C.W. Winter & Anders Edström 5 / films by Andy Warhol & Chuck Wein, Jean-Claude Rousseau, Jack Goldstein, Morgan Fisher

24 October, 2021 - 10:30
PADDENHOEK

 

On the occasion of this focus, C.W. Winter & Anders Edström composed three programs of films that resonate in different ways with their work. All notes are written by C.W. Winter.

 

In the presence of C.W. Winter & Anders Edström

My Hustler

Andy Warhol & Chuck Wein
,
US
,
1965
,
16mm
,
79'

Starring the eruditely genteel Harvard grad student Ed Hood (also from Chelsea Girls, Bike Boy, and Screen Test #25) and other Factory regulars: Paul America, Joe “Sugar Plum Fairy” Campbell, Genevieve Charbin, and Dorothy Dean. From mid-January to April of 1966, due to popular demand, the film screened every night at midnight at New York’s Filmmakers’ Cinematheque. And it ran, almost continuously, from one New York cinema to another until late 1968. It opened to reviews almost uniformly negative: "It is sordid, vicious, and contemptuous. The only thing engaging about it is a certain quality and tone of degradation that is almost too candid and ruthless to be believed." Such reviews only further fueled the film’s popularity, marking, at least respective to his own work, Warhol’s near-total obliteration of the critical mechanism. On-screen and off-screen, a high water mark of self-reflexive comedy.

 

Film print courtesy of MOMA

English spoken

Chansons d’amour

Jean-Claude Rousseau
,
FR
,
2016
,
HD
,
8'

Here, Rousseau continues his examination of what is and isn’t worthy of being an image, of being a scene, of being a film. A self-portrait whose very suspense is drawn from the tensions of those questions. Alone in a hotel room. A view of a modest pool. Indecision about a shirt. Movement from light to penumbra to shadow. And then back again. Presque rien. A film that dares into the almost-nothing. And, with its extraordinary photographic economy, returns with moving rewards.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Jack Goldstein
,
US
,
1975
,
16mm
,
2'

A choice that is almost always and almost never gratuitous in a film program. Leo, the MGM mascot lion, the eighth lion to fill the role—following Slats, Jackie, Bill, Telly, Coffee, Tanner, and George—roars in endless loop. CalArtian Jack Goldstein’s description of the unrelenting domestic hegemony of American industrial entertainment production.

Picture and Sound Rushes

Morgan Fisher
,
US
,
1974
,
16mm
,
11'

Film school in 11 minutes. And a high water mark of cinematic self-reflexivity. Morgan gives us the four states of a film: picture with sound, picture with no sound, sound with no picture, and the null set. Reminiscent of David Fair’s advice on guitar: “It’s pretty easy to play guitar, once you know the science of it. The high notes, the little skinny ones, make high sounds. The big fat ones make low sounds. And then if you go on the part of the guitar near where you pluck it, that makes high sounds. And down at the other end. Like, then you got it mastered. That’s all you gotta know. Oh, and if you want it to be fast, play fast. And if you wanna go slow, go slow. That’s all there is to it. It’s easy to play guitar. Other people, some people worry about chords and stuff. Ya know, and that’s alright too. Ya know, there’s all kinds of music in the world. You might wanna learn some other stuff if you’re doing that kind of music. For what I was doing, that was the beauty of it; you could learn it that first day.” Get to work.