1966: Muttering Small Talk at the Wall

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I was glad to read the other day that women are still writing books and making films. There was some concern that this thread was going to bring that to a close forever--it was touch-and-go there for a while.

The Lightbox has a three-part Warhol program running this fall and winter: his films, Liz and Marilyn films, and an exhibition of various artifacts. I'm most looking forward to 80 minutes of the screen tests. Also ordered for The Chelsea Girls (which I saw once and found more memorable than boring), Kitchen, Poor Little Rich Girl, Tarzan and Jane Regained, Sort Of, Lonesome Cowboys, The Nude Restaurant, Bike Boy, and Mrs. Warhol.

so just for fun i looked up 1966 in film and found that (via wikipedia):

(1) dino de laurentiis and john huston's the bible: in the beginning was the top grossing film in the US;

(2) fred zinnemann's a man for all seasons won an academy award for best picture.

(3) no notable mention of jean-luc godard. but maybe his style was too refined for us north americans.

i like a couple of his films. but generally, i find his films to be too stylised/too artsy and lack substance.

i did the same for music. though the biggest hit singles in the US were dominated by the beatles and the beach boys, bob released one of his greatest albums of all time, blonde on blonde. cool. i dig this album.

i don't care about art from 1966 and couldn't find anything of interest. that makes sense because if warhol was allegedly the most dominating figure of that time, it's no coincidence a lot of artists were moving towards that style. that is to say, garbage.

bob wins.

i'd rate jack kirby's art in fantastic four way 48-51 ahead of any pop art i've seen

^^ "way" should be after "48-51"

and i mean these are all artists i like but god. no nutritional value left. plowing the same narrow field again and again.

― e-bouquet (mattresslessness), Friday, June 12, 2015 4:13 AM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM, stupid thread... actually I have no interest in Dylan at all... why am I here? To say that Godard wins this particular poll easily.

Really, really stupid.

Saw the Screen Tests tonight. Not a film...seemed to be two separate compilations of about 40 minutes each. The most disappointing omission by far was Dylan's. I guess he intervened and made sure he wasn't included, although you can easily see his on YouTube. Dali's was missing, and I thought Dennis Hopper had done one too.

Extremely unnerving to sit in a theatre--especially a small one, with maybe 30 people in attendance--in absolute, total silence. (I've never seen a silent film that didn't have a score.) I had three friends on either side of me, and people directly in front; about 20% of my attention was hoping that my stomach didn't start to rumble, or that I didn't start coughing, or not to shift too loudly in my seat. It's the first time in my life I wanted people to make a little bit of noise.

I thought the screen tests were great. Sontag's was my favourite, Ed Hood's was the most audacious, and Taylor Mead once again cracked me up. The one with Gerard Malanga and another guy I didn't recognize, I'm curious as to whether that was shot before or after Persona (same year, probably). There are so many ways you could approach these. Mostly I thought of the stillness and the quiet in the middle of everything else that was going on at the time.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, but I meant to add that the screen tests would make a great double-bill (Warhol playing first) with The Passion of Joan of Arc.