[inter/meta/trans] Fwd: [lafilmforum] Revisiting Warhol this Sunday at Filmforum!

[adam overton]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "lafilmforum" <lafilmforum at yahoo.com>
Date: 18 October 2006 4:04:56 PM PDT
To: lafilmforum at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [lafilmforum] Revisiting Warhol this Sunday at Filmforum!
Reply-To: lafilmforum-owner at yahoogroups.com

Greetings all,

The celebration continues!
Filmforum continues this Sunday October 22, 2006, 7:00 pm
http://www.lafilmforum.org/Fall%2006/10%3A22/10_22.html

Los Angeles Filmforum presents:
Filmforum's 30th Anniversary!
Sixth in a series
Guests: Amy Murphy, Former Executive Director of Filmforum
At the Egyptian theater, 6712 Hollywood Blvd. at Las Palmas

As the USA prepared to celebrate its bicentennial year, the nation  
took little notice of one
of a small non-profit organization dedicated to screening avant-garde  
films.  This cheery
oasis of sanity and unconventionality amidst the miasma of Southern  
California arose from
the efforts of Terry Cannon. We will be celebrating the 30th  
anniversary of Filmforum all
year with a variety of screenings, blasts from the past, and visits  
from former directors and
programmers of the organization.

Tonight is the sixth of our evenings curated by the former directors  
and programmers of
Filmforum, Amy Murphy, director of Filmforum in 1994.  Amy is  
introducing a show
revisiting indirectly the highlight of her time as director, the Andy  
Warhol Weekend of
1994.  First we'll have some screen tests, including those of the  
late Susan Sontag and
avant-garde filmmaker Jack Smith. Then we'll screen "Harlot."  To be  
honest, neither of
these actually screened in 1994, so we will be expanding Filmforum's  
dedication to
screening Warhol's films in Los Angeles.  We can not find any record  
of "Harlot" screening
in Los Angeles in at least ten years.  So come on down!

Screen Test Reel #16 (16mm, 18 fps, about 40 minutes, silent)

#1 Paul America (1965)
#2 Susan Sontag (1964)
#3 Lou Reed (1966)
#4 Ruth Ford (1964)
#5 Harold Stevenson (1964)
#6 Henry Rago (1965)
#7 Nico (Beer) (1966)
#8 Alan Soloman (1964)
#9 Jack Smith (1964)
#10 Ethel Scull (1964)

HARLOT (1964, 66.5 minutes, B&W, sound, 24 fps)
Warhol's first synch-sound feature, is an underground version of the  
Jean Harlow story.
Staged as a kind of tableau vivant on the Factory couch, Mario  
Montez, in drag, is Harlow
at the center of a carefully posed "family" grouping of formally  
dressed Superstars and a
large white cat. Accompanied by an improvised and largely unrelated  
conversation
between three off-screen narrators, Mario/Harlow consumes large  
numbers of bananas in
increasingly suggestive ways; the film ends in a frenzy of banana  
erotics and a burst of
'Swan Lake."

More on Harlot:
HARLOT (1964)
B&W/Sound/67mins Screenwriter: Ronald Tavel (filmed December 1964)
Featuring Gerard Malanga/Philip Fagan/Mario Montez/Carol Koshinskie  
Offscreen Voices:
Ronald Tavel/Billy Name/Harry Fainlight (poet)

Harlot was the first sound film that Andy Warhol made with the  
Auricon camera he had
purchased in the summer of 1964. Prior to the Auricon Warhol owned a  
silent Bolex 16mm
camera. Sleep was the first film that Warhol made with the Bolex.
Unlike the Bolex, the Auricon was capable of shooting a film with  
sync sound, without the
need for a soundtrack recorded separately. Although the quality was  
not as good as
recording a separate soundtrack, it was very convenient and often  
used by television
reporters for covering news events. Empire was the first film that  
Warhol made with the
new camera - however, it was a silent film so it didn't utilize the  
camera's sound
capabilities. Empire was originally conceived as a sound film with  
Henry Geldzahler, Gerard
Malanga, Jonas Mekas and filmmaker, John Palmer, talking in the  
background.

Harlot marked the beginning of RonaldTavel's collaboration with  
Warhol as screenwriter.
Warhol had seen Tavel reading his poetry and extracts from a novel he  
had written at the
one of the regular Wednesday night poetry readings that Warhol  
attended in 1964 with
Gerard Malanga at the Cafe Le Metro. Tavel was surrounded by "reams  
of paper" and
Warhol was impressed by the by how prolific he was. Needing sound to  
use with his new
Auricon camera, Warhol asked Tavel to come to the Factory "and just  
sit in a lounge chair
off-camera and talk" while they shot Mario Montez in Harlot. (POP90)  
Tavel would go on to
write scripts for numerous other Warhol films including, Screen Test  
No. 2, The Life of
Juanita Castro, Vinyl, Horse, Hedy (The Shoplifter), Lupe and Kitchen.

Tavel was born in Brooklyn in May 1941 (IMDB). Although he wrote  
plays from the age of
fifteen, none of them were produced until he had already started  
writing films. Prior to
working with Warhol, he had worked with Jack Smith, including doing  
props for Flaming
Creatures.

Ronald Tavel: "So, I knew all those people with Ron Rice, who did the  
Flower Thief and
those are a whole community of Underground filmmakers to which, in a  
sense, Warhol was
Johnny-Come-Lately 'cause it was... you know... he would have entered  
at almost the last
phase of its heyday." (PS475)

Tavel's scripts were taken as a starting point for the films. The  
actors would often
improvise (as they often forgot the lines that had been given to  
them) or handwritten signs
would be held up telling them what to do as they were being filmed.  
According to Stephen
Koch, Harlot, was "done without a script, it was merely an idea."

Ronald Tavel: "We discovered... when we used stars or potential stars  
that very few had
enough steam to go their own, and that a great many of them panicked  
when the camera
was turned on and they didn't have the security of a script to work  
with."

The star of Harlot, Mario Montez, was Andy's first drag queen  
superstar - although Montez
preferred to call his dressing up as a female as "going into  
costume". Montez worked for
the post office when he wasn't making films. As a "very religious"  
Roman Catholic Puerto
Rican, Montez thought that although being in drag was a sin, if God  
really hated it, He
would have struck him dead. Montez had appeared in off-off-Broadway  
plays and had
done a lot of acting in the underground films of Jack Smith as well  
appearing in the films
of Ron Rice, Jose Rodriquez-Soltero, Bill Vehr and Helio Oiticica.

Harlot begins with a shot of Mario Montez in full drag on the Factory  
couch. Beside him is
Carol Koshinskie. Behind the couch is Gerard Malanga in a tuxedo and  
Phillip Fagan
(Andy's assistant/boyfriend at the time). Montez devours banana after  
banana as Carol
Koshinskie stares into the distance, holding a small dog in her lap,  
while Tavel, Billy Name
and Harry Fainlight talk off - screen about a myriad of subjects  
including what is going on
on-screen.
-- Gary Comenas Warholstars
www.warholstars.org
------------------------------
The Egyptian theater is located at 6712 Hollywood Blvd. Tickets are  
$9 general;, $6
students, seniors and American Cinematheque members. Free for  
Filmforum members.
Cash and checks only!

****Tickets only available at the door, CASH AND CHECK ONLY, but we  
will take
reservations through the email address until Saturday night, and hold  
all reservations until
6:45 pm.  ***

Filmforum is selling memberships!  They get you into shows for free!   
$50 single/
$75 double.  Again, cash or check only.  Inquire at the door, or send  
us an email at
lafilmforum at yahoo.com

Parking validation at the Hollywood & Highland parking complex. Park  
4 hours for
$2 with validation. Free street parking also generally available.

**For full and up-to-date information, please visit our website at  
www.lafilmforum.org or
email us at lafilmforum at yahoo.com **

***For a complete listing of alternative films in Los Angeles, check
www.filmradar.com

Los Angeles Filmforum is the city's longest-running organization  
dedicated to
weekly screenings of experimental film, documentaries, and video  
art.  This is our 30th
year!

Coming soon to Los Angeles Filmforum:







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