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Empire (1965 film)

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Empire
File:Empire Andy Warhol.jpg
Two frames of the film
Directed byAndy Warhol
Produced byAndy Warhol
CinematographyJonas Mekas
Release date
1964
Running time
485 minutes
CountryTemplate:Film US
LanguageSilent

Empire (1964) is a silent, black and white film made by Andy Warhol. It consists of eight hours and five minutes of continuous slow motion footage of the Empire State Building in New York City. Abridged showings of the film were never allowed, and supposedly the very unwatchability of the film was an important part of the reason the film was created. However, a legitimate Italian VHS produced in association with the Andy Warhol Museum in 2000 contains only an extract of 60 minutes. Its use of the long take in extremis is an extension of Warhol's earlier work the previous year with Sleep.

Shooting

It was filmed on the night of July 25–26 from 8:06 p.m. to 2:42 a.m. from the 41st floor of the Time-Life Building, from the offices of the Rockefeller Foundation. It was shot at 24 frames per second but is projected at 16 fps, so that, even though only about 6 hours and 36 minutes of film was made, the film when screened is about 8 hours and 5 minutes long.

Synopsis

The film begins with a totally white screen and as the sun sets, the image of the Empire State Building emerges. The floodlights on its exterior come on, the building's lights flicker on and off for the next 6½ hours, then the floodlights go off again in the next to the last reel so that the remainder of the film takes place in nearly total darkness.[1] The movie was filmed with Andy Warhol directing and filmmaker Jonas Mekas working as cinematographer. During three of the reel changes, filming recommenced before the lights in the filming room were switched off, making the faces of Warhol and Mekas momentarily visible in the reflection of the window each time.[2]

Showings

In 2005, the film was projected in its entirety on the external wall of the Royal National Theatre's fly tower in London.[3][4] It was also screened in its entirety on Saturday December 4th 2010 at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill NC, with live musical accompaniment, by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Ackland Art Museum and Interdisciplinary Program in Cinema.

Significance

In 2004, Empire was added to the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in recognition of the cultural, historical and aesthetic significance of the movie, as well as the risk of the original movie reels "no longer being preserved" (even though the Andy Warhol Museum's own preservation of the huge Warhol film/videotape catalogue is unusual in the world of underground film). In 2007, website Nerve selected Empire as one of "The Thirteen Greatest Long-Ass Movies of All Time".[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ Angell, Callie (1994). The Films of Andy Warhol Part II. p. 16. ASIN B0006P70ZM.
  2. ^ "A Controversy Over Empire". NY Art. Retrieved 2008-11-10.
  3. ^ Smith, David (2005-09-18). "Warhol's art film to lull London to sleep". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  4. ^ "Warhol film Empire makes UK debut". BBC News. 2005-10-07. Retrieved 2008-11-12.
  5. ^ Archived 2008-03-16 at the Wayback Machine
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