From: Steve Polta (email suppressed)
Date: Tue May 29 2007 - 13:38:02 PDT
I'm sorry to be coming to this exchange so late.
On January 20, 1998, San Francisco Cinematheque and
the Pacific Film Archive presented (at PFA) a
"screening" of such "infinitesimal" and
"supertemporal" works by Isou, Lemaitre and others,
presented by an outfit known as "The council of the
French section of the international front of
supercapitalist youths©". It was one of those
long-ish, pretty boring, kinda fun
"situationist"-inspired events in which audience
(myself included) was confronted with their own
boredom, lack of creativity and lack of original
ideas. The evening starts with the thing starting
like 30 minutes late with audeince standing in a line,
then individually blindfolded and led to seats all
over PFA (mine was in the entry hallway) where you
just sit for like twenty minutes. The youths would
come by and stuff marshmallows into your mouth. When
we finally made it in to the theatre, the room was
full of found vacation slides, audio cassettes and
photos. Audience was encouraged to use these to create
moving works of art while the works of Isou, Lemaitre,
et. al. were presented. STRAIN ANDROMEDA THE by Anne
McGuire ran, sound off (house lights on), throughout
(and actually concluded before the event, which gives
you a sense of its duration).
Sound like fun?
For those interested, I'm pasting below the entire
Program Note for the screening. Formatting is lost
(for which I apologize) but I think you'll get the
picture.
Here it is:
ALWAYS AT THE AVANT-GARDE OF THE
AVANT-GARDE UNTIL PARADISE AND BEYOND
Tuesday, January 20, 1998—Pacific Film Archive—7:30pm
Presented live by the French section of the
international front of supercapitalist youths©. Some
people might live happier ever after if they
understood better why the lettrists make these types
of movies instead of simply making well-made films,
good old war films, tear-jerking love films,
gadget-filled science fiction films, action-packed
karate films or kung fu films, like Steven Spielmerd,
Michael Snuf, or Jean-Luc Grolard. Cinema being like
god, the lettrists (who as some anonymous sources
indicate, gave it the last blow) have been pissing on
its grave ever since 1951, which may explain why their
films alone will be remembered by future generations.
Anyway, you are cordially invited to contribute to the
radical critique of political economy and civilization
in general by donating any piece of paper, newspaper
clipping, sticker, photograph, slide, piece of film,
vinyl record, audio cassette, audio tape,
videocassette, compact disc, floppy disc, etc., which
you might have in your possession. (Once given,
contributions will not be returned.)—The council of
the French section of the international front of
supercapitalist youths©.
Imagine, infinitesimal film by Albert Dupont, 1978.
The Evidence, infinitesimal film by Roland Sabatier,
1966. Vomit Cinema, Spit Cinema, Snot Cinema,
Excrement Cinema, Excretion Cinema, esthapeïrist film
by Maurice Lemaître, 1980. Like a Silent River: The
Happy Deaf and Blind Man’s Film, esthapeïrist film by
Maurice Lemaître, 1980. To Make a Film, supertemporal
film by Maurice Lemaître, 1963. A Super-Commercial
Film, infinitesimal and supertemporal film reduced
solely to cinema’s economic dimension by Roland
Sabatier, 1976. Your Film, infinitesimal film by
Maurice Lemaître, 1969. A Sentimental Film,
esthapeïrist and hyperchronist film by Maurice
Lemaître, 1980. Presence(s), imaginary, nonexistent,
or impossible infinitesimal film by Frédérique Devaux,
1980. A Film to Be Made, esthapeïrist and
hyperchronist film by Maurice Lemaître, 1970. The
Supertemporal Film (The Auditorium of Idiots),
supertemporal film by Isidore Isou, 1960. Contribution
to the Radical Critique of Political Economy and
Civilization in General (pseudo-subfuturist
plagiarism)®, by the French section of the
international front of supercapitalist youths©, 1997.
Our Cinema, supertemporal film by Maurice Lemaître,
1982. Disco, accepted and denied esthapeïrist and
supertemporal film by Roland Sabatier, 1978. The
Infinite Cinematographic Innovation, supertemporal
film by Isidore Isou, 1965. A Film to Take Home,
infinitesimal film by Maurice Lemaître, 1979.
Total running time: c. 2-1/2 to 3 hours, with thanks
to the letterist filmmakers and to the council of the
French section of the international front of
supercapitalist youths©.
Steve Polta
San Francisco Cinematheque
--- Pip Chodorov <email suppressed> wrote:
> Maurice Lemaître, Isidore Isou and the Lettristes
> have been making conceptual films since the
> 1950s, though their preferred terms are
> "supertemporal" (beyond time) and "infinitesimal"
> (beyond imaginary). Paris Experimental has just
> reissued Lemaitre's "oeuvres de cinéma" with a
> hundred or so such films.
> Pip Chodorov
>
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> <email suppressed>.
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
http://tv.yahoo.com/
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.