Page 29 - Studio International - November December 1975

flawed by the insistence of some of its constituent parts images of Malcolm's Little Dog .. . proved to be the
upon being read as such. The dichotomy persists in that beginning of a whole genre of English film-making :
while Larcher is unquestionably England's most assured, Nicolson's Slides, Eatherley's Hand Grenade, Botham's
intuitive image-maker, he has still to find a wholly Eiffel Trifle, Crosswaite's Film No. 1 and 'A' Film,
satisfactory film-form. Drummond's Maja Replicate, Dunford's Part Time
5 October'69. To America to gather book material. Virgin, Leggett's Shepherd's Bush, Le Grice's own
Learn at second hand from Sitney of new works by How to Screw the CIA series, various films by Pound — all
Sharits, Snow and Jacobs in the notorious structuralist involve major intervention by the artist during the
vein (now so-named), but fail to see any. For the book I printing stage. A co-op catalogue entry (describing a
have to rely on the distant memory of Knokke (this by way film I haven't seen) almost caricatures by understatement
of belated apology) ... See French twenties avant-garde an approach to film-making that is now unique to
works and Crockwell at MOMA, courtesy of Cornwell England : 'The first half of the film is made by running
and Kardish ; early West Coast works (Harrington, 8mm colour positive through the co-op printer and the
Whitneys, Belson) courtesy of Moritz in Los Angeles. second half is the re-print original and the stuff that went
Revelations : the 8mm movies of Saul Levine which wrong' (Stephen Morrow —Sprocket Holes).
further convince me of the relevance of the so-called At face value it might represent an abandonment of
home-movie, and the films of O'Neill and Belson, seen responsibility for the work (perhaps it does), but implicit
in the company of their makers. in the English situation is a belief in the value of a dialogue
21 October'69. Mike Weaver's Concrete Film series between 'original' and 'print', and the possibility of
at the NFT. Fischinger's work en masse, but astonishingly discovery in the printing that the results of accident can
minus his two most important works, Leibesspell and be interesting and worth pursuing. A whole new level of
Radio Dynamics. informal and structured response has been opened up in
Late October'69. At the N FT/ICA Mike Snow's the previously mechanical field of 'reproduction'. The
Standard Time and Wieland's Rat Life and Diet ... show comparative formality of American structuralism may
in an obscure programme of Canadian film. well be the result of the artist's limitation there to
November '69. The last programme I arrange for the operating decisions involving camera, splicer and direct
NCC is also the first to consist entirely of European work reproduction. Such examples as there are of American
(films by Le Grice, Drummond, Keen, Barucello and — interest in a literal re-reading of filmed images (notably
blush — Wim Vanderlinden.) Also Warhol's Hedy (under Ken Jacobs' Tom Tom . .) result from projection and
the title The Shopper), the most complexly structured of re-filming from the screen — a procedure engaging the
the Warhol films shown to date. Through the efforts of artist's response to a decidedly different set of stimuli
distributor Jimmy Vaughan, a spate of Warhol films is and circumstances.
about to flood over London. In January'70 we open January'70. Larry Kardish shows a programme of
Lonesome Cowboys at the New Arts Lab, the Open new American work at the NFT and NCC (and NCC
Space Theatre simultaneously premieres Flesh, and we Oxford) including Noren's Kodak Ghost Poems and
follow with Bike Boy and My Hustler runs at the RCA James Herbert's Porch Glider, two diary-form films of a
and NFT early in '71. But Warhol, key figure in the kind still unparalleled in England (with the exception
development of the American avant-garde film, appears perhaps of Larcher) ; Brooks's Eel Creek, an archetypal
too late to have any such impact in England. The exploration of sync sound ; and Ken Jacobs's most
innovations in these late Warhol movies that most appeal concise work Soft Rain.
to English film-makers are his use of the so-called April '70. Dore 0 and Werner Nekes show films at the
strobe-cut ('as an alienation device', we wrote at the New Arts Lab; Rosa Von Prauenheim and Werner
time) — the flash-frames and blips caused by in-camera Schroeter at the Goethe Institute.
editing during sync-sound shooting, and his denial of the May '70. The New Arts Lab's screening policy begins
space-time continuum within a single extended to recover from a plethora of Warhol, and re-establishes
(frequently 45 minute) take. (Particularly evident in both the pattern that lasts till its closure (and the building's
Hedy and My Hustler.) Interesting though these demolition) a year later. Given the number of native film-
innovations were, they were all distinctly outside the makers and the size of the co-op's collection of NAC, it
range of technical possibility for most film-makers in was possible at Robert Street to run programmes devoted
England at that time. The two film-makers most indebted to the avant-garde and underground 2 or 3 times a week.
to Warhol, Dwoskin and Gidal, both made their contact The remainder of the 4 day-a-week (often 3 shows-a-
with him in America during the early sixties, and night) schedule we filled with series devoted to the
absorbed what they did before these later concerns were experimental (feature) film, the shorts produced by
evident. Dwoskin's debt to Warhol is, interestingly, Resnais, Godard, Marker, Franju and co., the use of
precisely that feature of his work that makes him unique colour in film, student films, expanded performances, and
on the English scene— his obsession with 'actors' and the a long series on the changing definition of 'experimental'
precarious area that exists between 'acting' and self- as reflected in the Knokke- Le Zoute Festivals from the
revelation on the screen. Gidal (at work on his book forties onwards. The model we distantly tried to emulate
on Warhol during 1970) was exclusively concerned with was that of the recently opened Anthology Film Archives
the formal innovation in Warhol's early work : the in New York, in that we tried to establish our image as
'straying' focus and zoom, 'arbitrary' pans and the that of a cinema devoted to one branch of film, where
mismatch of camera and projection speeds. To the extent current work could be shown in the context of the history
that these early concerns were transmitted to English from which it had emerged. In this we were restricted by
film-makers, they were transmitted as already codified the continuing inaccessibility of whole areas of historical
by Gidal. material (nothing ever came of that meeting with the
But more influential at this time than the knowledge BFI in '68 in this respect), but we did succeed in
of any one film-maker was the co-op's acquisition of its establishing that a new English movement had come into
own professional developing and printing equipment. existence.
At the New Arts Lab opening party, Malcolm's September '70. The first International Underground
persuasiveness and Victor Herbert's hatred of indecision Film Festival is held at the NFT, organized by the New
came together to produce £3,000 worth of equipment Arts Lab, the co-op, the Other Cinema and other
for the co-op's workshops, which were being installed independent film distributors, with the purpose of
in the Robert Street building. By the end of a year of bringing together film-makers and films from the
operation (that is by spring '71) the value of these tools international scene. Deliberately unselective (but
could be measured in the number of new co-op film- restricted by our inability to pay full travelling expenses to
makers with substantial programmes of work to their those with furthest to travel), the Festival was nonetheless
names: Ewens, Crosswaite, Hammond, Leggett, Botham, important as an occasion on which European and
Pound. But more significant than the mere boost to American film-makers were able to show each other the
production that this equipment represented, was the kind of work they were producing. (That there was
freedom it gave film-makers to work within a new area of indeed any European work was news to many
aesthetic decision-making. The loops and straying Americans). Included from America were Mekas's
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