[Frameworks] cat films

Sat Aug 16 17:44:20 UTC 2014

And Felix the Cat as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxailD4Ofq4

On Sat, Aug 16, 2014 at 1:22 PM, <nicky.hamlyn at talktalk.net> wrote:

> Nice titles for 'Jonesy', like the ones for Pierrot le Fou.
>
>  There are also hundreds of episodes of Top Cat to consider!
>
> Nicky.
>
>
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: Francisco Torres <fjtorrespr at gmail.com>
> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
> Sent: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 16:53
> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] cat films
>
>  here kitty...
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo0c8FnjW0k
>
>
>  2014-08-16 5:19 GMT-04:00 <nicky.hamlyn at talktalk.net>:
>
>> Bell Book and Candle,
>>
>> The Incredible Journey (Disney film abut three pets on a 200 mile
>> journey. Includes a swimming siamese cat).
>>
>> Nicky.
>>
>>
>>
>>  -----Original Message-----
>> From: Benjamin Leon <benj.leon at gmail.com>
>> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>>   Sent: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 9:19
>> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] cat films
>>
>>  *Fuses* of course ! And* Plumb Line* (1968-1972) by Carolee Schneemann
>> too.
>>
>>
>> 2014-08-16 9:49 GMT+02:00 <nicky.hamlyn at talktalk.net>:
>>
>>> Gummo and Withnail and I have cats in them, albeit briefly.
>>>
>>> Nicky
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Peter Mudie <peter.mudie at uwa.edu.au>
>>> To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
>>>  Sent: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 5:48
>>> Subject: Re: [Frameworks] cat films
>>>
>>>   It's an odd question, really - looking for films with/about cats. If you
>>> get onto YouTube and type in a search for 'cats', 'wacky cats' and/or
>>> 'awesome cats' you will find something around 2 billion choices to build
>>> your exhibition around - none of them worthwhile. Do a search (with the
>>> same criteria) for 'chipmunks' or 'hamsters' and you'll find less, but
>>> about as discerning as the 'wacky cats' list. Any exhibition that results
>>> from a deep curatorial insight about cats will probably leave you in the
>>> same zone as all the YouTube ones.
>>>
>>> If someone asked me what my favourite film was that had a cat within it -
>>> that is, different from 'a hard-boiled cheap detective getting away from
>>> the grips of a femme fatale' or 'a Joe-Bob Mr America saves the world from
>>> certain destruction' scope of subjects (which I guess isn't all that
>>> dissimilar to 'wacky chipmunk' or 'look what a hamster can fit in his
>>> mouth' videos) - I would have to say Nightcats (by Brakhage).
>>>
>>> Peter
>>> (Perth)
>>>
>>> >> What else could we shown in a Cat Film Fest?
>>> >
>>> >As Ekrem mentioned, there's Cat Cradle and Fuses. Dunno if the amount of
>>> >kitteh-kontent is high enough for a feline fest, but the presence of the
>>> >pussy... er, scratch that [Meow!] I mean the context of the cat, is the
>>> >unraveling intertextual ball of string tying the two works together, or
>>> >maybe being batted away from StanCat by CaroleeCat, or maybe the mirrored
>>> >meowser is Schneeman's way of saying, 'my little furry pet is purring
>>> >because she just pounced on some wee bit of pickle, and by the way, did
>>> >you know that cats are independent creatures who do their own thing
>>> >instead of licking their masters fantasy boots, and cats have really
>>> >sharp claws they can dig into your untutored eye if you piss them off by
>>> >mixing up which human is owned by which cat, and somehow indicate you
>>> >think you own even one cat much less two, so go pine in the pines with
>>> >your poor putrefying pooch and leave my kitty alone!"
>>> >
>>> >....
>>> >
>>> >You could show Marker's 'Case of the Grinning Cat' which also might be a
>>> >little light on actual kitty-kontent, but again the cat-concept is pretty
>>> >important, and any excuse to show Marker is always a good excuse.
>>> >
>>> >....
>>> >
>>> >Or you could go conceptual rather than representational:
>>> >
>>> >I read somewhere that felines large and small are "creatures who spend
>>> >most of the time sleeping between brief bursts of activity."
>>> >
>>> >So I'm thinking you could show all 5 hours and 21 minutes of "Sleep", in
>>> >a room filled with sofa and actual cats, so after puzzling over what do
>>> >do with themselves for awhile, instead of getting annoyed and heading to
>>> >the box office in angry mass protest to The Management, the viewers would
>>> >figure they can emulate the cats and sooner or later pretty much the
>>> >whole audience would be sleeping along with John Giorno, curled up on a
>>> >couch like Giorno, but with cuddling kitties, sometimes coming and going
>>> >but mostly sleeping as cats mostly do. Taking the cat cues, they might
>>> >conclude that 'Sleep' is not the title of a 'movie' you 'watch' but might
>>> >be a gentle imperative, like a Yoko Ono instruction, to stage the most
>>> >simple and mundane action as a form of Art. Or not. Either way, they're
>>> >in cat-mode, so it's basically nappy time whenever they feel like it no
>>> >matter what else is going on in the room, and from time to time they'll
>>> >wake up, yawn, stretch, look around a little bit ‹ maybe watch the screen
>>> >for awhile, maybe watch the other people sleeping, maybe think about how
>>> >many hours John Giorno has spent sleeping since 1963, maybe wonder how
>>> >many hours of sleep they'll have before they join Warhol in eternal
>>> >slumber, maybe think about what a room of people sleeping because a
>>> >silent black and white film of a man dozing on a couch can't keep them
>>> >awake means in light of Warhol's claimed intent of documenting sleep for
>>> >historical purposes since no one slept anymore due to the miracles of
>>> >modern chemistry. But, being cat-people for the evening, they wouldn't
>>> >think about those things too long or too hard before slipping back into a
>>> >REM state with a dreamy revelation that the proper nouns 'Walter' "White'
>>> >and 'Warhol' all begin with a 'W'. Then, maybe 90 minutes later, they
>>> >wake up since the man-cat on the next couch is shattering the silence
>>> >with loud irregular apneas and hypopneas because he didn't think to bring
>>> >his C-PAP to a film screening, only, on awakening, they don't dig out
>>> >their cell phones to check how much longer the film is going to run, they
>>> >just realize they're hungry, and the smell of chicken and fish is coming
>>> >from the lobby. So they amble out of the screening room and over to the
>>> >concessions area set up especially for the screening, where they get
>>> >served sashimi and/or poulet kabobs, (or Tuna hot dish if it's at The
>>> >Walker), and at this spot there are benches set up by big picture windows
>>> >where they can sit awhile and watch birds fly back and forth from the
>>> >feeders outside, but the benches aren't that comfy so they head back to
>>> >the couches in the screening room soon enough, tummies full and fall back
>>> >into the rhythm of "Sleep"s sleep. When they wake up again after a big
>>> >orange Maine Coon cat licks some hot-dish off their cheek, they sit up,
>>> >the cat hops onto their lap and starts to purr, they reach down to pet it
>>> >without thinking about it. Then it dawns on them that since they're doing
>>> >the stroking and not getting stroked, their personal cat analogy is
>>> >breaking down, and they start thinking like a human again, but still
>>> >retaining a kind of felinious disposition. Some thoughts that might
>>> >follow: Andy Warhol was like some kind of mutant future-cat, since he
>>> >maintained a feline indifference and inscrutability while never sleeping
>>> >and working constantly; "Sleep" is celluloid-projection-as-cat since it
>>> >has 'bursts of activity' mixed in with the sleeping, and combining the
>>> >two is pretty much the only way to make it from beginning to end (though
>>> >'sleeping' might be more figurative than literal); why am i able to look
>>> >at the screen now for awhile without getting annoyed?; "Sleep" is
>>> >celluloid-projection-as-cat since it's indifference to you is
>>> >nevertheless amiable enough; hmm, I notice most of the other people are
>>> >watching now too, I wonder what they're thinking?; and so on. The film
>>> >ends. The lights come up, and the audience makes its way out through the
>>> >lobby, passing posters with cat adoption info from the local shelters and
>>> >half a dozen monitors of different types and sizes playing the Turn Down
>>> >For What Cat Video on an endless loop.
>>> >(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfGA6pBFVI) Once the last patron has
>>> >gone, and the program committee is emptying the litter boxes and rounding
>>> >up the cats and putting them back in their carriers, someone will say,
>>> >"Folks, I think we've just set the all-time record for the most people
>>> >who began a screening of 'Sleep' being present at the end." And someone
>>> >else might reply, "Yeah, but Andy might ask 'What fun is that?'" Then
>>> >they get distracted by a tuxedo fighting with a tortie screaming bloody
>>> >murder while a midnight black long-hair rubs against their legs. And when
>>> >they return to the question later, they hear the question Warhol might
>>> >have asked in the deadpan tone with which he would have asked it, which
>>> >wasn't a tone expecting an answer, or maybe suggesting that any answer
>>> >would do. "Sleep" doesn't tell you how to watch it, because it doesn't
>>> >care how you watch it, or how you watch it, or what you think about it,
>>> >or anything else. It just presents you with an experience you probably
>>> >can't process within the headspace you brought into the screening room.
>>> >There must be SOME metaphysical significance to what happens after that,
>>> >but I'm too tired to think about it, and this activity burst has come
>>> >t...   zzzzzzzzz.
>>> >
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>>
>>
>>  --
>>  *Benjamin *
>>
>>  * Benjamin Léon *
>>  Ph.D Candidate in Film Studies
>>  benj.leon at gmail.com
>> (Fr) + 33 (0)6 28 07 18 00
>> (US) + 1 (646) - 812 - 0692
>> Skype : benjil75
>>
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