High Art

(Romantic drama - Color)

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Pic's central axiom is most intriguing: Chance encounters with "strangers" can lead to the most momentous decisions and radical changes in a person's life. Indeed, what can be more pivotal than a transformation of sexual orientation, or acquiring a new identity? An intricate meditation on the nature of love, careerism and self-sacrifice, Lisa Cholodenko's script, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance this year, revolves around two women whose paths cross - and lives change - as a result of a chance meeting in the building where both reside.

Protagonist is Syd (Mitchell), a young, idealistic and ambitious editor-in-training at Frame, a fictitious art photography magazine. Syd is romantically involved with James (Gabriel Mann), but, clearly, something basic is missing from their relationship. Taking a bath one day, she notices a leak from the ceiling and goes upstairs to complain about it.

Syd enters the apartment of her neighbor, Lucy Berliner (Sheedy), as an outsider, suspiciously observing the latter's friends as they go about their party routines with booze and drugs; it's hard not to notice the contrast between Syd's clean and naive world and Lucy's sophisticated, decadent one. It turns out Lucy is a once-celebrated photographer who curiously decided to retire in mid-career. Living with Greta (Clarkson), her heroin-addicted girlfriend and a former Fassbinder actress, Lucy plays host to an assortment of hard-living party kids. The two women, who lived in Berlin for a while, have relocated to New York so that Lucy could pursue her artistic calling.

A tentative friendship between Syd and Lucy evolves into a passionate affair. Initially, the two women come across as opposites. The much younger Syd strives to achieve professional recognition in an industry driven by fashion and hype, while Lucy is a disaffected photography prodigy who's seen and done it all. Hooked on heroin, the latter struggles over the possibility for a better future when Syd offers her the opportunity to shoot a Frame cover. The beauty of Cholodenko's writing is that she etches the evolving friendship, and the transformation of the two women, step by step, without any cheating. Lucy and Syd spend a lot of time together, but they don't jump immediately into bed. "High Art" may contain one of the most candidly scrutinized sex scenes in American film, showing both the heat and the awkward physicality between an older, experienced woman and a nervous, insecure novice.

Helmer also painstakingly dissects the culture of heroin chic and its implications. The complex bond, and inevitable conflict, among the three women echo the risks involved in drug addiction. In a marvelously staged scene that is almost too painful to watch, Lucy, who had previously determined to clean up her act, succumbs under pressure from Greta and does heroin again. This almost silent sequence captures the ambivalence many individuals feel when torn between self-interest and self-sacrifice, between protecting themselves from trouble and throwing themselves into dangerous situations to prove commitment to their longtime companions.

Compassionate and deft as Cholodenko's helming is, pic's overall impact largely depends on its central triangle. Sheedy, who for years has been associated with her '80s teen-angst movies, shakes up her old screen image entirely and emerges as a mature, highly disciplined actress. As her German lover, Clarkson excels in portraying an aging, disenchanted actress, desperately clinging to Lucy - and to drugs.

But the real revelation is the beautiful Mitchell, last seen in the Aussie romantic comedy "Love and Other Catastrophes." Her scenes with Sheedy are so truthfully touching that she's bound to win the hearts of young lesbians on the verge of coming out.

Supporting cast is uniformly good, with standout work from Broadway vet Tammy Grimes as Lucy's mother, who provides comic relief in her shrewdly written dialogue.

Camera (color), Tami Reiker; editor, Amy E. Duddleston; music, Shudder to Think; music supervisor, Tracy McKnight; production design, Bernhard Blythe; art direction, Caryn Marcus; costume design, Victoria Farrell; sound (Dolby), Noah Timan; associate producer, Lori E. Seid; assistant director, Kelly McKraig; casting, Billy Hopkins, Suzanne Smith, Kerry Barden. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 21, 1998. Running time: 102 min.