From: Myron Ort (email suppressed)
Date: Mon Dec 08 2008 - 19:32:55 PST
Now that you mention it, I think maybe you are right. I am not sure
I would be any better taking "criticism" the way Safer brought up a
known negative ringer like that. (The critic Hughes did not even
"see" what the real Basquat was doing! -- calling him the worst
painter to Schabel's second worst -- Hughes, imo, another jerk in
all likelihood). Schnabel faired much better when he was interviewed
along with David Bowie by Charlie Rose who actually knows his stuff
across many areas. This was back when Schnabel had made "Basquiat"
and in it Bowie had played Warhol. Incidentally, in that interview,
Bowie was the one who came across with a rather surprisingly deeper
aesthetic knowledge than the painter turned director, imo. But in any
case, it shows how a good interviewer like Rose can bring out the
best, and, as you say, in the end, Safer was a network jerk by
comparison, and Julian may have been correct saying that the ploy was
"lazy" on the part of Safer. But it was amusing how Schnabel couldn't
let it go....I probably would have behaved the same though if a
supposedly "friendly" interviewer brought up a known nemesis like that.
It is easy to be annoyed by this artist's somewhat overblown sukce$$,
but more power to him....it enabled him to make movies, and to even
make one that has been called (again by all too clever critics)
"Brakhage for dummies" for using a smattering of the maestro's
camera techniques (approximately) in the service of narrative, which,
as we know, is typical of cinema these last few decades especially,
however in this case, having chosen Brakhage, instead of just "fast
cutting" or a light show dazzle ala Belson etc. , and having stayed
on the techniques for a rather extended section. Really extended!
Friends assumed I would really like "Butterfly" immensely, but I had
to overcome resistance to seeing this type of camera used in that way
and I am still not totally comfortable with some kind of assumption
that Schnabel seems to have made "utilizing" that vocabulary so
uninhibitedly . That is why I wondered if he, Schnabel, ever
mentioned anything about seeing Brakhage films. I guess what annoys
me, and what is difficult to explain to friends who assume I would be
so impressed, is that there is, ever so subtly, the suggestion that
this "first person cinematic vocabulary (so elegantly, uniquely, and
miraculously innovated by Stan) is now somehow more "justified"
because a bit of it is in the service of an otherwise "normal"
narrative film. I don't know. Talk me down. Am I being too cranky?
So is Schnabel now an "experimental" filmmaker as well as being
independent and avant garde etc.?
(at least he's not "underground".....yet.)
Myron Ort
(ps. in my aesthetic arrogance "(in the eye of the beholder...")
seemed to me Basquiat often could "organize space and color" quite
well, I have yet to see this in Schnabel's work....but that is just
my own taste. {eg. remember the Hoyt Sherman link etc.)
hmmmm....I am in deep doo doo now......
{we are just talking here..... right....?}
On Dec 8, 2008, at 3:16 PM, V Wolfe wrote:
> The interviewer is the one who comes across like a jerk. I
> especially like where he asks Schnabel
> if he was a 'doper' because the artist mention marijuana. What an
> idiotic inteview. Kudos to
> Schnabel for getting through it. I'm sure it was extremely
> irritating, and in order to do the publicity
> for his films he had to put up with a lot of stupidity. Anyone who
> has tried to live as a professional
> artist in NYC knows how difficult that is. I give this guy a lot
> of credit. He even changed forms, which
> most people only dream about. I think Safer was jealous.
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> From: jason livingston <email suppressed>
>> Date: December 8, 2008 7:27:21 AM PST
>> To: email suppressed
>> Subject: Re: Schnabel
>> Reply-To: Experimental Film Discussion List
>> <email suppressed>
>>
>> I liked the film quite a bit, though Schnabel can come across as a
>> bit of a blowhard. Definitely seemed like Kaminski had borrowed
>> some of the blue-brown ice melts from Brakhage's Creation.
>>
>>
>> Jason
>> Ithaca, NY
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://jasontlivingston.com/
>>
>>
>> On Dec 7, 2008, at 11:45 PM, Myron Ort wrote:
>>
>>> Happen to see a repeat interview on 60 minutes. Why does this guy
>>> annoy me so much?....ooops, never mind. But I am curious, did he
>>> ever, in public or in print, acknowledge, mention, or otherwise
>>> credit Stan Brakhage, in any way, after he made that "acclaimed"
>>> Diving Bell Butterfly movie of his? Or are we just as glad he
>>> didn't?
>>>
>>> Myron Ort
>>>
>>>
>>> __________________________________________________________________
>>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.