The lighting used in The Chelsea Girls is a performance in itself. This film would not have the same feel or impact if we saw these people with normal 3-point, un-colored lighting. There is also a lot of camera movement, something we aren't used to seeing from Warhol. But again, the film would not have the same affect or feel if it were a static camera.
Both the lights and the camera movement add to the sense of immediacy. It helps the audience to feel as if they were there, and not just there, but there in the same (drug induced, crazy, incredibly egotistical) state as those we are watching.
With the lights and the camera movement combined, as well as the double projection, it becomes a full visual experience instead of just watching/listening to some people talk about some crazy shit.
In regards to the split projection, sometimes you don't even notice the second screen, but other times I found myself dying to know what was happening on the silent projection and desperately wanted the sound to switch to the other projection.
Overall, on first viewing, it is an extremely overwhelming experience, although (if I wasn't trying to ward off a migraine) an enjoyable one.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Reading Response 5
J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Underground
1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?
Fashion Industries Auditorium, The Charles, The Thalia, The New Yorker, The Bleeker Street Cinema. The Charles Theater was more “seedy” than the other ones where the high class mixed with the lower classes. They also often played Ukranian films that were extremely popular, and started the cult tradition of midnight screenings.
2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?
Flaming Creatures, The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, Blonde Cobra, and Little Stabs at Happiness were associated with “Baudelairean Cinema”. He used that term because Baudelaire was a writer who helped to revolutionize world literature a century prior, and these films were “the real revolution in cinema” of that time. These films were not afraid to delve into delicate and dirty things, perversity, and they were without sexual inhibitions or inhibitions of any kind.
3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?
Underground films ran into trouble in NYC in 1964 because NYC was trying to clean up it’s act for the 1964 World’s Fair. Scorpio Rising encountered legal problems in LA the same day as Mekas’ second arrest in NYC.
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?
Warhol’s collaborations with Tavel culminated in actors who didn’t know their lines, were afraid of being in front of the camera, came and went whenever they wanted, all while the camera was pointed in their general direction and ran until the film ran out.
Vinyl, extremely loosely based on the novel A Clockwork Orange, was shot in real time with a single camera setup, performers read lines from cue cards. Edie Sedgewick stole the scene by simply being “spaced out” and present consistently at screen right to add to compositional balance.
5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?
Warhol’s, My Hustler, was to be his first popular success and was showed in midnight screenings at the Cinematheque. Then Chelsea Girls came out, and Newsweek called it “The Illiad of the underground” while the New York Times said Warhol was “pushing a reckless thing too far”. The Film-Makers’ Cinematheque was the main venue associated with the crossover, because it was too small to hold the number of people who wound up wanting to see Chelsea Girls. It then moved to theaters like The Regency and the Cinema Rendezvous. Chelsea Girls also played in LA, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Buffalo, Cambrige, Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis, as well as being invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?
Getz packaged programs of underground films and sent them to a circuit of movie houses owned by his uncle in 22 cities. They were immensely popular, and Getz is credited for introducing underground cinema to the American heartland.
7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?
None of them were again truly directed by Warhol after his attempted assassination, and they began to turn a lot more pornographic.
1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City? What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?
Fashion Industries Auditorium, The Charles, The Thalia, The New Yorker, The Bleeker Street Cinema. The Charles Theater was more “seedy” than the other ones where the high class mixed with the lower classes. They also often played Ukranian films that were extremely popular, and started the cult tradition of midnight screenings.
2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”? Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?
Flaming Creatures, The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man, Blonde Cobra, and Little Stabs at Happiness were associated with “Baudelairean Cinema”. He used that term because Baudelaire was a writer who helped to revolutionize world literature a century prior, and these films were “the real revolution in cinema” of that time. These films were not afraid to delve into delicate and dirty things, perversity, and they were without sexual inhibitions or inhibitions of any kind.
3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964? What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?
Underground films ran into trouble in NYC in 1964 because NYC was trying to clean up it’s act for the 1964 World’s Fair. Scorpio Rising encountered legal problems in LA the same day as Mekas’ second arrest in NYC.
4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel? What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl? How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?
Warhol’s collaborations with Tavel culminated in actors who didn’t know their lines, were afraid of being in front of the camera, came and went whenever they wanted, all while the camera was pointed in their general direction and ran until the film ran out.
Vinyl, extremely loosely based on the novel A Clockwork Orange, was shot in real time with a single camera setup, performers read lines from cue cards. Edie Sedgewick stole the scene by simply being “spaced out” and present consistently at screen right to add to compositional balance.
5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966? What films and venues were associated with the crossover? How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?
Warhol’s, My Hustler, was to be his first popular success and was showed in midnight screenings at the Cinematheque. Then Chelsea Girls came out, and Newsweek called it “The Illiad of the underground” while the New York Times said Warhol was “pushing a reckless thing too far”. The Film-Makers’ Cinematheque was the main venue associated with the crossover, because it was too small to hold the number of people who wound up wanting to see Chelsea Girls. It then moved to theaters like The Regency and the Cinema Rendezvous. Chelsea Girls also played in LA, Dallas, Washington, San Francisco, Buffalo, Cambrige, Houston, Atlanta, and St. Louis, as well as being invited to the Cannes Film Festival.
6. Why was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?
Getz packaged programs of underground films and sent them to a circuit of movie houses owned by his uncle in 22 cities. They were immensely popular, and Getz is credited for introducing underground cinema to the American heartland.
7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?
None of them were again truly directed by Warhol after his attempted assassination, and they began to turn a lot more pornographic.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Kiss and Mario Banana response
A theme I saw in both Kiss and Mario Banana was the blurring of gender roles. In the first male-male kiss in Kiss, it took me a minute to realize that the man on the bottom was, indeed, a man. By having so many heterosexual couples kissing, one assumes the theme will simply continue.
The same goes for Mario Banana, in the idea that we have a man, dressed as a woman, seducing, whom? Is he seducing a man? A woman? Another transvestite? I suppose he is attempting to seduce anyone who watches the film, which is why his gender is so ambiguous.
Overall, very ahead of its time pieces, and certainly ones that make us consider how we have been raised to view gender roles.
The same goes for Mario Banana, in the idea that we have a man, dressed as a woman, seducing, whom? Is he seducing a man? A woman? Another transvestite? I suppose he is attempting to seduce anyone who watches the film, which is why his gender is so ambiguous.
Overall, very ahead of its time pieces, and certainly ones that make us consider how we have been raised to view gender roles.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Reading/Viewing response 4
1. Briefly respond to one of the following Fluxfilms, which are on-line here:
14 Yoko Ono—One
I liked this fluxfilm better than the Yoko Ono one we watched in class that was filmed with a high speed camera of her “un-smiling”. This one I felt wasn’t quite so slow, and was actually quite intriguing to watch. It is something that we’ve all done. Light a match. But I would dare say very few of us have lit a match in slow motion. It’s taking a closer look at an everyday thing, which I enjoyed. I also like how the
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilms compatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
Fluxus does not fit with Sitney's argument on the American avant-garde because his argument is that the "American avant-garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind." Fluxus films are films that anyone can make and don't try to represent the human mind or psyche. Fluxus was more about the act of creating the art than the art itself and the ideology that goes into it.
Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
She was a diva actress whom many gay men could associate with, and she brought her “oppressed” audience into these fantasy worlds. Fantasy worlds that Jack Smith was so enthralled with and obsessed with in his own art.
The Montez films seem very staged, very old Hollywood. It’s a bit surprising that Smith was so taken aback by these films, yet at the same time, they hold the same aesthetic of being staged and dramatic and fanciful.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
It was an open and free environment where artists could work wherever they wanted on whatever they wanted. The artists of New York were more of a cohesive group. They attempted to create all the glitz and glamour of New York on a very small budget, so they would take things out of the dumpsters from behind department stores (mannequins, clothing, fabric, etc.)
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?
Jonas made as much money off Smith’s films (esp. Flaming Creatures) and give little or nothing to Smith. The “lobsterism” metaphor emerged that lobsters take and scavenge only for themselves.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?
He thought the real show was the actual filming, not the film itself. This goes along with the idea that film was supposed to be interactive, and the fact that artmaking was the art, and not the end result.
Warhol filmed Smith while he filmed Normal Love. A lot of Warhol’s sensibilities came from Jack, and a lot of current artists site Warhol as a muse, but not Jack. It serves as a sort of domino effect. Other people took things that Smith did and became more successful with it. For example, Fellini used a lot of Smith’s ideas and imagery in his films.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would play his own music at the showings of the films and edit it as the film was showing. I think “no more masterpieces” meant he would no longer finish anything completely, because then things could no longer be banned, and no one else could “take the travel” out of it like Mekes had done, and the only way it could be shown was on his terms.
He resisted commodification by doing the art only for himself and the experience. He saw ownership of things as “landlordism” and that people shouldn’t own property or things. He hated capitalism. But he would give free shows in his apartment for plays and whatnot.
Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?
Warhol’s first period was made up of silent, minimalist films which were extremely long, and static shots set up on a tripod. Sleep and Empire are both examples, as well as Kiss, Haircut, Blow Job, Eat, and Henry Geldzahler. These were more focused on the artform of what Angell calls “publicity” – an art form that Warhol pretty much created and capitalized upon.
The differences between Sleep and Empire are that Sleep was filmed from different angles and different intervals and was edited together by Warhol. Empire was a single shot on an entirely stationary camera of a subject that would also not move, The Empire State Building.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
The Screen Tests served as a strict example of Warhol’s style at the Factory and his filmmaking in general, in that, they exemplified his filmmaking as a “continuous, cumulative mode of serial production.” He was always making films of whomever decided to stop by, and very oftentimes in strikingly similar, if not identical, forms.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?
Warhol collaborated mainly with Ronald Tavel when it came to sound films. Some of the first films consist of Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. All of these but Vinyl were focused on Edie Sedgwick (although she was also in Vinyl) and her living her everyday life. These followed the portrait films that he had made all along. In these films, camera movement was much more readily used, and he tried to focus on non-acting, more documentary style.
14 Yoko Ono—One
I liked this fluxfilm better than the Yoko Ono one we watched in class that was filmed with a high speed camera of her “un-smiling”. This one I felt wasn’t quite so slow, and was actually quite intriguing to watch. It is something that we’ve all done. Light a match. But I would dare say very few of us have lit a match in slow motion. It’s taking a closer look at an everyday thing, which I enjoyed. I also like how the
2. Look up “Fluxus” and any of the Fluxus artists in the index of Visionary Film. Why are they not there? Are the Fluxfilms compatible with Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde?
Fluxus does not fit with Sitney's argument on the American avant-garde because his argument is that the "American avant-garde filmmakers aspire to represent the human mind." Fluxus films are films that anyone can make and don't try to represent the human mind or psyche. Fluxus was more about the act of creating the art than the art itself and the ideology that goes into it.
Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis
3. Chapter 4. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?
She was a diva actress whom many gay men could associate with, and she brought her “oppressed” audience into these fantasy worlds. Fantasy worlds that Jack Smith was so enthralled with and obsessed with in his own art.
The Montez films seem very staged, very old Hollywood. It’s a bit surprising that Smith was so taken aback by these films, yet at the same time, they hold the same aesthetic of being staged and dramatic and fanciful.
4. Chapter 5. What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated in to his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city so big they named it twice?]
It was an open and free environment where artists could work wherever they wanted on whatever they wanted. The artists of New York were more of a cohesive group. They attempted to create all the glitz and glamour of New York on a very small budget, so they would take things out of the dumpsters from behind department stores (mannequins, clothing, fabric, etc.)
5. Chapter 6. What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?
Jonas made as much money off Smith’s films (esp. Flaming Creatures) and give little or nothing to Smith. The “lobsterism” metaphor emerged that lobsters take and scavenge only for themselves.
6. Chapter 7. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love? How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class? What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?
He thought the real show was the actual filming, not the film itself. This goes along with the idea that film was supposed to be interactive, and the fact that artmaking was the art, and not the end result.
Warhol filmed Smith while he filmed Normal Love. A lot of Warhol’s sensibilities came from Jack, and a lot of current artists site Warhol as a muse, but not Jack. It serves as a sort of domino effect. Other people took things that Smith did and became more successful with it. For example, Fellini used a lot of Smith’s ideas and imagery in his films.
7. Chapter 9 and 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?
He would play his own music at the showings of the films and edit it as the film was showing. I think “no more masterpieces” meant he would no longer finish anything completely, because then things could no longer be banned, and no one else could “take the travel” out of it like Mekes had done, and the only way it could be shown was on his terms.
He resisted commodification by doing the art only for himself and the experience. He saw ownership of things as “landlordism” and that people shouldn’t own property or things. He hated capitalism. But he would give free shows in his apartment for plays and whatnot.
Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”
8. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share? What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?
Warhol’s first period was made up of silent, minimalist films which were extremely long, and static shots set up on a tripod. Sleep and Empire are both examples, as well as Kiss, Haircut, Blow Job, Eat, and Henry Geldzahler. These were more focused on the artform of what Angell calls “publicity” – an art form that Warhol pretty much created and capitalized upon.
The differences between Sleep and Empire are that Sleep was filmed from different angles and different intervals and was edited together by Warhol. Empire was a single shot on an entirely stationary camera of a subject that would also not move, The Empire State Building.
9. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?
The Screen Tests served as a strict example of Warhol’s style at the Factory and his filmmaking in general, in that, they exemplified his filmmaking as a “continuous, cumulative mode of serial production.” He was always making films of whomever decided to stop by, and very oftentimes in strikingly similar, if not identical, forms.
10. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films? What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?
Warhol collaborated mainly with Ronald Tavel when it came to sound films. Some of the first films consist of Vinyl, Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. All of these but Vinyl were focused on Edie Sedgwick (although she was also in Vinyl) and her living her everyday life. These followed the portrait films that he had made all along. In these films, camera movement was much more readily used, and he tried to focus on non-acting, more documentary style.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Reading Response 3
1. Post your response to Brakhage's Prelude: Dog Star Man.
In the beginning I saw some superimpositions of fire mixed with car headlights, and I saw this as fire being something from man's past, something primal, and headlights being man's present and something modern, and Dogstarman is going to be mixing the two. I also saw the footage of the mountain mixed in with images of the sun and the moon to say that climbing this mountain is going to be a very large job to tackle.
Even a mountain seems small in comparison to the sun. He then mixes in footage of blood cells, as if to say, something as tiny as blood cells are what will allow dogstarman to climb such a huge mountain.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form?
The End is a film about the end of the world, and synecdoche is representing a part for a whole. The film itself is a synecdoche, the film itself is a part of the end of the world. Brakhage took things like direct address and indirect narration from MacLaine and used them later in his own films.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner?
They both take on a sort of comedic or hopeful aspect at one point, Conner's moving in and out between the terrible and the ridiculous, while MacLaine's film gives gradual inklings of hope right before the end of The End.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form?
They portray the absured, anarchistic visions while providinga portrait of the Beat City of San Fransisco. The picaresque elements of their films makes them able to have a series of episodes, the middle of which could be endlessly expanded.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."]
They emulated old Hollywood films and sight gags that were used in old Chaplain films and other slapstick comedies. They also use the space of the film and overall just use it in ways that slightly poke fun at the others, they aren't trying to be entirely serious and introspective, but rather ironic. They also replaced the super personal aspects of Anger and Brakhage's films with things that were more institutional, or nothing at all.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms?
He means that things could easily be reproduced, and instead of slaving for hours over a few frames (like Anger or Brakhage) they could produce film 'by the yard'.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It showed that one didn't have to have much of anything to create a film. Just some clear leader and some dust and the film could make itself. It uses the materials of the cinema by using a projector, some clear leader film, and waiting to see what you see... something different everytime.
In the beginning I saw some superimpositions of fire mixed with car headlights, and I saw this as fire being something from man's past, something primal, and headlights being man's present and something modern, and Dogstarman is going to be mixing the two. I also saw the footage of the mountain mixed in with images of the sun and the moon to say that climbing this mountain is going to be a very large job to tackle.
Even a mountain seems small in comparison to the sun. He then mixes in footage of blood cells, as if to say, something as tiny as blood cells are what will allow dogstarman to climb such a huge mountain.
Sitney, “Apocalypses and Picaresques”
2. Why does Sitney argue that synechdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine’s The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form?
The End is a film about the end of the world, and synecdoche is representing a part for a whole. The film itself is a synecdoche, the film itself is a part of the end of the world. Brakhage took things like direct address and indirect narration from MacLaine and used them later in his own films.
3. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner?
They both take on a sort of comedic or hopeful aspect at one point, Conner's moving in and out between the terrible and the ridiculous, while MacLaine's film gives gradual inklings of hope right before the end of The End.
4. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form?
They portray the absured, anarchistic visions while providinga portrait of the Beat City of San Fransisco. The picaresque elements of their films makes them able to have a series of episodes, the middle of which could be endlessly expanded.
Bruce Jenkins, “Fluxfilms in Three False Starts.”
5. How and why were the “anti-art” Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger. [Hint: Think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada, and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain."]
They emulated old Hollywood films and sight gags that were used in old Chaplain films and other slapstick comedies. They also use the space of the film and overall just use it in ways that slightly poke fun at the others, they aren't trying to be entirely serious and introspective, but rather ironic. They also replaced the super personal aspects of Anger and Brakhage's films with things that were more institutional, or nothing at all.
6. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms?
He means that things could easily be reproduced, and instead of slaving for hours over a few frames (like Anger or Brakhage) they could produce film 'by the yard'.
7. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik’s Zen for Film “fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms”? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?
It showed that one didn't have to have much of anything to create a film. Just some clear leader and some dust and the film could make itself. It uses the materials of the cinema by using a projector, some clear leader film, and waiting to see what you see... something different everytime.
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