Whitney Museum
February 8-April 1, 2007 

Films by : MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ, EIJA-LIISA AHTILA, CHANTAL AKERMAN, MATTHEW BARNEY, SAMUEL BECKETT, MARCO BRAMBILLA, LARRY CLARK, BRUCE CONNER, JOSEPH CORNELL, TACITA DEAN, DEXTER DALWOOD, TRACEY EMIN, ROBERT FRANK, JEAN-LUC GODARD, DOUGLAS GORDON, JOHAN GRIMONPREZ, REBECCA HORN, DEREK JARMAN, ISAAC JULIEN, JOHN LENNON, ALFRED LESLIE, SHARON LOCKHART, ROBERT LONGO, BABETTE MANGOLTE, CHRIS MARKER, ANTHONY McCALL, SHIRIN NESHAT, GASPAR NOÉ, YOKO ONO, RICHARD PRINCE, YVONNE RAINER, ED RUSCHA, DAVID  SALLE, WILHELM SASNAL, JULIAN SCHNABEL, CINDY SHERMAN, LAURIE SIMMONS, SAM TAYLOR-WOOD, ANDREW TYNDALL, CLEMENS VON WEDEMEYER, MARK WALLINGER, and ANDY WARHOL

DAILY SCREENINGS

11:30 am (Wed, Thurs) 1:30 pm (Fri)
Douglas Gordon, Feature Film, 2000. Video, color, sound; 60 min.
Shirin Neshat, Zarin, 2005. Super 35mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 20 min.

2:00 pm (Wed, Thurs) 4:00 pm (Fri)

Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy, 1959. 16mm film transferred to video, black-and-white, sound; 30 min.
Samuel Beckett, Film, 1965. 16mm transferred to video, black-and-white, silent; 21 min. Directed by Alan Schneider.

4:00 pm (Wed, Thurs) 6:00 pm (Fri)

Johan Grimonprez, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1998. Video, color, sound; 68 min.
(On Fridays, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y will be followed by Neshat’s Zarin and Gordon’s Feature Film.)


WEEKEND SCREENINGS
CUT February 24th and 25th
Cut explores the language and conventions of cinema: closing credits, the close-up shot, the cinema audience, the mechanics of a film shoot. 11:30 am       

Mark Wallinger, The End, 2006. 35mm film, black-and-white, sound; 12 min.
Dexter Dalwood, 1800, 2006. 35mm film, color, sound; 4:15 min.         
Clemens von Wedemeyer, Occupation, 2002. 35mm film, color, sound; 7:40 min.
Sharon Lockhart, Teatros Amazonas, 1999. 35mm film, color, sound; 40 min.
Wilhelm Sasnal, Marfa, 2005. 16mm film, color, sound; 26 min.
Douglas Gordon, Feature Film, 2000, Video, color, sound; 60 min.


HYPE MY LIGHT February 10th and March 17th
Joseph Cornell’s Surrealist collage cuts up a classic Hollywood silent film; Jack Kerouac’s cut-up poem narrates the Beat classic Pull my Daisy; Buster Keaton is the star of Samuel Beckett’s surreal Film, as well as the subject of Rebecca Horn’s Buster’s Bedroom, in which a young woman searches for Keaton’s spirit in the sanitorium where he recovered from alcoholism.

11:30 am

Joseph Cornell, Rose Hobart, 1936. 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 19 min.
Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, Pull My Daisy, 1959. 16mm, black-and-white, sound; 30 min.

2:00 pm

Samuel Beckett, Film, 1965. 16mm transferred to video, black-and-white, sound; 24 min.
Rebecca Horn, Buster’s Bedroom, 1991. 35mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 104 min. Courtesy Sean Kelly Gallery, New York


NARRATIVES February 24th and 25th
Four psychological narratives explore regret and love lost (Laurie Simmons); the failure of a marriage (Eija-Liisa Ahtila); a young Iranian prostitute’s descent into psychic collapse (Shirin Neshat); and a conversation between two sons of British film industry pioneers (both the artist’s uncles) and MOMA film curator Lawrence Kardish about their fathers’ pasts (Tacita Dean).

3:00 pm

Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Consolation Service, 1999. 35mm film, color, sound; 23 min.
Laurie Simmons, The Music of Regret, 2006. 35mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 40 min.
Shirin Neshat, Zarin, 2005. 35mm transferred to video, color, sound; 20 min.
Tacita Dean, The Uncles, 2004. 35mm anamorphic film, color, sound; 77 min.


MATTHEW BARNEY March 4th
Matthew Barney’s five-part Cremaster Cycle re-defined the relationship between art and cinema. This day devoted to Barney’s films includes the second film in the cycle, Cremaster 2, loosely based on Norman Mailer’s novel The Executioner’s Song, which tells the story of convicted killer Gary Gilmour–-legendarily the son of Harry Houdini. (In the film Houdini is played by Mailer himself).

In Barney’s latest film Drawing Restraint 9, a collaboration with Bjork, a gigantic sculpture of Vaseline is gradually constructed on the deck of a Japanese whaling ship. Two ‘occidental visitors’ (Barney and Bjork) perform a series of rituals on the ship until, drowning in Vaseline from the sculpture, they undergo a physical transformation.

11:30am

Cremaster 2, 1999. 35mm film, color, sound; 79 min.

3:00 pm

Drawing Restraint 9, 2005. 35mm film, color, sound; 145 min


FEAR EATS THE SOUL February 11th and March 18th
In Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s Rape, a cameraman follows a girl through a cemetery and the streets until she becomes trapped by his persistent pursuit. Johan Grimonprez’s 1997 narrative of plane hijackings from the 1950s to the 1980s chillingly foreshadowed the post-9/11 age. Tracy Emin’s first feature evokes her years growing up in the British seaside town of Margate through the eyes of six teenagers.

11:30am

Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Rape, 1969. 16mm film, color, sound; 77 min.

2:00 pm

Johan Grimonprez, Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y, 1998. Video, color, sound; 68 min.

4:00 pm

Tracey Emin, Top Spot, 2004. Video, color, sound; 63 min


ANDY WARHOL March 10th
The hundreds of films that Andy Warhol produced during the 1960s have been greatly influential to artists and mainstream filmmakers alike. The two films in this program suggest the range of concerns in Warhol’s film output. Lonesome Cowboys (1969), shot on location in Tuscon, Arizona, and a camp send-up of the traditional Hollywood Western. Poor Little Rich Girl (1965), the title of which references a 1936 Shirley Temple film, is a portrait of the young heiress, Edie Sedgwick. The film is split between a completely out-of-focus first reel and an in-focus second reel, perfectly capturing Sedgwick’s personality as she goes through her basic daily activities.

11:15 am

Andy Warhol, Lonesome Cowboys, 1969. 16mm film, color, sound; 109 min.

3:30 pm

Andy Warhol, Poor Little Rich Girl, 1965, 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 66 min.


ART INTO CINEMA March 11th and March 31st
The 1970s saw a surge of narrative films by artists. A hot air balloon rising above a village gradually disappears into the clouds in Apotheosis. Miracle follows a car mechanic as he undergoes a mysterious transformation. In Yvonne Rainer’s Lives of Performers, a man who cannot choose between two women makes both suffer. Argument dissects the insidious meanings of news and advertisements through three men’s examination of a copy of the New York Times. Luke, shot in 1967 and completed in 2004, captures a day on the set of Cool Hand Luke. What Maisie Knew, inspired by the Henry James novel, tells of a young girl’s experience at the hands of acrimoniously divorced parents.

11:30 am

Yoko Ono and John Lennon, Apotheosis, 1970. 16mm film, color, sound; 18 min.
Ed Ruscha, Miracle, 1975. 16mm film, color, sound; 30 min.

1:30 pm

Yvonne Rainer, Lives of Performers, 1972. 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 90 min.

3:00 pm

Anthony McCall and Andrew Tyndall, Argument, 1978. 16mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 84 min.
Babette Mangolte, What Maisie Knew, 1975. 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 58 min.
Bruce Conner, Luke, 2004. 8mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 22 min.


CINEMA INTO ART March 3rd and April 1st
Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, and Chantal Akerman deeply influenced artists’ films of the 1990s. This program screens three of their best known works, in which the rules of cinema were re-written. The late filmmaker and painter Derek Jarman’s influence continues to ripple through the art world. His last film Blue transcends images: a haunting soundtrack meditating on the disappearance of his vision and his impending death unfolds against a luminous blue screen. In Isaac Julien’s The Attendant, a young male museum visitor fantasizes about a black museum guard.

11:30 am

Chris Marker, La Jetée, 1962. 16mm film, black-and-white, sound; 27 min.

Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless. 1960. 35mm film, black-and-white, sound; 87 min.

              [Marker and Godard only on March 3rd]

Chantal Akerman, Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels, 1975. 16mm film, color, sound; 201 min. [Akerman only on April 1st]

4:30 pm

Derek Jarman, Blue, 1993. 35mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 79 min.
Isaac Julien, The Attendant, 1993. 35mm film, color, sound; 10 min


FIRST FEATURES Part 1 February 17th and March 25th
Robert Longo, Cindy Sherman, David Salle, and Julian Schnabel first emerged as key figures in the art world in the 1980s. In the mid 1990s, all four made their debut in cinema, creating Hollywood-style feature films. This program is a rare opportunity to see all four films, along with Larry Clark’s classic, disturbing first feature Kids.

11:00 am

Cindy Sherman, Office Killer, 1997. 35mm film, color, sound; 82 min.
David Salle, Search and Destroy, 1995. 35mm film, color, sound; 90 min.
Robert Longo, Johnny Mnemonic, 1995. 35mm film, color, sound; 98 min.


FIRST FEATURES Part 2 February 18th and March 24th

11:30 am

Larry Clark, Kids, 1995. 35mm film, color, sound; 91 min.
Julian Schnabel, Basquiat, 1996. 35mm film, color, sound; 106 min.


DESTRICTED Special screening, Saturday evening, March 3rd
7:30 pm

A compilation of erotic films by Marina Abramović, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, and Sam Taylor-Wood. Strictly for adults only