Empire

It was filmed on the 42nd floor of the Time Life Building. What makes this film contemporary is that it is not like a normal film, as with normal films you watch the entire film, but Empire is a challenge for the viewer to watch as it just features the same image of the tower. I think it is to be viewed more of a painting than a film. In short, Empire is an extremely weird and wonderful experimentation that Andy Warhol did. Empire is exactly a single uninterrupted shot of the Empire State Building in New York. My overall opinion of the piece is that Empire is one of the most unexpectedly gripping movies I have seen to date, as not much happens but you expect it to. I could not wait to see what was going to happen and as I watched it I began to believe that nothing ever would, but as soon as the lights go on I sprang out of a chair like I would on an action film. Just like in life, sometimes the most simple things are the most beautiful. If all films were a huge 485 minutes long I would most likely be bored out of my skull, but if I was listen to music that was that long I probably would not get bored as there is something relaxing in hearing and letting your other senses go to rest, just like with watching Empire which keeps my eyes busy but relaxes all the rest of me. I would say that the overall technique of Empire is mesmerizing. It used only one shot that would be boring and dull for most films but it uses it as a plus point by making it a film that is one of a kind film that has not be done before or after with any great success. I believe the techniques in Empire were done in a style that Warhol wanted us to relax and to be interpreted in our own way as we are not mentally stimulated enough to keep full concentration on the film itself. Also when I look at this documentary I don't see a film but more of history that has been frozen in time and I believe this is what Warhol wanted to achieve as the film appears to be in slow motion. I would describe the medium of the film as gritty as you can see a lot of grain in the film which is most likely due to it being night during most of it and the time the film was made. The fact that the film is black and white makes it feel more like a contemporary piece. What most films are made of include a visual and sound combined to make a pleasant experience for the audience. Even though this film is a silent movie it still relies on sound to give the whole effect of the film, as when I was watching it I found I was getting easily distracted by sounds around me bringing me out of the trance of the film and then bringing me back into it once I started watching again. The reason I selected this particular piece and Warhol is that I found this motion picture so captivating and it made me want to write about it. It makes me think while watching it and most films do the thinking for you. It is for this reason that this is one of Warhol's best films in my opinion and what makes him such a mastermind. Historical references I can link with this film and the artist is that it was made in the 60's which was a time for change and trying new things that had not been done before Examples include pop music from the Beatles or sex becoming a subject people talked about, so artists were becoming more daring in what they did. I believe if Empire was made in any other decade it would be a lot different from what we see today.

Watching this movie is a fight. If you know about the details, you just sit, look at that building at night, watch the small light in the background (appears every 20 minutes) and wait for Andy Warhol who passes in front of the camera for about five times. I've seen him three times. At the end, the lights on the building are switched off and you just watch two small lights on the dark screen (it takes two hours). A really bizarre experience.

Andy Warhol made many movies that are meant to be watched. VINYL, LONESOME COWBOYS, WOMEN IN REVOLT, THE CHELSEA GIRLS are all masterpieces of avant-garde, minimalist cinema. On the other hand, he made many movies that were never meant to be watched, but only looked at. SLEEP, **** (FOUR STARS), EAT, COUCH and, of course EMPIRE.

Anyone who attempts to watch EMPIRE from start to finish (nearly five hours in length when viewed at the correct speed) is missing the point. Just as with much of Warhol's work, the art is that the piece exists, not necessarily the piece itself.

I had a teacher in film school who bragged about having watched EMPIRE in its entirety. I have often wondered what Warhol would have said to that. My guess is, "What a waste of time." EMPIRE is simply a moving still life. Instead of spending eight hours painting the Empire State Building, Warhol photographed it for eight hours, at a fast camera speed so when played at normal projection speed, the image is actually slowed down. The film was intended to be projected on a wall during gallery shows, so that people could stop and look at it the same way they would a painting. It was not meant to be watched like a regular movie. Yet countless underground and art film aficionados have done just that, as though they are accomplishing something.

The fact that people find this movie so fascinating and have written and pondered so much about it is a testament to Warhol's genius. Aside from being a phenomenally imaginative and intelligent artist, Warhol was one of the world's greatest satirists, in that he led much of the world, and particularly America, to become a parody of itself, without even realizing it. That was, in many ways, his greatest work of art.

Now, we have paparazzi inundating us with images of famous people who are viewed by the public as demi-gods, simply for being famous. We have people paying outrageous amounts of money to be walking billboards for companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nike and Ambercrombie and Fitch.

And many people still think EMPIRE is a deep, meaningful masterwork of cinema.

It's a five hour long static shot of the Empire State Building. Nothing more. And Warhol is still laughing his ass off at all the people who've read more into it than that.

Because a star rating would be meaningless for this film, I have not given it one.

There's a wonderful 10 minute stop motion film to be found in this 8 hour albatross of pretense covering the graveyard shift in midtown. Gathering enough material for a solid work of pixilation the makers Andy Warhol and Jonas Mekas opt instead to let it all hang out.

The result of this "shock of the new" is defined in it's trying and laborious hours and given legitimacy by Warhol's signature on it despite it not being his idea (John Palmer). A voyeur con job travesty it succeeds glowingly in reaffirming Warhol's take on fame as one of his most memorable works. Most will never watch it but they'll remember the name of the guy who made the 8 hour film.

Without a gorilla scaling (stuck in traffic, taking the stairs?), the stoic beauty of the most famous skyscraper in the world wears thin fast leaving you to sit with Andy and Jonas ( his jittery camera style taking a breather) across the way in the Time-Life building in a catatonic stare for over seven hours. A film for insomniacs and hipster denizens of lower Manhattan artiste salons.

Warhol's Empire (1964), a static shot of the Empire state building that begins in day and ends at night. (climaxing when the lights turn on the building, eight hours later!!) The film itself is a re-examination of the way we view cinema, and it's been called the longest establishing shot that denies the viewer everything else.