| The Great Blondino | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | |
| Starring | Chuck Wiley |
| Distributed by | Canyon Cinema |
Release date |
|
Running time | 42 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20,000 |
The Great Blondino is a 1967 American experimental film directed by Robert Nelson and William T. Wiley.
Blondino is a naïve young man who wanders the streets dressed in medieval attire and pushing a wheelbarrow. He has series of adventures, all the while being pursued by a cop. These stories are mixed with sequences showing Blondino's dreams. Blondino eventually dies after falling from a tightrope but is revived in the film's conclusion.
The Great Blondino stars William's brother Chuck Wiley as Blondino, with Beat poet Lew Welch as the cop. The film was shot in San Francisco over the course of 6–8 sessions in 1966. [1] [2] Filming began with a Bell & Howell camera, but after it broke down, Nelson bought an Arriflex camera for $3,500 as a replacement. [3] The protagonist and his climactic tightrope scene were inspired by tightrope walker Charles Blondin, who performed stunts while crossing the Niagara Gorge. [2] The film's soundtrack was performed by Wiley's band Moving Van Walters and His Truck. Nelson recorded them one day in Richmond, California. [3] The total production budget was roughly $20,000, a large cost for an underground film at the time. [4]
The film premiered April 13, 1967 at the Cedar Alley Cinema in San Francisco. Later that year, it screened at the Brussels Experimental Film Festival. [5] When The Great Blondino was sent to Australia, it was censored by the customs department. A scene of Blondino stroking a rhinoceros horn required review by the chief censor, who took issue with a separate scene in which a girl uses profane language. [6]
The film is now part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection. [7]
According to Lenny Lipton, The Great Blondino "went over…like a lead balloon." [8] Nevertheless, Lipton championed the film following its release and said that it was "decidedly worth seeing", commenting that its "variations on the theme of the interesting and different in a super technological society are interesting, and often beautiful." [9] Film theorist Gene Youngblood called The Great Blondino his favorite piece by Nelson. [10] P. Adams Sitney identified Nelson's The Grateful Dead and The Great Blondino as highlights of the 1967 Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival . [11] In Roger Greenspun's review for The New York Times , he remarked, "Blondino is a kind of cosmic clown, and…I feel guilty about not liking him better than I do." [12] Critic J. Hoberman wrote for The Village Voice that Nelson "tosses off more good visual ideas in 45 minutes than many filmmakers do in a lifetime". [13] [14]
Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, particularly early ones, relate to arts in other disciplines: painting, dance, literature and poetry, or arise from research and development of new technical resources.
Structural film was an avant-garde experimental film movement prominent in the United States in the 1960s. A related movement developed in the United Kingdom in the 1970s.
Jordan Belson was an American artist and abstract cinematic filmmaker who created nonobjective, often spiritually oriented, abstract films spanning six decades.
Wavelength is a 1967 experimental film by Canadian artist Michael Snow. Considered a landmark of avant-garde cinema, it was filmed over one week in December 1966 and edited in 1967, and is an example of what film theorist P. Adams Sitney describes as "structural film", calling Snow "the dean of structural filmmakers."
Flaming Creatures is a 1963 American experimental film directed by Jack Smith. The film follows an ensemble of drag performers through several disconnected vignettes, including a lipstick commercial, an orgy, and an earthquake. It was shot on a rooftop on the Lower East Side on a very low budget of only $300, with a soundtrack from Smith's roommate Tony Conrad. It premiered April 29, 1963 at the Bleecker Street Cinema in Greenwich Village.
Peter Barrington Hutton was an American experimental filmmaker, known primarily for his silent cinematic portraits of cities and landscapes around the world. He also worked as a professional cinematographer, most notably for his former student Ken Burns, as well as cinematography for Lizzie Borden's Born in Flames, Sheila McLaughlin and Lynne Tillman's Committed, assorted films by artist Red Grooms and Albert Maysles' The Gates.
Fireworks is a 1947 homoerotic experimental short film by Kenneth Anger. Filmed in his parents' home in Beverly Hills, California, over a long weekend while they were away, the film stars Anger and explicitly explores themes of homosexuality and sadomasochism. It is the earliest of his works to survive. Fireworks is known for being the first gay narrative film in the United States.
Leonard Lipton was an American author, filmmaker, lyricist and inventor. At age 19, Lipton wrote the poem that became the basis for the lyrics to the song "Puff, the Magic Dragon". He wrote books on independent filmmaking and become a pioneer in the field of projected three-dimensional imagery. Leonard Lipton developed 3D cinema technology that is used in RealD 3D cinemas. His technology is used to show 3D films on more than 30,000 theater screens worldwide.
Nathaniel Dorsky is an American experimental filmmaker and film editor. His film career began during the New American Cinema movement of the 1960s, when he met his partner Jerome Hiler. He won an Emmy Award in 1967 for his work on the film Gaugin in Tahiti: Search for Paradise.
Cosmic Ray is a 1962 American experimental short film directed by Bruce Conner. With both found footage and original material, it features images of countdown leader, a nude woman dancing, a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and military exercises. It is soundtracked by a performance of Ray Charles's "What'd I Say" and has been recognized by some critics as one of the first music videos.
Robert Nelson was an American experimental film director.
Jerome Hiler is an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and stained glass artist. Having started in New York during the New American Cinema movement, Hiler and his partner Nathaniel Dorsky moved in 1971 to San Francisco, where for many years his work was shown in the context of private salon screenings. He began to publicly screen his films in the late 1990s, releasing new films regularly since 2010. Hiler's work makes use of vivid colors, musical rhythms or structures, and layered superimpositions edited in camera.
All My Life is a 1966 American experimental short film directed by Bruce Baillie. It shows a continuous shot of a fence, soundtracked by Ella Fitzgerald's 1936 debut single "All My Life". Film critic P. Adams Sitney identified it as an early example of what he termed structural film.
Anticipation of the Night is a 1958 American avant-garde film directed by Stan Brakhage. It was a breakthrough in the development of the lyrical style Brakhage used in his later films.
Side/Walk/Shuttle is a 1991 American avant-garde film directed by Ernie Gehr. It shows downtown San Francisco as seen at different angles from a moving elevator.
Adebar is a 1957 Austrian avant-garde short film directed by Peter Kubelka. It is the first entry in Kubelka's trilogy of metrical films, followed by Schwechater and Arnulf Rainer. Adebar is the first film to be edited entirely according to a mathematical rhythmic strategy.
The Way to Shadow Garden is a 1955 American experimental film directed by Stan Brakhage.
Blue Moses is a 1962 American experimental film directed by Stan Brakhage, starring Robert Benson.
Twice a Man is a 1963 American avant-garde film directed by Gregory Markopoulos.
The Illiac Passion is a 1968 American avant-garde film directed by Gregory Markopoulos.