Empire

I saw EMPIRE at the Whitney some time circa the early 90's. I watched the first 90 minutes of it, which I thought was an appropriate feature length. The film is silent, which makes it difficult to watch in a theater. It's easy to get distracted by the sounds of viewers shifting in their seats, or the talking among the blue-haired ladies who had no idea what they walked into. The film works (at least the first 90 minutes) because the Empire State Building goes from dusk to night, so there is a change slowly occurring on the screen. The film is mesmerizing, and I don't think I have ever looked up at the Empire State Building since without thinking about this film. There is something captivating about staring at it's fixed image, flickering on screen at 16 frames per second (which is what it was shot at, and a projector at the Whitney was modified to run at that frame rate). I wouldn't sit through 8 hours of it, but it's worth viewing for the experience of seeing this rare film.

This film is just bad. I would rather watch an opera by Karlheinz Stockhausen than this crap ever again. A lot of people say that this film is unique and special because nobody has ever made a film like it before... I wonder why?! When I think of revolutionary, artistic films that are unique in that nobody has done anything like them before, some titles come to mind such as Metropolis, Nosferatu, Star Wars, the Monty Python films, even the Harry Potter series has more merit than this. "Art" during this period was just awful. It was just stupid and awful. And it only became popular because of one thing: money. As an artist myself, I don't support this pretentious crap and it actually makes me angry that the art industry was taken over by stupid crap like this. Absolutely useless film. Not even going to comment on the fact that the most interesting thing that happens is the moment when you see Warhol's reflection. This is not art, this is bollocks.

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.

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.

If the razzies were around in the 1960s, this would be my vote for worst picture.If anyone has heard of the video game desert bus, you had to drive a bus for 8 hours.This is the movie version of that piece of trash. Don't trust any reviews that say this is a masterpiece unless you want to spend 8 hours of staring at the empire state building.To put it clearly, here are some examples of a masterpiece: Pulp Fiction The Shawshank Redemption Die Hard Forrest Gump(Or any best picture winner other than the English patient) The original Super Mario Bros. Toy Story Back To The Future E.T The Dark Knight Saving Private Ryan What Is not A Masterpiece: An 8 hour shot of the empire state building Overall, this film should not exist, and it maybe the worst movie ever made! It isn't as frustrating and painful to watch as movie 43, or as irritating as Scary Movie 5, or as disgusting as A Serbian Film. But in terms of enjoyability/film-making in general. This is an all time low. 1/10