Big Eyes

When work commitments prevented John Hurt from coming to Keswick this year, we asked if he'd like to choose a film to show at the festival. He's selected Big Eyes, a Tim Burton film that he feels has been unkindly reviewed and is keen to promote.

Big Eyes tells the outrageous true story of one of the most epic art frauds in history. In the 1960s, painter Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) had reached success beyond belief, revolutionizing the commercialization of popular art with enigmatic paintings of waifs with big eyes. The bizarre and shocking truth would eventually be discovered: Walter’s works were actually created by his wife Margaret (Amy Adams). The Keanes, it seemed, had been living a colossal lie that had fooled the entire world.