Boogie Woogie
Posted at 8:23 AM (PDT) on Wednesday, August 27, 2008

"Just wrapped Boogie Woogie on Friday, one of the funnest set experiences I think I've ever had. Not sure if I've ever worked on such a small budget and yet felt that everything was running smoothly and would be okay. Really great bunch of people. ...Wish they'd hurry up and release it." -- Gillian Anderson (Nov. 5, 2007)

Top-notch cast lined up for art world spoof

By Francesca Martin
The Guardian, UK

The contemporary art world had better brace itself - it's set to be lampooned this autumn in Boogie Woogie, a new film featuring a top-notch cast. Directed by the documentary maker Duncan Ward (husband to art curator Mollie Dent-Brocklehurst), the film takes a wry look at the machinations of a London-based art dealer and his cohorts, and looks certain to raise eyebrows in Cork Street and beyond.

Danny Huston, star of 30 Days of Night and The Kingdom, is Art Spindle, an art dealer who covets Piet Mondrian's abstract expressionist painting Broadway Boogie Woogie - owned in the film by the collector Alfred Rhinegold, played by Christopher Lee. Problems ensue when Rhinegold, who bought the painting from Mondrian himself, refuses to sell it. Other famous faces include Joanna Lumley, Charlotte Rampling, Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Simon McBurney and Jaime Winstone.

Due to be released in November*, Boogie Woogie is based on the novel of the same name by Danny Moynihan, the writer, curator and friend of the artist Damien Hirst, who himself created a limited-edition cover for the book, featuring works by Sarah Lucas, Marc Quinn and Jeff Koons. Moynihan has written the screenplay and is also a producer on the film. Such are Moynihan's contemporary art connections that when the book was published in 2000, even the elusive dealer Charles Saatchi contributed a jacket comment, saying: "No sleep for you the night you open it!"