Film Forum

Pull My Daisy
U.S., 1959
Directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie
Starring Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Delphine Seyrig
Approx. 26 min. 16mm. 

“Those who know Robert Frank’s stark, dispassionate pictures of blank-faced Americans, will be surprised by the zany humor of this film. A group of Frank’s friends (Ginsberg and painter Larry Rivers) loon about in a New York loft improvising around a scene from a Kerouac play about the Beat Generation. Straight society is represented by the bishop, his disapproving mother and prim sister, who are entertained with drinking, cussing, poetry and jazz. Kerouac provides an insane voice-over commentary which distances the audience by emphasizing the artificiality and self-parody of the play-acting. The uneasy mix of informality and posturing makes the film a forerunner of Warhol’s ‘home movies.’” – Time Out

16mm print courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Shown with

GEORGE KUCHAR’S BRONX: 3 Short Films
Hold Me While I’m Naked
Eclipse Of The Sun Virgin
Knocturne

U.S., 1966, 67, 68
Directed by George Kuchar
Starring George Kuchar, Donna Kerness
Approx. 40 min. 16mm. 

“Born with a twin brother, Mike, in 1942 on the Isle of Manhattan, we mainly grew up in the Bronx and were schooled in the world of commercial art. I supported myself, and my hobby of making 8mm movies, with paychecks from that Midtown Manhattan world of angst and ulcers. Earning enough money to switch to 16mm in the 1960s (1965), both of us started splicing together bigger strips of film and lugging around heavier projectors. The burgeoning underground film movement, which at that time was in full swing, gave us an outlet for our work and we continued grinding out our separate visions on celluloid.” – George Kuchar

16mm prints courtesy Anthology Film Archives.