https://www.sabzian.be/text/on-the-changing-nature-of-avant-garde-film-screenings

On the Changing Nature of Avant-garde Film Screenings

Robert Breer received the Max Ernst Prize for his film 69 at the Oberhausen Film Festival. The prize, the sculpture “Femme” of Max Ernst, donated by the artist and valued today (so we are told) at approximately $7,500, is given to a film that “best corresponds to the avant-garde spirit.” The prize is given not just for one film but for the body of work of a film-maker.

I am happy that Robert Breer got some recognition. I saw his new film, 69, and it’s so absolutely beautiful, so perfect, so like nothing else. Forms, geometry, lines, movements, light, very basic, very pure, very surprising, very subtle. Breer’s films do not get much public acclaim. His shows are not among the heavily attended. His films attract no noise. But they are among the best films made today anywhere. A new film by Robert Breer is an important event. Imagine Mondrian or Dubuffet or De Kooning opening a one-man show in New York, and imagine – all critics missing it? The premiere of Breer’s 69 was exactly an occasion of such proportion. And all movie critics missed it. History of cinema will remember my words. 

Not only critics missed 69. Most of the people missed it. The screenings of avant-garde film around New York, at the Cinematheque or some other place, if not specially pushed, seldom attract more than twenty or thirty people these days. All the sensation-seekers have their sex movies. The screenings of the avant-garde films at the Cinematheque are announced in the Voice only by the names of the artists and the titles. No more phony pushing. Have you seen the art gallery page lately? Or any time? Openings of shows are announced by the names of the artists—no blurbs, no quotes, nothing about “the best,” “the greatest,” “excellent,” “worth seeing,” etc., crap which still goes with our commercial movie advertisements. The avant-garde film-maker, at least in New York, got rid of all that. So his audience dropped. But why should an avant-garde film-maker want to fill his auditorium with people? Should Frick or Castelli close because they are not filled with people? The question of avant-garde film screenings in New York is not the question of filling the auditoriums but of keeping the continuity of the screenings, keeping the continuity of the avant-garde film. To do that these days is very costly, and a certain amount of madness is needed to continue – but a certain madness is needed to run certain galleries too. This is my answer to the people who keep asking me why I am doing it. But don’t ask me how I’m doing it because only God knows that. 

The success of the underground film, the success measured in crowds and by crowds, is somewhere else at the moment. It’s in the suburbs and in the country. Every university has a film festival going. There have been at least ten film festivals in the New York area this spring alone. The film culture is rolling across the country.

April 25, 1969

(1) 69 (Robert Breer, 1969)

Image from 69 (Robert Breer, 1969)

 

This text was originally published in Village Voice, April 1969. It was later reprinted in Movie Journal. The Rise of the New American Cinema, 1959-1971 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016), 349-351.

Many thanks to the Estate of Jonas Mekas.

© All rights reserved by the artist and his rightholders / Courtesy of Light Cone.

 

Milestones: Robert Breer takes place on Monday 2 October 2023 at 20:00 in Art Cinema OFFoff, Ghent. You can find more information on the event here.

ARTICLE
27.09.2023
EN
In Passage, Sabzian invites film critics, authors, filmmakers and spectators to send a text or fragment on cinema that left a lasting impression.
Pour Passage, Sabzian demande à des critiques de cinéma, auteurs, cinéastes et spectateurs un texte ou un fragment qui les a marqués.
In Passage vraagt Sabzian filmcritici, auteurs, filmmakers en toeschouwers naar een tekst of een fragment dat ooit een blijvende indruk op hen achterliet.
The Prisma section is a series of short reflections on cinema. A Prisma always has the same length – exactly 2000 characters – and is accompanied by one image. It is a short-distance exercise, a miniature text in which one detail or element is refracted into the spectrum of a larger idea or observation.
La rubrique Prisma est une série de courtes réflexions sur le cinéma. Tous les Prisma ont la même longueur – exactement 2000 caractères – et sont accompagnés d'une seule image. Exercices à courte distance, les Prisma consistent en un texte miniature dans lequel un détail ou élément se détache du spectre d'une penséée ou observation plus large.
De Prisma-rubriek is een reeks korte reflecties over cinema. Een Prisma heeft altijd dezelfde lengte – precies 2000 tekens – en wordt begeleid door één beeld. Een Prisma is een oefening op de korte afstand, een miniatuurtekst waarin één detail of element in het spectrum van een grotere gedachte of observatie breekt.
Jacques Tati once said, “I want the film to start the moment you leave the cinema.” A film fixes itself in your movements and your way of looking at things. After a Chaplin film, you catch yourself doing clumsy jumps, after a Rohmer it’s always summer, and the ghost of Akerman undeniably haunts the kitchen. In this feature, a Sabzian editor takes a film outside and discovers cross-connections between cinema and life.
Jacques Tati once said, “I want the film to start the moment you leave the cinema.” A film fixes itself in your movements and your way of looking at things. After a Chaplin film, you catch yourself doing clumsy jumps, after a Rohmer it’s always summer, and the ghost of Akerman undeniably haunts the kitchen. In this feature, a Sabzian editor takes a film outside and discovers cross-connections between cinema and life.
Jacques Tati zei ooit: “Ik wil dat de film begint op het moment dat je de cinemazaal verlaat.” Een film zet zich vast in je bewegingen en je manier van kijken. Na een film van Chaplin betrap je jezelf op klungelige sprongen, na een Rohmer is het altijd zomer en de geest van Chantal Akerman waart onomstotelijk rond in de keuken. In deze rubriek neemt een Sabzian-redactielid een film mee naar buiten en ontwaart kruisverbindingen tussen cinema en leven.

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