The private life of the artists has long aroused people’s curiosity, and their even more loving relationships, with numerous online books, exhibitions and lists addressing this particular aspect of culture. “They are like rock stars of the heart,” said filmmaker Jacob Perlmutter in a videochamada. “There is such a romantic quality in artists’ couples, and how human beings are attracted to it – see all the pieces and novels we consume!”
“The artists are eccentric, they put their emotions on screens to live,” continued Perlmutter, although he has reinforced that “any couple who share the same profession is interesting.”
Taking advantage of this fascination, a new documentary about Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett – he, the internationally renowned American street photographer, then 84, and she, 75, an English artist and self -published author – was released in the US at the end of 2024 and the United Kingdom on March 21.
On Christmas Eve 2021, Perlmutter and his current wife, photographer Manon Ouimet, moved to the couple’s house in Tuscany. The two couples would share this space (just like houses in New York and Cornwall) for a year, while Perlmutter and Ouimet sought to build a movie that answered the question: “What would it be like, for a couple of artists, to make a movie about another artist couple?”
Sailing for life, love and fame
The interest in artists’ couples cross generations. An article from 1933 on Frida Kahlo, who resurfaced a few years ago, was received with a collective revision of an eye: “Wife of the happily Dabla Master Master in works of art,” said The Detroit News headline, referring to an abyss between Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera. Fans were equally excited in 2010 when Ulay, former partner and collaborator of Marina Abramović, appeared in New York for “The Artist Is Present,” her resistance performance at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 20 years after her last meeting.
Perlmutter, a fan of Meyerowitz’s work, was also delighted when they met the couple in London, by chance, a few weeks after seeing Meyerowitz in a hardware store. “They had a magnetizing aura, they seemed to radiate,” Perlmutter recalled. “During the pandemic, I found Maggie’s blog: if the internet is a digital street, I bumped into her as I once bumped into Joel.”
“Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each OHER” (“two strangers trying not to kill”), which lends his name of a comment made by Meyerowitz at the beginning of the couple’s relationship for about 30 years, is the product of the Perlmutter and Ouimet experiment. Totally captivating, throughout the film there are reflections on love, life and especially death; Who will have an obituary at The New York Times when I die? In which country should their ashes spread? There are also moments of lightness, with music, dance and table tennis games.
“I was so excited. These glorious young creatives find us so interesting? What a fabulous adventure to board,” Barrett told CNN reporting their initial reaction to the couple’s invitation. “I’ve been invited a few times to participate in a movie and resist,” added Meyerowitz. “But there was something about Jacob and Manon together that it was so sincere, honest and with an open heart. Respect between us four was immediately evident.”
This feeling was echoed by Perlmutter and Ouimet, who saw in the couple a projection of their own potential history. “There was a mirroring happening, separated for 40 years of life. This has united us from the moment we talked at Zoom,” said Ouimet.
“The driving force for me, when embarking on this journey, was to see what a relationship was like at the end of life, and to witness what love is,” Ouimet continued. “We were just showing up, exploring, observing, talking, capturing; entering this space as two artists willing to see what we could create together; as a couple and as creative collaborators, we had no ego” “it was about playing – this allowed honesty and intimacy.”
This intimacy, combined with care, was a central component of the project, and established a sense of trust that enabled the recording of private and often suits (sometimes with filmmakers in the living room, sometimes with cameras left connected). In an initial scene, filmed in the first ten days of filming, Barrett and Meyerowitz are bending clothes, discussing their mortality. “Everything fitted (with that scene),” said Perlmutter. “How amazing, elegant and simple it might seem. How moving and raw, and how incredibly captivating these people were.”
“The imbalance has revealed itself”
While the language of the film was shaped by both artists – cinematography honors Meyerowitz’s framing (spontaneous but intentional) and Diogo Strausz’s soundtrack was derived from Barrett’s compositions – a main conductive wire revolves around the professional inequalities that permeate his relationship. In a career conversation with her friend, dancer Brenda Bufalino, Barrett recognizes on the screen the limitations imposed in her own career, adding that “she did not help, marry a famous man.”
Such discrepancies are naturally universal and extend far beyond the art world, but may seem especially accentuated to creative exposed to external recognition, particularly among heterosexual couples. Lee Krasner, for example, had already established his practice as an abstract artist when he met Jackson Pollock, but was eventually overshadowed by him, with his work routinely discussed in relation to his.
In addition, “Modern Couples”, which debuted at the Barbican Art Gallery of London in 2018 after a season at the Center Pompidou Musez-Metz in France, closely examined these issues, inconsistencies, and frequent sexism that accompanied different creative relationships in the twentieth century. He had almost 50 couples, including Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar, Georgia the KeeFe and Alfred Stieglitz, and Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst.
“We saw that exhibition and it touched us deeply to both,” Perlmutter offered. “The imbalance (in the movie) turned over over time. It is not something we are looking for, but we could recognize it in these day-to-day struggles-something happens, and this symbolizes the imbalance. The impact and branches of it were interesting, because what is so evident is that they are completely devoted to each other.”
In fact, in parallel with these underlying feelings of professional inadequacy, there is a relationship built on deep affection and admiration. “I love Maggie deeply and share everything with her, and we collaborated in several projects together, but yet there was an inequality there,” Meyerowitz acknowledged. “Seeing this described in the movie surprised both of us, and that it was such a striking feature of this movie.”
“It’s not that I didn’t know these things about myself now, but when you see them on the screen, yes, it reaches deeply,” added Barrett. Finally, through the movie, she reached a place of peace, he said. “In terms of my creative work, I felt very validated. As a result of working on it, and (this) being seen now by the public just like the filmmakers, I feel my own equality in the relationship. That was really a gift.”
Despite the film’s first wins, with awards and crowded screenings, neither Barrett nor Meyerowitz are totally convinced that the audience is really attracted to mythologized relationship dynamics like theirs. “If they are, it is partly because they want to see the ‘normal human being behind the artist’, not to have these couples in a pedestal,” said Barrett.
Meyerowitz added: “Artists are self-inventing. They are constantly questioning the meaning of their lives and the need for their work; endowed with this kind of investigative sensitivity, perhaps this is part of the artists’ rarity.”
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This content was originally published in famous couples: what happens when one is better known than the other? on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil

I’m Robert Neff, a professional writer and editor. I specialize in the entertainment section, providing up-to-date coverage on the latest developments in film, television and music. My work has been featured on World Stock Market and other prominent publications.