Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One

1968 meta shit

Rating: 15/20

Plot: William Greaves directs an inane conversation in Central Park. Meanwhile, his crew is filmed filming the inane conversation. A few times, the crew is shown sitting around discussing Greaves' ineptitude.

I won't pretend I know exactly what's going on here. Like Greaves' film crew, I'm a little more than perplexed by the shiznit taking place in the park, but it's a completely captivating look at the creative process and entertaining. It's very nearly a product of its time (scratching the surface of race relations, feminist issues, and being a fag in 1960's America) but retains relevance because of the questions it brings up about the process of creating a movie and watchability because of its playfulness. Miles Davis adds a fusiony soundtrack. I especially liked the philosophical homeless guy interviewed near the end of the movie. In a way, I wish there would have been more regular inhabitants of Central Park interviewed or shown wandering through the shoot, but perhaps Greaves was saving that for the four sequels that were supposed to come out following the success of this first installment. This is a challenging chunk of filmed anarchy that might serve as an interesting companion piece to Man with a Movie Camera.