinner/saint; skin/bones; naked/clothed) - and so Joe Coleman seems torn in life as well as on canvas.