Fluxus Anthology (Light Cone 2008)

Fluxfilm Anthology. Re.voir (2007).

FLUXFILM N:O 1–31 and 36–37 Print: Light Cone, 16 mm, 100 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008.

Fluxfilm n:o 1: Zen for Film D: Nam June Paik, 1962-1964, 7 min 16 mm b&w silent – white screen

Fluxfilm n:o 2: Invocation of Canyons and Boulders D: Dick Higgins, 1966 1 min 16 mm colour silent – the devouring mouth

Fluxfilm n:o 3: End After 9 D: George Maciunas, 1966 1 min 20 sec 16 mm b&w silent – just the title

Fluxfilm n:o 4: Disappearing Music for Face D: Chieko Shiomi, 1966 10 min 16 mm b&w silent – mouth

Fluxfilm n:o 5: Blink D: John Cavanaugh, 1966 2 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w silent – flicker

Fluxfilm n:o 6: 9 Minutes D: James Riddle, 1966 9 min 16 mm b&w silent – seconds numbered

Fluxfilm n:o 7: 10 Feet D: George Maciunas, 1966 0 min 28 sec 16 mm b&w silent – counter

Fluxfilm n:o 8: 1000 Frames D: George Maciunas, 1966 0 min 42 sec 16 mm b&w silent – counter

Fluxfilm n:o 9: Eye Blink D: Yoko Ono, 1966 1 min 16 mm b&w silent - slow motion of opening eye

Fluxfilm n:o 10: Entrance to Exit D: George Brecht, 1966 6 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w opt – from light entrance to dark exit sign

Fluxfilm n:o 11: Trace n:o 22 D: Robert Watts, 1966 1 min 15 sec 16 mm b&w silent – Marilyn, thighs, mons pubis

Fluxfilm n:o 12: Trace n:o 23 D: Robert Watts, 1966 3 min 16 mm b&w silent – road marks, mons pubis, penis ersatz, bare breasts

Fluxfilm n:o 13: Trace n:o 24 D: Robert Watts, 1966 1 min 19 sec 16 mm b&w silent – X-ray of talking and eating head

Fluxfilm n:o 14: One D: Yoko Ono, 1966 4 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w silent – extreme slow motion of lighting a match

Fluxfilm n:o 15: Eye Blink D: Yoko Ono, 1966 1 min 16 mm b&w silent – fast eye blink

Fluxfilm n:o 16: Four D: Yoko Ono, 1966 5 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w silent – four-split screen of bare buttocks (back and thighs)

Fluxfilm n:o 17: Five O'Clock in the Morning D: Pieter Vanderbek, 1966 4 min30 sec 16 mm b&w silent – slomo – pebbles on white

Fluxfilm n:o 18: Smoking D: Joe Jones, 1966 6 min 16 mm b&w silent – extreme slow motion

Fluxfilm n:o 19: Opus 74, Version 2 D: Eric Andersen, 1966 1 min 20 sec 16 mm colour silent – overlong director credit

Fluxfilm n:o 20: Artype D: George Maciunas, 1966 4 min 20 sec 16 mm b&w silent – flicker film of a circle pattern *

Fluxfilm n:o 22: Shout D: Jeff Perkins, 1966 2 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w silent – the word "Shout" expands, DP: Y. Ono, a silent on shouting

Fluxfilm n:o 23: Sun in Your Head D: Wolf Vostell, 1966 6 min 16 mm b&w silent – flicker grid - "television decollage", early video art

Fluxfilm n:o 24: Readymade D: Albert Fine, 1966 0 min 45 sec 16 mm colour silent – abstract colour *

Fluxfilm n:o 25: The Evil Faerie D: George Landow, 1966 3 min 16 mm b&w silent – clown expression

Fluxfilm n:o 26: Sears Catalogue 1-3 D: Paul Sharits, 1965 0 min 28 sec 16 mm – the catalogue page by page by frame

Fluxfilm n:o 27: Dots 1 & 3 D: Paul Sharits, 1965 0 min 35 sec 16 mm

Fluxfilm n:o 28: Wrist Trick & Unrolling Event D: Paul Sharits, 1966 2 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w silent

Fluxfilm n:o 29: Word Movie D: Paul Sharits, 1966 4 min 16 mm colour optical – ultra fast words

Fluxfilm n:o 30: Dance D: Albert Fine, 1966 2 min 16 mm b&w silent – spastic shadow boxing

Fluxfilm n:o 31: Police Car D: John Cale, 1966 1 min 16 mm colour silent – a beacon in the night

Fluxfilm n:o 36 D: Peter Kennedy, Mike Parr, 1970 2 min 30 sec 16 mm b&w opt – the tips of the shoes

Fluxfilm n:o 37 D: Peter Kennedy, Mike Parr, 1970 2 min 16 mm b&w silent – cells added, until image gets dark

According to Light Cone the most complete version of Fluxus Anthology, five films missing: Fluxfilm n:o 21: Babyfootage (Alyson Knowles), Fluxfilm n:o 32: Intermission (Milan Knizak), Fluxfilm n:o 33: Indeterminate Movie (Milan Knizak), Fluxfilm n:o 34: Rainbow Movie (Ay-O), Fluxfilm N.o 35: Moon Landing (Geoffrey Hendricks). – Basic experiments in perception, provocations of the cinema experience, back to zero, films that are non-films, Being and Nothingness. – Moments of beauty and humour (Yoko Ono), sex (Robert Watts) and great flicker (George Maciunas, Albert Fine).

The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man

The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man. Photomontage from: RareFilm.Net.

US 1963. P+D+SC: Ron Rice. Starring: Winifred Bryan (The Queen of Sheba), Taylor Mead (The Atom Man), Jack Smith. Unfinished. 16 mm, b&w, sepmag sound.
    This version 87 min, the sound of the separate magnetic tapes played back from cd, no credit titles.
    New American Cinema Revisited.
    Screened at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008.

Of all the New American Cinema Revisited films in the programme this film had the technically best sound, thanks to the magnetic tape, the playlist including in playing order: The Kinks: "Sunny Afternoon"; Nina Simone: "Tomorrow Is My Turn"; Nina Simone: "Ne me quitte pas"; The Beatles: "Eleanor Rigby"; The Kinks: "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"; The Kinks: "When I See That Girl Of Mine"; The Beatles: "Yellow Submarine"; John Coltrane: "Greensleeves"; Nina Simone: "Take Care Of Business"; Nina Simone: "I Put A Spell On You"; Nina Simone: "You've Got To Learn"; The Rolling Stones: "Satisfaction"; Nina Simone: "One September Day"; Nina Simone: "Gimme Some"; The Kinks: "Sunny Afternoon"; Cilla Black: "Anyone Who Had A Heart"; The Kinks: "I'm Not Like Everybody Else"; The Kinks: "When I See That Girl Of Mine".
    Plus great jazz, protest jazz, such as: Bobby Timmons: "This Here", "Dat Dere"; John Coltrane: "Africa/Brass"; Eric Dolphy; Charlie Mingus: "Fables of Faubus"; Archie Shepp; Miles Davis. (Thanks to Sisko Ramsay and J. O. Mallander for the jazz identification).

Because of the presence of the 1965 Nina Simone album I Put A Spell On You and the 1966 Beatles songs one can tell that this soundtrack version has been compiled after the death of Ron Rice (1935–1964).

Taylor Mead appears as a deeply disturbed alien comic personality, something like Charlie Chaplin on acid.

Winifred Bryan plays an alcoholic odalisque, way beyond the Bessie Smith stage, desolately abandoning any sense of dignity in her nudity and sexual display.

This film still has shock value, and it also makes the viewer uneasy as one would like to know if the performers were in a presence of mind to give their consent to be displayed this way.

Dog Star Man (Parts I–IV)

Stan Brakhage: Dog Star Man (US 1962–1964).

US 1962–1964. D: Stan Brakhage. 16 mm, colour, silent, 51 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at the Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008. 

PRELUDE: DOG STAR MAN. 1961. See separate blog entry. 25 min

PART I. 1962. The accelerated motion of the clouds over Colorado. Planets, fog, clouds, the forest, water, snow, crystals, the corona, man and dog climbing the mountain slope, Sisyphus. 

PART II. 1963. Abstract flashes, a baby, broken images, crystals, red lava. 

PART III. 1964. Double exposure, a pregnant woman, the reality of the flesh. 

PART IV. 1964. The distorting lens, strong movement, a mosaic of the Madonna, outbursts of the Sun, giving birth, milk from the nipple, the clouds, shooting stars.

Prelude: Dog Star Man

Stan Brakhage: Prelude: Dog Star Man (US 1961).

US 1961. D: Stan Brakhage. 16 mm, colour, silent, 25 min. Print: LUX (colour ok). Screened at the Finnish Film Archive, Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008. Primal nebula, moving light, traffic, skin, clouds, colour, etching, fur, eclipse, snow, painting, water, nude woman, snowy landscape, clouds pass the moon, the corona, the mountains of Boulder, Colorado.

Dog Star Man. Parts I–IV (1961–1964). See separate blog entry. 51 min

Scenes from Under Childhood #1

US 1967-1970. D: Stan Brakhage. 16mm, colour, silent, 25 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008. The discovery of colours: red, black, blue. The constitution of vision.

Anticipation of the Night

US 1958. D: Stan Brakhage. 16mm, colour, silent, sources give 43 min, this print 40 min. Print: LUX, colour fading. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 30 March 2008. The atavistic expectation of the night, the child's furtive look, constituting the look, traffic, fairground, trees without foliage.

Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

US 1954. D: Kenneth Anger. 1966: The Sacred Mushroom Edition, M: Janacek: The Glagolithic Mass. 37 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Saw the beginning only this time.

Time of the Locust

Peter Gessner: Time of the Locust (US 1966).

US © 1966. D: Peter Gessner. Sources: US, VN, JP news footage. M: Nancy Sinatra: "These Boots Are Made For Walking". 16 mm, b&w, sound, 12 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. The title refers to napalm. Images of napalm devastation, torture and oppression in the Vietnam War.

Georgia

US 1966. D: Gordon Ball. 16mm, silent, colour, 3 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Dancing woman, rapid montage, vitality.

Melting

US 1965. D: Thom Anderson. 16mm, sound (organ music), colour, 6 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Strawberry ice-cream melts.

Space

US 1965. D: Andy Warhol. SC: Ronald Tavel. Starring Edie Sedgwick, Eric Anderson, Ed Hennessey, Dorothy Dean, Norman Levine. 16mm, b&w, sound, 67 min. Print: MoMA (Distribution). Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Forbidden montage is the Andy Warhol principle, but this time the camera is moving all the time. Eight people in the same space, linked by singer-guitarplayer Eric Anderson and dazzled by Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick (1943-1971) in love with her mirror image. Reality cinema.

Bridges-Go-Round

US (c) 1958 Shirley Clarke. 16mm, sound, colour, 4 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. A brilliant urban vision, strong colour, stylized music.

Match Girl

US (c) 1966 Andrew Meyer. M: The Rolling Stones: "Play With Fire", "As Tears Go By", "Get Off Of My Cloud", Martha & The Vandellas: "Nobody'll Care", "Nowhere To Run", Featuring Vivian Ruiz, Gerard Malanga, Andy Warhol. Toned and tinted. 16mm, 26 min. Fine print from MoMA (archive). Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Inspired by Andersen and Renoir, with references to Marilyn Monroe (Warhol, Don't Bother to Knock) and Kim Novak (Vertigo) the film follows some premises of the fairy-tale, the lonely girl in New York, in the Factory, collapsing in the street, but rescued and maybe becoming somebody in Europe.

Oh Dem Watermelons

US 1965. D: Robert Nelson. M: Steve Reich - Stephen Foster (1826-1864) song montage. 16mm, colour, sound, 12 min. Print: Österreichisches Filmmuseum. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Absurd social commentary of U.S. racial attitudes in the 1960s. Watermelons as comic bombs: cosmic, sexual, scatological, political. Steve Reich deconstructs the Stephen Foster blackface minstrel culture, starting with an early-cinema sing-a-long bouncing ball for lyrics. (There is no Stephen Foster song with the title of this film.)

Notes on the Circus

US (c) 1966 Jonas Mekas. [from Diaries, Notes and Sketches]. 16mm, sound, Ektachrome colour, 12 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Extremely fast montage on three-ring-circus motifs, dedicated to Kenneth Anger.

A Matter of Baobab

Pola Chapelle: A Matter of Baobab (US 1967).

US 1967. D: Pola Chapelle. Music: The Beatles: "Fool On The Hill". 16 mm, colour+b&w, sound, 3 min. Print: LUX. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. With Jonas Mekas, Louis Brigante, Storm De Hirsch, Pola Chapelle, Adolfas Mekas.

Little Stabs at Happiness

Ken Jacobs: Little Stabs at Happiness (US 1963) with Ken Jacobs.

US 1963. D: Ken Jacobs. Starring Jack Smith. 16 mm, colour, 18 min announced, this worn print 14 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. Crazy, playful, childish, lazy, funny music. Happy birds.

Panels for the Walls of the World

US 1965. D: Stan Vanderbeek. Video: Lou Leger. Video>16mm, b&w, 9 min. Viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. An Electric Assemblage by Stan Vanderbeek. An early experimental video, released on 16mm film. Crazy collage about the apocalypse, the end of the American Empire, with lunatic contests and images of disaster, split screen effects.

Skullduggery

US 1963. D: Stan Vanderbeek. 16mm, 5 min. Crazy collage animation on the world tyrants and leaders, not so far from Terry Gilliam.

Castro Street

Bruce Baillie: Castro Street (US 1966). Photo: LUX.

US 1966. D: Bruce Baillie. 16 mm, colour, sound, 10 min. Viewed at Suomen elokuva-arkisto, Orion, Helsinki, 29 March 2008. A brilliant print of Baillie's industrial montage film with a rare insight in the use of the superimposition. The industrial views grow into a fascinating abstract vision.