Camp (film)

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Movie
Original title Camp
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1965
length 70 minutes
Rod
Director Andy Warhol
production Andy Warhol
occupation

Camp is a Underground - experimental film by Andy Warhol . It was filmed in Warhol's studio, The Factory, in 16mm format in August or September 1965 . It premiered on November 22, 1965 at the Film Makers' Cinematheque (125 West 41st Street, Manhattan ).

action

The black and white - sound film with a length of 70 minutes shows actors who in the manner of a vaudeville - or vaudeville singing -performance, dance and make jokes. As Master of Ceremonies acts Gerard Malanga . Paul Swan dances in a gladiator costume to the music of Richard Wagner , Mario Montez , as usual in women's clothes, sings If I could shommy like my sister Kate , and Gerard Malanga sings the poem Camp , a parody of Allen Ginsberg's Howl . At the end, Donyle , a black model, shows off a backless dress and a fur cape. The scenery is arranged like an amateur theater performance: When an actor gives his performance, all other participants become spectators and applaud at the end. The scenery is reminiscent of Gustave Courbet's painting L'Atelier du peintre , but is heavily lit by bright lighting ( sun guns ) and thus exaggerated into the extremely artificial.

background

With the film Warhol addresses the essay Notes on Camp by Susan Sontag (German: Notes on Camp , in: Akzente , born 1966), published in 1964, and the aesthetics of good "bad taste" discussed therein in his own way. The historical significance of his film consists in breaking taboos with what is conventionally understood as "good entertainment". The once famous dancer Paul Swan , over 80 years old at the time of the recording, is just a ridiculous copy of himself, he remarks several times that the pitilessly filmed scenes should be "cut out". The cinematic-theatrical illusion is constantly interrupted by random zooms , lighting technicians who carry their portable spotlights across the stage, and by the undisciplined behavior of the actors. Jack Smith , in a completely exaggerated way, refuses to depict anything and asks about the toilet. These follies and embarrassments are a nuisance to the viewer whose expectations are undermined. Ultimately, he only has the insight that the "showbiz" is just creating an artificial reality that distracts him from his actual existential state of mind.

literature

  • Enno Patalas (ed.): Andy Warhol and his films: A documentary . Heyne, Munich 1971, ISBN 0-200-41991-9 .
  • Stephen Koch: Stargazer. The Life, World and Films of Andy Warhol . London 1974; Updated reissue by Marion Boyars, New York 2002, ISBN 0-7145-2920-6 .
  • Bernard Blistène (Ed.): Andy Warhol, Cinema: à l'occasion de l'Exposition Andy Warhol Rétrospective (21 juin - 10 septembre 1990) organized à Paris par le Musée National d'Art Moderne au Center Georges Pompidou . Ed. du Center Georges Pompidou, Paris 1990, ISBN 2-908393-30-1 .
  • Debra Miller: Billy Name: Stills from the Warhol films . Prestel, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7913-1367-3 .
  • Astrid Johanna Ofner (Ed.): Andy Warhol - Filmmaker. A retrospective of the Viennale and the Austrian Film Museum October 1 to 31, 2005 . Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85266-282-6 .

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