April Movie of the Month: Empire (1964)

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Cinema Discusso > April Movie of the Month: Empire (1964)

TrixRabbi: Aug 20, 2010; Time for a little robot chauvinism!

Empire was a film that was always waiting to be made.

Since the invention of the movie camera, the earliest films were of simple scenes or objects. The Lumiere brothers shot trains, gardens, static shots focused on a single moment. As film grew beyond these short scenes and evolved into a medium for feature-length storytelling, the novelty of a single object on camera quickly disappeared. It was no longer a spectacle simply to see an object move before your face. It was commonplace and mainstream audiences looking for entertainment grabbed on to movies as means for excitement, laughs, and mindlessness.

But Empire was always waiting in the subconscious. It was a possibility, an inevitability at that. Theoretically you could make an eight hour film that was a single, unmoving shot of a building. And because it could happen, it had to happen. It took until 1964 for Andy Warhol to do it.

Empire is a film made in defiance of the idea of cinema as a sensory experience. If anything it is more like a sensory deprivation chamber. It is meant for you to get lost in a single, flickering image. It is meant to deprive you of sound, music, narrative. If you're not bored watching Empire then Warhol has failed. The Lumiere's machine printed spectacle to celluloid; Warhol's films are anti-spectacle.

I can't say I've actually watched Empire in it's 485 minute entirety - few people can. Part of it is that I doubt I could get through it in a single sitting, another part of it is I'm not even sure where you can find a complete copy. One hour-long edits are floating around the internet, but never the complete version. You'd either have to have access to a print and a projector, or be lucky enough to live near a museum or a miraculously still-functioning avant-garde arthouse theater in order to see it proper. But Empire was never about really watching it, now was it? It's about the idea. It's a theoretical film meant more to be talked about and mythologized than actually watched "proper." Like other experimental projects, such as 24 Hour Psycho, you subject yourself to as much as you can until you feel you've gotten the idea and move on to the next piece in the museum. Some may argue me on this point - critic and filmmaker Jonas Mekas notably raved that all of Warhol's works demanded complete viewing (his jaw later dropped when Warhol ditched a screening of one of his own films within minutes, leaving Mekas to watch the entire static shot by himself).

One person who has watched the entire piece is critic J.J. Murphy, author of "The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol." In the book, Murphy calls Empire "a cosmic film" and describes the soaring, ethereal feeling the film creates when watched in its entirety in the cold darkness of a theater. There is a majestic quality to the image. Although internet bootlegs have rendered the picture muddy and pixelated, the crisp screenshots of the movie as it should be are stunningly beautiful - left to be interpreted endlessly. Is the building a triumph of mankind? A glowing tower to success? An eyesore in the night sky? Maybe a Freudian phallic joke? What we do know is that it never moves. A building is a building and it will stand motionless and erect until a wrecking ball tears into its sides. The building is there, it does not change.

What of the name? Empire? Is it a critique on American politics? A tribute? Or just thoughtless naming along the lines of his other static movies like Sleep and Eat and Blow Job? As you can see, I have a lot more questions about Empire than I do answers.

I'll end this talking a little bit about the production. The movie was filmed in a single night from July 25th to the 26th, 1964 from the 41st floor of the Time Life Building. Mekas served as cinematographer and during several reel changes, his and Warhol's reflections can be seen in the window. But oddly enough, as many critics have suggested over the years, Warhol's movie is not cinema verite or reality as it is or in any way the unedited truth of the world. Empire does not take place in real time. The movie was shot at 24 frames per second and initially ran 6 hours and 36 minutes. In editing, Warhol slowed down the film to 16 frames per second, extending it to be 8 hours and 5 minutes. So when you watch Empire, you are actually watching the Empire State Building in slow motion. Think about that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMCeDBn1Zu0

The Complete Movie of the Month Listing:
_{1776 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 24 Hour Party People | 8 1/2 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | Aguirre: The Wrath of God | All That Jazz |American Movie | A Midnight Clear | The Babadook | Baraka | The Battle of Algiers | Being There | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Bicycle Thief | Black Hawk Down | Blade | Branded to Kill | The Brave Little Toaster | Breaking Away | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Brief Encounter | Bullet in the Head | Charade | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | Close-Up | The Conversation | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover | Day For Night | The Court Jester | Death Race 2000 | Dead Man | Darkman | Detour | Devils on the Doorstep | Do the Right Thing | Double Indemnity | Downfall | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | El Topo | Falling Down | A Face In The Crowd | Fanny and Alexander | Fat City | Funny Bones | Galaxy Quest | Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai | Glengarry Glen Ross | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Horor of Dracula | La Haine | The Ice Storm | The Intruder | It's a Wonderful Life | Judgement at Nuremberg | Jumanji | The King of Comedy | Last Train From Gun Hill | The Leopard | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Little Shop of Horrors | Living in Oblivion | The Long Goodbye | Love & Death | M | Masculin F�minin | Man on Fire | The Man Who Would Be King | Modern Times | The Monster Squad | Mousehunt | Mulholland Drive | My Best Friend's Wedding | My Darling Clementine | My Own Private Idaho | Naked | Outland | The Panic in Needle Park | Peeping Tom | Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Play Time | The Proposition | Punishment Park | The Pusher Trilogy | Rififi/Rash�mon | Red Angel | The Ref | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Ronin | The Rules of the Game | Safe | Schizopolis | Son of Frankenstein | The Squid and the Whale | Stop Making Sense | The Super Inframan | Sunset Boulevard | Surviving The Game | The Sweet Hereafter | The Third Man | Titicut Follies | Vampyr | The Vanishing | Videodrome | The Wild Bunch | Wit | Withnail & I | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Zardoz}

TrixRabbi fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Apr 2, 2016

# ? Apr 1, 2016 02:32

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 00:20

Zogo: Jul 29, 2003

This is one I've wanted to see for some time but like Napoleon and Greed I've been stubbornly waiting until the end of time for the full versions to appear in 8K or something. There's an 8+ hour one on Youtube but the quality is horrendous and it might be looped.

The one avant-garde thing I watched and liked recently was Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son. Another one that's hard to track down.

TrixRabbi posted:

...Murphy calls Empire "a cosmic film" and describe the soaring, ethereal feeling the film creates when watch in its entirety in the cold darkness of a theater. There is a majestic quality to the image.

It reminds me of that scene in Manhattan which could also be looped for hours: https://youtu.be/3dT0bF9AS90?t=4m29s

The Scarface blimp also comes to mind: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biC1-zuWK_s

I like those shots that establish large cities via their skyline/cityscapes. So many examples out there:
https://youtu.be/vsO4XrL-e6M?t=10s

# ? Apr 2, 2016 00:15

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD: Sep 14, 2007; everything is yours

I recently saw Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son. I was pretty drunk so at the time it just made me bemused and a little bewildered. Since then I've had dreams featuring it. The silence and repetition is not really something I can describe. Zapruderish? Like that ad for The VVitch said, it felt like watching something I'm not supposed to see.

# ? Apr 2, 2016 02:32

TrixRabbi: Aug 20, 2010; Time for a little robot chauvinism!

Zogo posted:

This is one I've wanted to see for some time but like Napoleon and Greed I've been stubbornly waiting until the end of time for the full versions to appear in 8K or something. There's an 8+ hour one on Youtube but the quality is horrendous and it might be looped.

Yeah I'm pretty sure that one's a fake loop and I can't imagine looking at that muddy picture for so long. I would highly recommend checking out Napoleon though regardless of if it's complete or not. The triptych isn't likely to be available soon as far as I can tell and I can't imagine it would look great on a TV anyway. But it's just a drat good, action-packed movie and well worth seeing. And there's some good quality versions out there.

As for Greed, well the 4 hour version is probably the best you're going to get barring a miracle.

But yeah, I would love to see Empire get some sort of multi-disc release, even if just for colleges. I know the materials are out there, I imagine it's just the sense that it was never meant to be watched in a living room. It really is more something that belongs as a part of a museum exhibit. Have you watched any other Warhol? A lot of his stuff is much more watchable and entertaining in an oddball sort of way. Other stuff that is more pure artistry, but a lot shorter, like Blow Job, is definitely worth tracking down. Blow Job is an interesting one as it's only 30 minutes, but the man's face and the shadows begin to contort and it becomes a very surreal experience.

# ? Apr 2, 2016 03:38

Uncle Boogeyman: Jul 22, 2007

In addition to a landmark in experimental filmmaking, Empire is also a triumph of special effects (there is, in fact, no Empire State Building in NYC).

# ? Apr 2, 2016 18:17

Samuel Clemens: Oct 4, 2013; I think we should call the Avengers.

But only because David Copperfield made it disappear in 1983.

# ? Apr 2, 2016 20:15

HP Hovercraft: Jan 1, 2006; one thing a computer can do that most humans can't is be sealed up in a cardboard box and sit in a warehouse

My favorite Warhol film is Chelsea Girls, maybe because I'm more of a Paul Morrissey fan when it comes to movies. Chelsea Girls is relatively short at 3 hours and the split screen effect is fascinating. Originally the reels were meant to be shown in whatever order the projectionist wanted and only one screen actually has sound which was also up to the projectionist's discretion. Some is interminably boring while other parts are fascinating, especially whenever Nico is on screen. Check it out if you haven't.

I will probably never watch Empire for obvious reasons. I've seen Blow Job and Eat and Vinyl (best version of A Clockwork Orange) and a few other short ones. Empire isn't even his longest film, he has a 25 hour long one called Four Stars (****) out there somewhere.

# ? Apr 2, 2016 21:59

Zogo: Jul 29, 2003

HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:

I recently saw Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son. I was pretty drunk so at the time it just made me bemused and a little bewildered. Since then I've had dreams featuring it. The silence and repetition is not really something I can describe. Zapruderish? Like that ad for The VVitch said, it felt like watching something I'm not supposed to see.

The way Ken Jacobs pores over the old short seems in line with the obsessive analysis that the Zapruder film has gotten over the years.

My thoughts on TTtPS:

A very distinctive and mind-expanding experience that forces the viewer to think outside the box. A silent film with no intertitles that's simultaneously relaxing, meditative and at times incomprehensible.

The subject matter is the thirteen minute 1905 short (of the same name). The gist is that a man steals a pig and sets off a chase (similar to the close of an episode of Benny Hill or the opening of a Jackass film) that lasts for about ten minutes through a few houses with a dozen people giving chase (the short is also repeated at the end for a memorable conclusion). What follows that is a deep visual analysis of the moving pictures. Super slow zoom with a focus on the people and their movements.

As we spend so much time in hypervisual analysis we enter a movie within a movie so-to-speak and wonder what the lens will focus on next. It's as if we're examining a large mural closely for a few hours or poring over the words in a book vividly imagining every person and setting.

Viewers all have different experiences and biases that lead them to see and remember different things. Our minds are very finite things too. None of us can recall a typical film perfectly from beginning to end. When Ken Jacobs forces us to look at the details very closely it makes us question just how much everyone misses in the average film. Imagine watching some 48 hour version of Playtime that employed this technique.

Most people intuitively know that watching film at home is different from the theater experience but we don't talk as much about the many other nuances that exist i.e. watching a film on an iPhone, iPad, laptop, 19" TV, 30" TV, 40" TV, 100" TV (and everything in between). Each size is going to bring about different details that may go unnoticed in other viewing formats. Or how about the scourge of overscan? Not to even get into the interactive aspect of theater group experience or viewing group dynamics with friends/family.

When moving pictures become too slow, too fast or too up close they become more abstract and meaningless. This is easily demonstrated in the film.

One can apply this magnifying glass technique to almost any film. I've done it myself using the zoom and slow down features of my DVD player many times when something has caught my eye.

Other memorable stuff:

-At one point the camera spins around and we're looking at the pulsating light projection itself.

-At times the ghost controller (Ken Jacobs) takes the reel backward and forward at dizzying speeds.

-White and black splotches of abstractionism. :wtf:

TrixRabbi posted:

I would highly recommend checking out Napoleon though regardless of if it's complete or not. The triptych isn't likely to be available soon as far as I can tell and I can't imagine it would look great on a TV anyway. But it's just a drat good, action-packed movie and well worth seeing. And there's some good quality versions out there.

As for Greed, well the 4 hour version is probably the best you're going to get barring a miracle.

But yeah, I would love to see Empire get some sort of multi-disc release, even if just for colleges. I know the materials are out there, I imagine it's just the sense that it was never meant to be watched in a living room. It really is more something that belongs as a part of a museum exhibit.

I'll probably end up watching Greed/Napoleon in their truncated/chopped versions. It's better than nothing.

I've never liked the Indiana Jones notion of "this belongs in a museum!" I say if someone wants to watch Empire on their iPhone then let them. Ken Jacobs had the same restricting mindset with TTtPS (that it should only be projected very large). I watched it on a 19" TV and got a ton out of it. I'd get more out of the supersized version but then the same thing could be said for most other films.

TrixRabbi posted:

Have you watched any other Warhol?

I've seen his acting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejr9KBQzQPM

# ? Apr 3, 2016 00:00

TrixRabbi: Aug 20, 2010; Time for a little robot chauvinism!

I've been trying to find a decent quality version of Tom, Tom the Piper's Son. If I can't see it on a big screen then I'd like to at least have a version that isn't muddy and pixelated. That seems to defeat the purpose. But again, I think Jacobs is very restrictive with his films and most of them are only available at University prices (I remember seeing him charge several hundred dollars for a copy of Star Spangled to Death).

Zogo posted:

I've seen his acting:

Anybody else hungry now?

# ? Apr 3, 2016 17:34

Zogo: Jul 29, 2003

TrixRabbi posted:

I've been trying to find a decent quality version of Tom, Tom the Piper's Son. If I can't see it on a big screen then I'd like to at least have a version that isn't muddy and pixelated. That seems to defeat the purpose. But again, I think Jacobs is very restrictive with his films and most of them are only available at University prices (I remember seeing him charge several hundred dollars for a copy of Star Spangled to Death).

The source is that 111 year old short so I don't believe you'll get anything close to pristine anywhere.

TrixRabbi posted:

Anybody else hungry now?

Luckily I ate right after watching that. He could've used more ketchup. All those moments would've been lost in time like tears in the rain if not for Youtube.

One of my favorite anecdotes is how a lot of celebrities thought Warhol faked his death and was going to show up at his funeral/memorial service to meet people. Shows you what kind of person he was.

# ? Apr 5, 2016 22:17