Responce 4

1. I chose to watch Joe Jones Smoking. To me, it fits well into the fluxfilm category, very similar to the one where Ono stops smiling. It does use an extremely slow motion camera which, as I stated in class, I feel kind breaks the fluxfilm rules. It is an incredibly interesting and beautiful image though, personally, I felt I would have enjoyed and appreciated it more if were a bit faster. To me, these slow motion type films are just too slow. I feel there has to be some higher level of movement in this to truly appreciate it. But, again, that is just personal.

2. Fluxus films don't fit Sitney's definition of the avent-garde and, thusly, aren't there because, according to him, the avent-garde should represent the human mind, but fluxus films are just created for the sake of creating something. They aren't about (or don't have to) representing anything other than the art of creation.

3. To Jack Smith, Maria Montez seemed to be this image of liberation and compete freedom from this world. She seemed to create her own world and then make you apart and comfortable with it. She was, in some ways, also seen as a drag queen. Not that she was a drag queen, but her costumes were so elaborate and daring (as in Cobra Woman) that she was seen as a very liberating figure. Smith states that he couldn't tear his eyes away from her during the film. While I would agree with one of the interviewees that she doesn't appear to be a good actor, she certain seems to bring a strong presence and her design is just gorgeous. She almost seems like a proto-Lady Gaga.

4. Many filmmakers, including Jack Smith, often used garbage and trash that department stores, or really anyone, was throwing away in order to make their film sets, costumes, or props. Hollywood often spent huge amounts of money to hide these sorts of things, making the world look flawless, where people like Smith would put them right out in the open for everyone to see. The material was very cheap, if not free, and gave his films amazing unique looks.

5. Jonas Mekas began showing Flaming Creatures around the country, putting it almost on tour. He took much of the money and fame from doing this and gave little on no credit to Smith. Even by being arrested it seemed he was the one defying the culture not smith. The metaphor of a lobster was used and he was often referred to as "Uncle Fishhook".

6. Normal Love appeared to be the true reality of people. That it was more real than the world most people walk through everyday. It was their imagination and their dreamlike states let loose and allowed people to live these kinds of dreams and "realities" through his film. Many people copied Smith's image and look (as he called the "icing") but failed to see the importances and messages of his film. They entirely overlooked the freedom they provided and simply focused on his aesthetics.

7. Jack, unlike Warhol and others, refused to let capitalism take his art and turn it into a commercial product or, at least, to not let capitalism change his art's meaning. He wanted so badly to resist the idea of capitalism and make art something unique and enjoyable, and something not for the masses. No more masterpieces meant that once art became a masterpiece, it was something known and desired by the masses and, more importantly, people wanted and desired as a piece of status or monetary value. When something reached that state, to Smith, it was no longer art.

8. Warhol's early films were very simple, minimalistic, and silent. Things like Kiss, Haircut, Empire, etc, were extremely long and "publicity films". They were not all the same, however. Empire was a camera on a tripod, rolling for hours where Sleep and different angles filed at different intervals and edited together.

9. Screen tests basically documented everyone or anything that came through Warhol's factory. He seemed to feel that everything was important or, perhaps, equally unimportant, but nonetheless he shot everything he could. Style or uniqueness was not important and he often shot people over and over in similar or identical fashions.

10. Warhol's first sound films were much like his earlier films and seemed to be portrait or documentary like films. Many of these films Restaurant, Afternoon, etc. followed Edie Sedgwick and Warhol's right hand man for sound was Ronald Tavel.