1948-1988 short avant-garde wackiness Rating: 12/20
Plot: Collection of poet/playwright/filmmaker James Broughton's work broken into three periods--the early years, the middle period, and the later films made in collaboration with Joel Singer. Most of the shorts have something to do with the penis.
As expected with a compilation of an avant-gardist's stuff, this is hit or miss. Most wallow in pretension or take the audience on a herky-jerky ride on the masturbation train straight to Dullsville. Mythological allusions, narrated poetry, operatic singing, anatomical dwellings, Morgan Subotnick, pagan handjobs, extended shots of nothing, etc. And lots of penis. Seriously, one short ("Hermes Bird" from 1979) is just the guy reading poetry while a guy gets an erection. That's not art. I could have videotaped myself naked becoming aroused while reading "The Walrus and the Carpenter" or something In fact, I should have videotaped myself naked becoming aroused while reading "The Walrus and the Carpenter"! I liked most of what I saw on the first disc--the early years. "Mother's Day" had its surreal moments. "Loony Tom," about a Chaplinesque character who prances around for the sole purpose of finding women to sleep with, was cute. "The Bed" was outrageous fun and my favorite short here with its variety of vignettes on or around a bed that wandered into a forest, and "The Pleasure Garden," though dull, also had its moments. The majority of the rest, even the very human explorations of the nude body, were too difficult to connect with. Definitely some interesting ideas and some moments of beauty. This was an awful lot to swallow though, even in short installments.
Note: Apparently, Richard Brautigan was filmed for a scene in "The Bed" but not used. Too bad.
Here I am watching disc one of the collection:
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