NY, NY is a fifteen-minute movie lensed by Francis Thompson in 1957, and scored by Gene Forrell, whose brilliant jazz-orchestral-Carl Stalling accompaniment deserves equal status to the visuals. Lensed is the right word - Thompson apparently spent years making his own lenses to give a uniquely kaleidoscopic effect. Information about him is surprisingly slim on the internet, with even the usually reliable wikipedia falling short. A private man.
NY, NY's abstract geometric style owes something to German Expressionism, perhaps, but its colorful lightheartedness and the synchronised, animated score make it easy and beguiling entertainment, even if you're not out of your head on drugs. You can watch it right here at th' Foam-O-Drome© - be a come-with guy! It's fifteen furshlugginer minutes! You can so do this!
Gentleman blotter-muncher Aldous Huxley has this to say:
“And then there is what may be called the Distorted Documentary; a new form of visionary art, admirably exemplified by Mr. Francis Thompson’s film, NY, NY. In this very strange and beautiful picture we see the city of New York as it appears when photographed through multiplying prisms, or reflected in the backs of spoons, polished hub caps, spherical and parabolic mirrors. We still recognize houses, people, shop fronts, taxicabs, but recognize them as elements in one of those living geometries which are so characteristic of the visionary experience."
Hmm - the visionary experience - what can he be talking about?
Your own personal copy is here.
ReplyDeleteStable comprehension is an illusion...
ReplyDeleteand, so is the sanity that you think you see in the mirror.
The visionary experience is not dependent on the hallucinogens.
Light is the only entheogen.
The spirit is its prism.
The flesh is its reflex.
Huh???
Questions?
DeleteYou, sir?
At the back?
i know everything. i must have just forgotten about this flick.
Deletei love the music. it is indeed stalling-like.
Mr. Forrell composed commercial jingles and conducted and recorded the Firestone Christmas albums for many years.
Could this be the inspiration for "Koyannisqatsi"? ya think? or naw?
DeleteCheers,
obeYGravity
OG - You're not the first person I've heard to make that astute observation.
DeleteLife Out Of Sync.
Francis Thompson is a madman to be so imaginative in creating such lenses. The effects are impressive in their pre CGI era... even so today! A lot of the imagery suggests the modern vision of an over developed Los Angeles.
ReplyDeleteThe music was quite perfect for the film.
Strangely...15 minutes never seemed so short!
Thank you, Farq!
I recommend the production to 4/5 guys who hang out here!
NY, NY was de rigueur at "Midnight Movies" in the late 60s to early 70s, where most of the audience was "dosed".
ReplyDeleteMy wife sold some art to his longtime partner Alexander Hammid.
Huxley's exit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzvC2t_LeI
off subject, but I understand you are searching for Flying Cowboys. https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZXxTsXZV4cv0v2NX1bz46rA2DVPLpDgsWhk
DeleteThanks pmac!
DeleteOnly "The Horses" works, can you re-upload?
On it
DeleteThanks for the link to the account of Huxley's last earthly hours. I recently finished Sybille Bedford's involving 1973 biography and it has been an eye opener. Huxley foresaw the technocracy that currently calls the shots worldwide; his prescience was staggering.
DeleteHuxley foresaw so much more than Toffler.
DeleteJKC-try this.
Deletehttps://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=kZvsCsXZ34u3rg9oKou17mG21GlOmHWtV60y
Perfect! Thank you so much!
DeleteNY, NY; https://archive.org/details/0310_Day_in_New_York_A_11_00_49_00
ReplyDelete