MovieChat Forums > Big Eyes (2014) Discussion > I don't get why it took so long to prove...

I don't get why it took so long to prove who the real painter was


Why not go "Let me demonstrate in front of all you guys how I paint them" from Day 1?

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I don't know. Not familiar with the entire story. Perhaps the films will shed some light...

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The real guy threatened her and constantly locked her in the basement, forcing her to paint against her will.

"Freeze your brain, suck on that straw, get lost in the pain." - Official Corn Nut

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Thing I don't understand about doing that to prove who did what, wouldn't a good painter be able to imitate some else's work?

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I may be wrong here but I don't think he really was a good painter. He just wrote the name on it.

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[deleted]

It frustrates me that there seemed to be a lot of evidence proving it was her all along; her daughter, the other people she painted, Rueben-who was told in the very beginning, the flyers that SHOWED her painting them, etc. But hey, I guess it worked out in the end

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Gotta remember too that there were some in the art world, in publication, and various celebrities & public figures, all who were publically invested in Walter Keane as the artist, at that time.

Their embarrassment (and possibly financial investment) regarding all the attention they had given HIM & his stories surrounding the artworks, and then his potentially being 'outed', would have been enough for some to try stifle any murmurings that he was a fraud. He had quite the cache of fame & the famous going on there for awhile.

Plus, this was before the internet and was much more of a naïve time.





"Shake your hair girl with your ponytail"

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Because he couldn't. There's a scene where Margaret discovers S. Cenic's paintings.

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***MOVIE SPOILER***



I read on Wikipedia that she actually challenged Walter to a paint-off but he didn't show up. So, it went to court and the judge did in fact make them paint and Walter said his shoulder hurt and he couldn't paint. lol...

So, she tried to prove it was her but Walter was so established as the one who did it that it made it harder for her to get the word out.

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Well, it didn't take long at all, once she decided to leave the marriage and financial arrangement and challenge him legally, it took an hour in court for the judge to rule in her favor. What took a long time was the leaving.

Because in the years leading up to the breakup, there was an odd mixture of gaslighting and mental abuse on his part, and a supremely successful professional partnership. I mean financially they were one of the 20th century's great success stories, she made these kitchy paintings and he sold them, she was a painter that the public loved for a hot minute, and he was a very able salesman, so if they'd both been cynical enough to value fame and money more than their feelings, and they had struck a fair financial bargain, they both could have been happy with their "arrangement". But no, he had to bring the mental abuse and gaslighting into it...

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