Willard Maas

5.7

Arabesque for Kenneth Anger

Dec 29, 1961

Arabesque for Kenneth Anger

1961 5 min 20 vues

Filmed at the Alhambra in Spain in just one day, according to Marie Menken. Arabesque for Kenneth Anger concentrates on visual details found in Moorish architecture and in ancient Spanish tile. The date 1961 refers to the addition of Teiji Ito's soundtrack and its subsequent completion, but the film was likely shot in 1960 or earlier. - David Lewis

Documentary

1

Orgia

Aug 04, 1967

Orgia

1967 12 min 1 vues

A fragment of an abandoned, long work concerning St. Teresa of Avila. A sexual orgy symbolizing the decadance of modern society. Maas, who acts in this film, plays the devil while a wild orgy goes on in his living-room. There is the fantastic drag queen doing her job in the bathroom while frenzied love-making, to the incomparable baroque-jazz music of Tiji Ito, is carried on in Maas's baroque apartment. The camera in bird-swift flight depicts a scene of total decadence as Andy Warhol's Jackie Kennedy careens through the air. By way of explanation: the opening scene shows the director handing out masks to the actors-the same ones used in LSD WALL by John Hawkins. The taking of LSD was part of the original script.

6

Bitch

Jan 01, 1965

Bitch

1965 66 min 1 vues

“Andy Warhol called Marie Menken and Willard Maas ‘the last of the great bohemians,’ and, in 1965, made Bitch, his real-life parody of Edward Albee’s play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, with Willard and Marie sitting on the couch in their living room, drunk and arguing on a Sunday afternoon. Unscripted, shot with a stationary camera in his signature home-movie documentary style, Warhol’s Bitch has never before been seen by the public—until now…” (Philip Gefter).

5.4

The Geography of the Body

Jan 01, 1943

The Geography of the Body

1943 7 min 17 vues

A quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger scape of a body: a chest, a back, a breast. Usually the camera is stationery; sometimes, it moves across a body, remaining in close up. They hold hands for one moment. The bodies are without clothes; no genitalia are visible.

Documentary

1

Narcissus

Apr 25, 1958

Narcissus

1958 59 min 1 vues

A film poem, a re-telling of the Greek myth in modern terms. In the traditional pool the water has become muddy and Narcissus finds that mirrors are more rewarding for the study of his changing reflections. There are three mirrors, each reflecting a dramatic study in self-love. The first, love that deserves the adoration of the opposite sex; the second, homosexual love that investigates itself and its own sex; the third, love that insures one a place in the present and history.

8

Andy Warhol Screen Tests

Nov 28, 1965

Andy Warhol Screen Tests

1965 1108 min 3 vues

The films were made between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol's Factory studio in New York City. Subjects were captured in stark relief by a strong key light, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film at 24 frames per second. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in 'slow motion' at 16 frames per second.

Documentary

4.274

Blow Job

Jul 16, 1964

Blow Job

1964 35 min 53 vues

Andy Warhol directs a single 35-minute shot of a man's face to capture his facial expressions as he receives the sexual act depicted in the title.

Documentary

5.4

The Geography of the Body

Jan 01, 1943

The Geography of the Body

1943 7 min 17 vues

A quotation from Aristophanes, "The desire and pursuit of the whole is called love," precedes views of a man and a woman's bodies, often in extreme close up. Off-screen, a voice recites fragments of oracular literature and purple prose. We see an eye, an ear, a mouth, a tongue, bits of hair, a hand, the tips of fingers, toes. Occasionally, the frame includes a larger scape of a body: a chest, a back, a breast. Usually the camera is stationery; sometimes, it moves across a body, remaining in close up. They hold hands for one moment. The bodies are without clothes; no genitalia are visible.

Documentary

5.9

The Mechanics of Love

Apr 26, 1955

The Mechanics of Love

1955 5 min 9 vues

This short begins with a couple about to make love, and then does a tour of innocuous objects in the room around them that invariably suggest sexual activity.

Romance

4.7

Andy Warhol's Silver Flotations

Jan 01, 1966

Andy Warhol's Silver Flotations

1966 4 min 3 vues

Andy Warhol's Silver Flotations is a portrait of Warhol's famous installation of floating silver helium-filled balloons at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1966. Willard Maas's lyrical "film poem" is the only visual document of this seminal exhibition.

Documentary

5

Image in the Snow

Nov 12, 1952

Image in the Snow

1952 26 min 3 vues

A young male protagonist dreams of a muscleman hero, a black dancer, and a princess who gives him a magic urn. When he wakes he rejects his mother (Menken) and wanders the cold streets, where he finds his dream characters corrupted or dying.

1

Excited Turkeys

Jul 07, 1966

Excited Turkeys

1966 12 min 1 vues

"A realism like that of GREED is lifted to a level where it becomes poetry. This is done by stylization and a few well-chosen details... a masterpiece." –Jonas Mekas, Village Voice "A black comedy which, in its cruel ending, has been compared to Harold Pinter. It is a hilarious satire on the traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Everything is there but the soup, but it's nuts for sure. This is Mass' first comedy, and those who know his early classic works are in for some surprises. Also Hawkins' imitations of sobs, snores, and gobbles are fabulous, especially the ghostly turkey at the end, shot in negative. A favorite on Mass' recent tours of Texas, the Midwest and the South." –The Gryphon Film Group

1

Narcissus

Apr 25, 1958

Narcissus

1958 59 min 1 vues

A film poem, a re-telling of the Greek myth in modern terms. In the traditional pool the water has become muddy and Narcissus finds that mirrors are more rewarding for the study of his changing reflections. There are three mirrors, each reflecting a dramatic study in self-love. The first, love that deserves the adoration of the opposite sex; the second, homosexual love that investigates itself and its own sex; the third, love that insures one a place in the present and history.

1

Orgia

Aug 04, 1967

Orgia

1967 12 min 1 vues

A fragment of an abandoned, long work concerning St. Teresa of Avila. A sexual orgy symbolizing the decadance of modern society. Maas, who acts in this film, plays the devil while a wild orgy goes on in his living-room. There is the fantastic drag queen doing her job in the bathroom while frenzied love-making, to the incomparable baroque-jazz music of Tiji Ito, is carried on in Maas's baroque apartment. The camera in bird-swift flight depicts a scene of total decadence as Andy Warhol's Jackie Kennedy careens through the air. By way of explanation: the opening scene shows the director handing out masks to the actors-the same ones used in LSD WALL by John Hawkins. The taking of LSD was part of the original script.

1

Narcissus

Apr 25, 1958

Narcissus

1958 59 min 1 vues

A film poem, a re-telling of the Greek myth in modern terms. In the traditional pool the water has become muddy and Narcissus finds that mirrors are more rewarding for the study of his changing reflections. There are three mirrors, each reflecting a dramatic study in self-love. The first, love that deserves the adoration of the opposite sex; the second, homosexual love that investigates itself and its own sex; the third, love that insures one a place in the present and history.

6

Dionysus

Dec 21, 1964

Dionysus

1964 28 min 1 vues

In 1963 Boultenhouse wrote, produced, and directed Dionysius,which he described as a “free treatment of Euripides' The Bacchae.”It starred the dancers Louis Falco, Anna Duncan, and Nicolas Magallanes as Dionysius, Agave, and Pentheus respectively, and the experimental filmmakers Charles Levine, Willard Maas, Gregory Markopoulos, Marie Menken, Lloyd Williams and William Wood as the Chorus of Cameras. The film's score was by Teiji Ito.