اندی وارهول در 1965 با گروه ولوت آندرگراند كه در كافه «بیزار» برنامه اجرا می‌كردند آشنا شد. حاصل این آشنایی یك دوره همكاری یك‌ساله است. وارهول، «نیكو» (مدل و خواننده آلمانی) را به گروه معرفی کرد و آلبوم «ولوت آندرگراند و نیكو» با طراحی جلد خود وارهول (یک موز!) آلبوم موفقی از آب درآمد. از طرف دیگر اعضای گروه در نمایشگاه‌های وارهول در میان مجموعه‌ای از عكس‌ها، تابلوها و اسلایدهایی كه بر در و دیوار پخش می‌شد، ترانه‌هایشان را اجرا می‌كردند. این مستند در این دوره ساخته شد. فیلم درواقع تدوین نشده و دوربین این‌بار برخلاف امپایر (1964)، فیلم تجربی هشت‌ساعته از ساختمان امپایر استیت، از زوم، پن و حركت‌های دوربین گریزی ندارد.
تنها فيلمي كه مارسل دوشان، نقاش و شطرنج باز دادائيست/سوررئاليست كارگرداني كرده، يعني Anémic cinema، از دو دسته نما تشكيل شده، يكي دسته فرم هاي هندسي دوار و درهم فرورونده دارند و در واقع "پاپ آرت" هايي هستند كه پيش از تولد پاپ آرت روي پرده سينما خلق شده اند و دسته ديگر كلمات و جملاتي است كه بازهم روي سطحي دوار نوشته شده اند. چه فرم هاي هندسي و چه كلمات در حال چرخيدند. اين فيلم براي تماشاگر امروز مي تواند بهانه اي براي طرح پرسش بنيادين "فضا و زمان در سينما چيست؟" باشد. Anémic cinema تلقي روايي تماشاگر از هنر سينما را به چالش مي كشد و افقي جديد در مقابل او مي گشايد كه در آن بخشي مهم، زيبا اما كم ديده شده از تاريخ سينما نهان است، دنيايي كه از استن براكيج تا ژان لوك گدار در آن تنفس مي كنند و بعيد است "يكي از باهوش ترين انسان هاي قرن بيستم" (نقل از آندره برتون) از معناي كاري كه با اين مديوم تازه مي كرده غافل بوده باشد.
Retour à la raison (1923) is a short avant-garde film made by Man Ray, American Dadaist –later Surrealist - photographer and painter. This 2-minute piece is the spirit of spontaneity and chance in cinema. A manifestation of the importance of “texture” in conveying the total feelings of a motion picture. Attacking the logic and rational order by using dissimilarity between the images. One of the first films that really evokes this notion that film could be poetry in motion, poetry in light.
In the early twenties, Man Ray bought a small film camera that could hold a few feet of standard film and Tristan Tzara, the key figure in Dada movement, encouraged him to create a Dada film. Man Ray set up this camera and filmed some of his art work in movement, as well as other shots: a turning paper spiral, his airbrush painting Dancer/Danger, to which he gave a sense of movement by blowing smoke at it, an egg divider which he hung up and turned in front of the camera, his ‘visual’ poem consisting of only horizontal lines, which he moved back and forth, the lights of a merry-go-round at night, and of course the most beautiful object for Man Ray, the naked female torso turning in front of striped curtains. The female body thus becomes a canvas for the lines of light.
"Acquiring a roll of a hundred feet of film, I went into my darkroom and cut up the material into short lengths, pinning them down on the worktable. On some strips I sprinkled salt and pepper, like a cook preparing a roast, on other strips I threw pins and thumbtacks at random; then I turned on the white light for a second or two, as I had done for my still Rayographs. Then I carefully lifted the film off the table, shaking off the debris, and developed it in my tanks. The next morning, when dry, I examined the work; the salt, pins and tacks were perfectly reproduced." Man Ray described the process of creating Retour in his Self-Portrait.
Kenneth Anger films were always unfairly impossible to reach in most of the countries, especially in Iran. Of course now there are three or four titles available in YouTube but thanks to the Italian national TV, Raifrom tonight there will be a retrospective of Anger works in Raitre channel.
The program responsible for such a gracious act is 'Fuori orario' (means after hours) that I’ve followed for last 8 years.
This midnight round up begins around 1 to 2 (CET time) and runs for 5 or 6 hours long. There is a sleepy bedraggled host (Italian film critic Enrico Ghezzi) who talk his head off in a whispering voice and of course in Italian But this gentleman is the one who introduced lot of great films and cineastes to the midnight audience, masterpieces and rare stuffs like Rivette's Out 1, Silent Ozu's, Andy Warhol films, 5 versions of Mr. Arkadin (before criterion's Complete release), Ulmer, pre- American Max Ophuls, Welles TV works, lots of Melville, Chris Marker, Straub, almost complete Sokurov films, Frederick Wiseman documentaries, Val Lewton Horror films, an hommage to RKO with lots of unseen films, Louis Feuillade serials, Complete Tati (including TV works and shorts), Complete Russ Meyer, Otar Iosseliani, Miklós Jancsó, Treasures of Early cinema, Godard's histore(s) du cinema, Silent Dreyer and lost Dreyer (Two people), Boris Barnet, numerous Aleksandr Dovzhenko and so many other great films and directors.
All films in their original language with Italian subtitles, and that's something uncommon for a country with a serious addiction to dubbing, even for art films.
The program begins with the shots from Vigo’s L'atalante and Patti Smith's “because the night” (so Jonathan Rosenbaum isn't the only person who associates Patti Smith with European avant-garde!), this tune and images is the most cheerful thing in the early morning (Iranian time), because like any other Italian scheduled program you must be used to delays and at least it means that program has been started.
I began watching Fuori since school days. My good old VCR on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights was set on LP mood to record the whole program and next day, usually after returning from school, I've taken the remote control and able to dig 6 hours of Anthony Mann's early B pictures or Jacques Rivette’s 236 mins La belle noiseuse for the first time!
Back to Kenneth Anger on Raitre, the scheduled films on Furio orario are:
Tonight
Friday 29 May 2009 from 02:20 (Actually 30 May) CET (4:50 a.m. Iran's time)
Plus films of Spanish painter and filmmaker Adolfo Arrieta (born in 1942). Some of these films are even not listed on Imdb.
El crimen de la girandola /Spain/1965/B&W/18 mins
La imitaciòn del àngel /Spain/1966/B&W/22 mins
Le jouet criminel /France/1970/B&W/36 mins
Le Chateau de Pointilly /France/1972/B&W/28 mins
Saturday 30 May 2009 from 01:50 CET (Iran: 04:20)
Invocation of my demon brother /1969/color/11 mins.
Inauguration of the pleasure dome /1954-78/color/38 mins.
Scorpio rising /1964/color/28 mins.
And again Mr. Adolfo Arrieta films:
Merlin /Spain/1990/color/58 mins.
Les intrigues de Sylvia Couski /France/1974/color/76 mins.
Next week, Friday 5 June 2009 from 01:50 CET (Iran: 04:20)
