Reading Response 5: Due Oct. 27 @ 5 p.m.

Sitney, “Structural Film”

Visionary Film, Chapter 12

You may find it helpful to read the first few pages of the other assigned reading for this week (James Peterson, “Rounding Up the Usual Suspects”) before tackling this chapter, focusing particularly on p. 72-76. Read that overview, which will review key concepts from the first half of this class, then tackle this chapter and answer the following questions.

1. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics?

The avant garde of Deren, Brakhage, and Anger was a more complex and dense form of avant garde. The structural film is a cinema of structure in which the shape of the whole film is predetermined and simplified.

Avant-garde according to Sitney is the representation of the human mind in all its depth, especially the minds of the artists, whose powers of imagination and vision enable them to see the conflicts raging within themselves and between them and society.

Structural film is seen as a development out of the formal film. Structural film develops from lyrical film, like lyrical film developed from the trance film. The structural film insists on its shape, and what content it has is minimal and subsidiary to the outline. Four characteristics of structural film:

Fixed camera position

The Flicker effect

Loop printing

Rephotography off the screen

If avant garde film is the reproduction of the human mind, then the structural film approaches the condition of meditation and evokes a state of consciousness without mediation; that is, with the sole mediation of the camera.

What is meant by “apperceptive strategies”?

the process of understanding something perceived in terms of previous experience. In Brakhage’s art, perception is a special condition of vision, most often represented as an interruption of the retinal continuitu. However in structural cinema, apperceptive strategies come is the cinema of the mind rather than the eyes.

2. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class.

The central metaphor would be the human mind and consciousness for structural film. If avant garde lyrical, myth, and trance is displaying human tendencies, the structural is about the mind.

3. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film?

When Warhol was making films, he was indifferent to direction, photography and lighting. He could turn the camera on and walked away. He entered the film world with total commitment. He took the knowledge he studied from Brakhage, Anger, and Smith, and built upon the simplicity of expressions of the mind. Warhol’s Empire uses 3 out of the 4 characteristics of structural film.

4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:

Warhol made his films simple using static camera, loop printing, and rephotography (frozen frame) but the what the film was trying to convey as a structural film is of the mind. Simple – in Sleep he records for hours a man sleeping. Complex – why was he recording this man? What is this man dreaming about? Is this what I look like when I’m sleeping?

a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?

Warhol advertised his indifference to direction, photography and lighting. It is anitormantic since it locates the world of art’s richness not in Bauldelaire’s “Elsewhere” but in the here and now. I could expand on the “here and now” statement, thinking about Vinyl and wanting the cast to read cue cards, messing up the actors on purpose, and keeping a lot of the “mistakes”. Warhol wants to be transformed into an object himself.

b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?

Warhol as a pop artist is spiritually the opposite from the structural film-makers. Warhol eventually abandoned the fixed camera for a type of in-the-camera-editing. For Snow and Gehr, the camera is fixed in a mystical comtemplation of a portion of space, which Warhol broke away from.

c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?

I feel like it means there are so many ways to view the experience that Warhol provides. The reflexive qualities of something as simple as Haircut or staring at the Empire building for 8 hours. This relates back to Structural film in the human nature of getting a haircut or touring a city and looking up at the building, or even going to a museum and staring at a picture. Structural is film is about the human mind and engaging with it, which Warhol busted wide open, even with his Screen Tests.

d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?

Warhol’s film relate to the avant-garde trance/myth/lyrical through his creativity and challenging the mind while focusing on human tendencies but take it a step further with the long takes and close interactions with what is being filmed. He is focused on individual items. He was the first filmmaker to try to make films which would outlast a viewer’s initial state of perception. His films challenged the viewer’s ability to endure emptiness or sameness.

5. On p. 352 Sitney begins an analysis of the Wavelength rooted in conveying the experience of watching it; this style of analysis is admittedly hard to read without having seen the film (we’ll discuss this style of analysis in class). Try your best so that you can answer the following question related to p. 354: What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength?

For the rest of the chapter, focus on the discussions of the following films:

Paul Sharits: T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G

George Landow: Film in Which There Appear Edge Lettering, Sprocket Holes, Dirt Particles, Etc.

James Peterson, “Rounding Up the Usual Suspects”

[Found in "Kreul Articles" folder on your flash drives]

The following questions ask about three reading strategies for the minimal strain of the avant-garde. They are all previewed on p. 77. Your answers should incorporate details from the subsequent discussions of them (see page numbers in the parentheses).

The films of the minimal strain apparently violate the principle of optimal relevance.

6. What is the reading strategy associated with the “phenomenological schema” (include details and examples from 77-80)?

The critic interprets the film as presenting itself to the direct perception of the viewer, developed by Annette Michelson.

For Michelson, Snow’s work is the paradigm case of the link between cinema and consciousness.

Snow’s One Second in Montreal is thought of by Michelson as “the flow of time is somehow inscribed in the filmic image, immediately given, perceptible in our experience of it”.

Also, Wavelength, it is suggested that the film represents consciousness as well as directly presenting it (zooming?, slow motion) The action of the camera is the action of the consciousness.

7. What is the reading strategy associated with the “art-process schema” (include details and examples from 80-85)?

Derived from the aesthetics of composer and teacher John Cage. Cage advocated blurring the lines between “art” and “life”. The art-process schema, the production of an innovative film is seen as a demonstration of the rigidity of the conventional process of filmmaking.

With such examples as Brakhage Mothlight, the viewer can recognize the dual nature of cinema as simultaneously an artifact and performance. One would have to visually look at the film strip for further research. There are four potential causes that direct the attention away from the screen and to the physical object in the projector:

· A high rate of information change on the screen

· Poor legibility

· Cognizance of the film’s facture

· An intuition that a look at the film strip would help to explain the other three features.

The viewer watches the film, then wonders how the filmmaker did it.

The strategy of including a wide range of materials rests on two aesthetic principles:

· Most material in our everyday world has aesthetic value

· Removing the aesthetic from the object produced and affixing it to the process that produces it (wondering how the filmmaker did it)

This leads to the nature of the film process, they want the viewer to be less susceptible to the films that hide the processes of production.

Side note: “Formal” film – metaphorical association of the earlier avant-garde.

Mothlight considered a political act that resists authority.

For Arthur, the Structural film is an act of aesthetic and political resistance.

Sitney views avant-garde as apolitical and evolutionary.

8. What is the reading strategy associated with the “anti-illusion schema” (include details and examples from 85-90)?

Any film image with limited depth cues is interpreted as an assertion of inherent qualities of the film medium, derived from the work of Clement Greenberg. Any element that does not produce a three-dimensional space, is read as a demonstration of the inherent flatness. Painting is pigment on a flat surface, and according to Greenberg should only be this.

Reading Response 4: Due Oct. 13 @ 5 p.m.

First, write a brief response to the Ann Buchanan screen test. How is it similar to / different from the Fluxus films screened in class?

Similar to other fluxus films, there is the simplicity of Ann just sitting there not moving. I can’t imagine sitting that still for that long. Then I see her crying and I wonder, is she crying out of pain? Or is she crying because logically she knows that she has to wet her eyes somehow or else she will blink? When she is that still, my mind wanders onto her facial features, lips, eyes, eyebrows, etc. By her subtle facial expressions I feel I can almost understand what she is thinking. As we spoke of in class, it’s like looking at a picture. But far more information if you look at her slight changes of the face. We can see her crying, swallowing after a tear drops her head slightly rock forward, the creases of her lips turn up/down trying to keep the same pose.

I hadn’t thought about a crying doll as mentioned by JJ Murphy, but since mentioned I can certainly see the comparison.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhYfCWd5XQ0 (I would advise muting the recently added music track).

You might find this blog post by JJ Murphy (my advisor back in Madison) interesting and/or helpful

http://www.jjmurphyfilm.com/blog/?p=82

J. Hoberman, Jonathan Rosenbaum, The Underground

1. What were some of the venues associated with the early underground film movement in New York City?

Fashion Industries Auditorium, the Charles, Thalia, the New Yorker, Bleeker Street Cinema, some of the less popular venues around the slum neighborhood soon to be known as the East Village, and Vanderbeek’s own American Underground Cinema (floating venue) sometimes shown in Living Theater.

What were some of the unique characteristics of the Charles Theater and its programming?

An eclectic program, very wide range of films. Opening to other venues of art, local artists, jazz concerts, silent films, panel discussions, and additional screenings of cultish films. Basically, they tried to have something for everyone. Also, Charles began holding monthly open screenings, and to get in you either had to pay or bring a film. Being at the screenings was like a party or social gathering with uninhibited patrons, most outsiders were impressed.

2. Which filmmakers did Jonas Mekas associate with the “Baudelairean Cinema”?

Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith), Queen of Sheba meets the Atom Man (Ron Rice), Blonde Cobra (Ken Jacobs), and Little Stabs of Happiness (Ken Jacobs).

Jack Smith in Ken Jacob’s Little Stabs at Happiness.

Why did Mekas use that term, and what were the distinguishing characteristics of the films?

Mekas described these films as “the real revolution in cinema today.” He felt these films were comparable to the striking movement/experience of Charles Baudelaire. These films tread on the very edge of perversity; the artists are without inhibitions, sexual or any other kind.

3. Why did underground films run into legal trouble in New York City in 1964?

At the Gramercy Arts, police regularly harassed the filmmakers and patrons b/c the films exhibited were not submitted to the NY State Board of Regents for licensing, therefore making it illegal to charge admission for their exhibition.

Later, NY City was cleaning up for the upcoming 1964 World’s Fair. Many village coffeehouses and off-Broadway theaters were closed, and several filmmakers arrested for exhibition of obscene films.

What film encountered legal problems in Los Angeles almost on the same day as Mekas’s second arrest in New York City?

Mike Getz was found guilty for exhibiting the “obscene film” Scorpio Rising at the Cinema Theater.

4. What were some of the defining characteristics of Andy Warhol’s collaboration with Ronald Tavel?

Warhol purchased the rights to A Clockwork Orange, and Tavel “adapted” the novel, and it turn made the film Vinyl.

What were some of the unique characteristics of Vinyl?

It was shot in real time with a single camera setup; the performers read from cue cards, Warhol stuck Edie Sedgwick in the film at the last minute.

How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl? (You may choose to add your own observations of the film based on our screening.)

She arrived after shooting was underway. She just sat there smoking a cigarette, but her eyes stole attention from the others onscreen. Personally, I noticed that though pretty to look at, the reason she “stole” part of the scene is bc while sitting there, she continued to knock props off the trunk and look like she wasn’t sure why she was there or she looked uncomfortable, not knowing what her part was in being there.

5. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966?

The films went through a drug phase, of Psychedelic (LSD) festivals and drug crazed Factory superstars until Warhol’s The Chelsea Girls in 1966.

What films and venues were associated with the crossover?

By the fall of 1967, The Chelsea Girls had been shown in numerous large cities such as San Francisco, Buffalo, Atlanta, Houston, Boston, etc. even invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Its first opening was at the Film-makers Cinematheque, then the Regency, and onto Getz’s Underground Cinema 12.

How were the films received by the mainstream New York press?

NY Times Mike Bosley Crowther wrote a negative review of Warhol saying, “it is time for permissive adults to stop winking at their too-precious pranks.”

6. Why was Mike Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?

Getz’s Underground Cinema 12 played in twenty-two cities, being responsible for introducing underground movies to the American heartland, providing the platform for the midnight-movie explosion of the 1970s.

7. How do Hoberman and Rosenbaum characterize Warhol’s post-1967 films?

After The Chelsea Girls, Warhol and Morrissey were quick to produce four nudity filled features.

They characterize his post 1967 films as a career proven to be a catalytic figure in the history of on-screen sexuality. Until he was shot by Valerie Solanis in 1968 (she sounded deranged).

Robert Pike, “Pros and Cons of Theatrical Bookings”

[in folder: notes_from_the_creative_film_society_pros_and_cons_of_theatrical_booking]

8. What were some of the advantages and disadvantages to the move from non-theatrical to theatrical bookings for experimental films?

Advantages: money (make a profit), show a nude female, prestige, and filmmakers could find financial support.

Disadvantages: wear and tear on prints, sloppy handling of the prints,

9. What issues developed concerning non-exclusive and exclusive representation by distributors?

Non-exclusive would give the filmmaker the best coverage of showing his film in many areas, with each venue having their own loyal customers.

With exclusive representation they are able to demand the highest possible rates for the films. Theatrical released films are more reliable on play dates and professional, they are there to earn revenue.

10. What problems did the Creative Film Society run into with devious theater owners?

False advertising by the Rivoli Theater, advertising the films of Uptown Theater but actually playing “beaver” films. Also, Esquire Theatre chopped up a couple of the prints through sloppy handling and was slow to pay for everything.

Read Response 3: Due Oct 7

Reading Response 3: Due Oct. 7 @ 5 p.m.

1. Respond to Chieko Shiomi's Disappearing Music for Face. How does the minimalism and duration of the film affect your engagement with the image?

This reminds me of the walk Matt Damon takes in Gerry. I watched for any change, even the smallest, in the facial expression. At times I caught my attention falling away, but that’s just part of my attention span in general. I would look at the shading of face as the image became darker. Then I thought...I wonder what lights they are using? Do they have a dimmer switch? Did they use it? There’s a dimple on the face, I wonder if it’s on the other side too? Etc…my imagination took off after I got past looking for any kind of movement or my normal expectations of a 11 min narrative. (p.351, by sheer dint of waiting, the persistent viewer would alter his experience before the sameness of the cinematic image.

How does the film relate to the following issues:

a. Maciunas's definition of art vs. his definition of "fluxus art-amusement"

Simplicity and humor were part of Maciuna’s definition of art. Disappearing Music for Face was very simple, only the face with a static camera. Other artists of the time we more serious about the meanings behind the films and perhaps felt they were the only ones that could make films. However, Maciuna’s films illustrated that anyone could make a film.

b. art as object vs. art as performance and activity.

The comparison is in regards to not so much the end result of the John Pollack’s painting, but the Art as performance and activity is compared to the hand movements used in John’s Pollacks paintings.

So as this movie is based on the film medium itself and Pollacks is based on exploiting the canvas.

“De-valuing the art object, and valuing activity and performance”

http://www.ubu.com/film/fluxfilm.html

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?

Paul Sharits is in the index. However, yes the others are not there, nor Fluxus. The goal of avant-garde “is often to place the viewer in a more active and more thoughtful relationship to the film. The genre’s more typical features - such as a non-narrative, impressionistic or poetic approaches to the film's construction”

First, Sitney (p. 347) says, “the most significant development in the American avant-garde cinema…was the emergence and development of what I have called the structural film; a movement toward increased cinematic complexity.” (Anger, Brakhage, Maya Deren). Sitney argues filmmaker’s such as Paul Sharits have produced an opposite to prior mentioned, “a cinema of structure in which the shape of the whole film is predetermined and simplified.”

Wikipedia “Fluxus artists used their minimal performances to highlight their perceived connections between everyday objects and art….Also contributing to the randomness of events was the integration of audience members into the performances, realizing Duchamp's notion of the viewer completing the art work.” We saw this is Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1964).

Fluxus creators like to see what happens when different media intersect.

Mary Jordan, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis

[An .avi file of this documentary is on your flash drive. If you have difficulty playing it, try VLC Player and follow the instructions I put on your flash drive: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/]

3. What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez?

Jack Smith loved the acting of Maria Montez, couldn’t take his eyes away from the screen when she was on it.

Jack asked others to carry out some sense of himself.

“Maria was the heartbeat that kept Jack going as a child.” Every Saturday Jack and his sister would go to the movies when he was a child and that’s where he fell in love with Maria.

Maria was the film Goddess, the queen of Technicolor. She came from Dominican Republic by herself and became a star Maria brings fantasy life into a world you could live in.

“There’s no one who could recline like Maria Montez” Jack says as he lay in the hospital bed dying from AIDS.

“actress became his muse because she could not act. Instead, she believed—in her own beauty, infusing her dreadful filmography with what Smith saw as "imaginative life and truth."

http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-03-02/news/flaming-intrigue/

What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?

Maria was captivating in her physical movements and in her facial expressions. Everything about her became alive, her body shifting and passionate movement.

4. 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?]

Jack Smith used whatever he could find, even if it was trash on the side of the road. He was not happy about the money that was thrown at Warhol. Jack needed money, but hardly any was given to him. He hated paying “the Lobster”, which was a name he gave to the Landlords or leaders of Capitalism. The 60’s were a period of “real invention, freedom and spiritual awakening”. Artists could work on whatever project they wanted to. Smaller community and everyone knew each other. They were more of a cohesive group. Outside of the department store dumpsters were these costumes and materials that Jack would use. (1hr 12 min) Worked with people untrained (no costs).

5. What is John Zorn’s argument about Normal Love?

(41 min) It’s a montage to Maria Montez. Started out like that then it went haywire. (44min) “It was almost like the real show was his filming, not the film, they should have an audience there while he was filming, that was the real show.”

How does his argument relate to some of the changes in the New York art world in the 1960s that we discussed in class?

More value was put on the activity and performance such as the Beat generation. Also, as part of the Fluxus attitude, anyone could make a film. Jack had hardly any money, and he received LOTS of attention from his films and photographs. (57 min) Jack felt the object was not an entity in itself but ever growing.

What are some arguments made about the influence of Jack Smith on other filmmakers (including Warhol)?

Jack was more part of the cult fame. Warhol was part of the “in crowd”. Jack was “super aesthetically true to himself.” The biggest promoter of Jack’s kind of artwork was Warhol. A lot of filmmakers trace their inspiration back to Warhol, but which actually came from Jack Smith. Jack wanted others to duplicate his ideas, and instead they duplicated his “icing.” John waters says “he did it all first, in a very limited time, with very limited money. He started something other people took and became more successful with.” The influence of Jack Smith on Federico Fellini’s works can be seen after 1965 and 1966.

6. What is meant by the slogan, “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?

He was against the commercialism part of filmmaking that would take away from the purpose/meaning of the film. “The artists see in which direction to copy,” based on the films in film festivals. “The artists compete for more and more useless ideas.”

(1hr 14 min) The system wants more of it, again and again. Jack felt that deprived him of what helped him do his work. “The curators were not there to help him, they are there to food you into the commercial industry.” Jack was very difficult, and “bit the hand of everyone” that tried to show his movies.

Here are some helpful links for those interested in the debate about the Jack Smith estate. This is not required, but this is fascinating, frustrating, and crazy (and it will put the documentary in a new light):

http://www.hi-beam.net/fw/fw25/0459.html

http://www.hi-beam.net/fw/fw25/0050.html

http://www.hi-beam.net/fw/fw25/0459.html

And a summary of the debate and legal proceedings. http://www.villagevoice.com/2004-03-02/news/flaming-intrigue/

Callie Angell, “Andy Warhol, Filmmaker”

[This can be found in the Kreul Articles folder from your flash drive]

7. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career?

As a mystique that surrounded him as an artist. His fascination of film as a medium tried to reveal everything about the subjects and their personalities.

What are some of the films from this period, and what formal qualities did they share?

The Chelsea Girls, **** Four Stars, Lonesome Cowboys, San Diego Surf, Flesh, Screen Tests, Tarzan and Jane Regained..Sort of, Ronald Travel, Edie Sedgwick films, experiments in multiscreen projection.

These all show Warhol’s rapidly shifting interest and the many directions in which he moved. The collection constructed an “ongoing dialectic between personality and persona, documentary and drama, reality and illusion.”

Long and static movies made between 1963 to 1964:

Sleep, Kiss, Haircut, Blowjob, Eat, Empire, and Henry Geldzahler. The long static takes represented Warhol’s technologically “primitive” approach to filmmaking.

What are some significant differences between Sleep and Empire?

Sleep: 5 hours, 21 minute. Made with a camera that could only hold 4 minute of reel time. Experimented with handheld camera and multiple shots, a complex montage of different shots. (including hundreds of splices).

Empire: is what Warhol really wanted to do with Sleep.

Shot the nonmoving Empire state building using a camera that can hold a 50 minutes reel. The hours of stillness are equivalent to that of a picture.

8. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?

Screen Tests provide a kind of filmed guest book for the Factory, constituting a unique documentation of the New York arts scene during 1964-1966. They related to his lifelong work in portraiture. They also served as important precursors of the later painted and silkscreened portraits Warhol made form his own photographs in the 1970s and 1980s.

9. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career?

With sound, Warhol used a wide variety of chance factors, such as actors’ improvisations, forgotten lines, and reading from cue cards.

Who was Warhol’s key collaborator for the early sound films?

Edie Sedgwick

What are some of the films from this period and what formal properties did they share?

Poor Little Rich Girl, Restaurant, and Afternoon. They all shared the properties of the individual personality engaged in self-creating performance. Warhol felt that Edie was so charismatic he could film her just being herself: waking up in the morning, having dinner and hanging out with her friends. This would continue the portraiture tradition