Robert Frank (1924-2019) broke new ground with his candid, poignant images of American life in the mid 20th century. The Swiss-born photographer and filmmaker is one of the most influential figures in the history of his medium, and his approach to image-making forever changed the course of photography and film.
His first film, Pull My Daisy, is the quintessential beat experience: an improvisational scene from an unproduced play written and narrated by Jack Kerouac (The Beat Generation), and filmed in a Greenwich Village apartment. Featuring Richard Bellamy, Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Delphine Seyrig, Alice Neel, and others (Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, 1959, 16mm, 28 minutes). With thanks to the Museum of Fine Art, Houston, for the loan of their film print.
Followed by a recent restoration of Me and My Brother, Frank’s first feature length film, which places documentary footage of poets Allen Ginsberg, Peter, and Orlovsky’s brother Julius within a fictional framework. Constantly delineating real and imaginary situations and moving back and forth between color and black and white, the film describes the inner and outer worlds of Julius, a catatonic who silently observes the world around him. (Robert Frank, 1968, DCP, 91 minutes) Digital restoration of the original version by The Museum of Modern Art; funding provided by The Celeste Bartos Fund for Film Preservation.
Part of the ongoing Art Films and Special Screenings series.