[Frameworks] Andy Warhol's SLEEP / Providence, RI / Feb 18 / Magic Lantern + RK Projects

[Fred Camper]

With older 16mm projectors, such as Bell & Howell and Pageant, the  
"silent" switch meant 16fps. Not sure why some newer ones did 18fps  
instead. Super-8 offered 18 and 24 though; maybe it was to be  
consistent with that?

I agree with Steve that playing Satie during "Sleep" sounds like a  
mistake. Their aesthetics were in my opinion quite different, and even  
if their aesthetics were compatible, that doesn't mean one should  
experience them together.

I have an old article on "Sleep" at  
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/the-lovers-gaze/Content?oid=902142 This  
makes the case that it is not some kind of neo-Dada hoax, but a film  
by a "lover"...


Quoting Eli Horwatt <ehorwatt at gmail.com>:

> A funny story about the correct projection speed from Kelly M. Cresap's *Pop,
> Trickster, Fool: Warhol Performs Naivete: *
>
> Stan Brakhage, a pioneer in underground cinema, became enraged on  
> seeing *Sleep
> *and *Eat*, declaring that they were the work of a charlatan. On learning
> that he had seen the films projected at twenty-four frames per second
> instead of Warhol's preferred rate of sixteen-frames, he agreed to watch
> the films again and then hailed them as transformative works on par with
> his own.

Brakhage always said this story was a complete fabrication. It made  
him angry. It's hard to imagine he was not telling the truth. At any  
event in later years he did not regard Warhol's work as  
"transformative."

Don't believe everything you read....

Fred Camper
Chicago