Matt Smith as the Photographer in First Full Trailer for 'Mapplethorpe'

"Even that which we deem obscene, you make look more beautiful than I thought possible." Indeed. Samuel Goldwyn Films has unveiled the first official trailer for Mapplethorpe, the new feature film about famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. This originally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, and played at a few other fests and is opening in US theaters next March. Mapplethorpe is a renowned photographer who was also feted with a fantastic documentary a few years back, titled Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. The narrative film went under the working titled The Perfect Moment, before they settled on simply Mapplethorpe. It's a look at the life of the gay photographer from his rise to fame in the 1970s to his untimely death from AIDS in 1989. Matt Smith stars as Robert, along with Marianne Rendón, John Benjamin Hickey, Brandon Sklenar, McKinley Belcher III, and Mark Moses. I'm a very big fan of Mapplethorpe, but unfortunately this doesn't look as good as I was hoping. I'll definitely still be watching it.

Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Ondi Timoner's Mapplethorpe, direct from YouTube:

Mapplethorpe revisits the titular photographer's legacy, beginning at the moment just before he takes up residence in the Chelsea Hotel. There, Mapplethorpe begins to amass a portfolio of images—and, at the same time, to explore his formerly supressed attraction to men. But Mapplethorpe's relentless ambition—as he says in one early scene, "I can't just be Mapplethorpe the photographer," fancying himself a "modern Michelangelo"—threatens to tear apart the relationships he cherishes the most. From the early ’70s until his untimely death at age 42, the film explores the intersection of his art and his sexuality, his struggle for mainstream recognition, and, looming above it all, the specter of the emerging AIDS crisis. Mapplethorpe is directed by American filmmaker Ondi Timoner, making her narrative debut after directing the docs Dig!, Join Us, We Live in Public, Cool It, and Brand: A Second Coming previously. The screenplay is by Ondi Timoner and Mikko Alanne, based on the original screenplay by Bruce Goodrich. This premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year, and also played at the Provincetown, Warsaw, and Stockholm Film Festivals. Samuel Goldwyn will open Timonor's Mapplethorpe in select theaters starting March 1st, 2019.