Lesbian classic High Art gets 4K restoration and screenings

The allure of romance on celluloid has been larger than life since Thomas Edison’s early experimental films in the late 19th century, some of which featured couples dancing and the first on-screen kiss.

Now the famed Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles is closing out its film series “A Century of Romance: Star-Crossed, On the Run, and Happily Ever” with the 4K restoration of The Kids Are All Right director Lisa Cholodenko’s stunning first feature, High Art (1998), followed by a discussion with Cholodenko and Out’s “holding space” viral interviewer, Tracy E. Gilchrist. The inclusive series has already screened the queer love stories My Beautiful Laundrette, Maurice, But I’m a Cheerleader, and Call Me by Your Name alongside films from the Classical Hollywood era including Now, Voyager and Adam’s Rib.

Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell in Lisa Cholodenko's High Art Courtesy

High Art dives into New York City’s art world and lesbian and drug subcultures, with an official synopsis that reads:

“Ally Sheedy stars as Lucy Berliner, a once-famous photographer, whose career is revitalized when she meets Syd (Radha Mitchell), a beautiful young assistant editor for a prestigious photography magazine. Withdrawn from the art world, Lucy is reawakened by Syd, who offers her the hope of escaping her drug-filled world. Before Syd realizes it, she is drawn into Lucy's seductive and dangerous mix while forced to make choices she never imagined.”

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In a love story for art and theory lovers, Sheedy and Mitchell’s Lucy and Syd begin a relationship over discussions of framing, lighting, and semiotics. “I haven’t been deconstructed in a long time,” Lucy tells Syd in one of their early meetings. Their connection is palpable as Syd free-falls into her first love affair with a woman, producing one of the film's most relatable sex scenes between women.

Ally Sheedy and Radha Mitchell in Lisa Cholodenko's High Art Andrew Lepley/Courtesy Strand Releasing

Meanwhile, Patricia Clarkson is a scene stealer as Lucy’s heroin-addicted girlfriend, a German actress trading on her success from working with gay auteur director Rainer Werner Fassbinder even though it's decades after his death.

A precursor to modern classics about art and looking like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, High Art explores the act of looking, muses, and first queer love through a lesbian lens. The film was digitally restored by the Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in conjunction with Sundance Institute from the 35mm original picture negative and DA-88 tapes.

“I've always been interested in photography, particularly the genre of personal photography, made by people who work with friends and non-professional models,” Cholodenko explained in an interview for the film’s original press materials.

“I've been friends with Jojo Whilden, who shot the photos that were used for Lucy Berliner's work, since the early 80's when we were students at San Francisco State, and I've been the subject of her photographs for many years, as were most of her friends and lovers through the past decade and a half. Jojo's work is very much a part of that aesthetic,” she added.

High Art screens at the Egyptian in Los Angeles Wednesday. Buy tickets here.