Film as Film: The Collected Writings of Gregory J. Markopouloscontains some ninety out-of-print or previously unavailable articles by the Greek-American filmmaker who, as a contemporary of Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol, was at the forefront of a movement that established a truly independent form of cinema.
Beginning with his early writings on the American avant-garde and auteurs such as Dreyer, Bresson and Mizoguchi, it also features numerous essays on Markopoulos’ own practice, and on films by Robert Beavers, that were circulated only in journals, self-published editions or programme notes.
The texts become increasingly metaphysical and poetic as the filmmaker pursued his ideal of Temenos, an archive and screening space to be located at a remote site in the Peloponnese where his epic final work could be viewed in harmony with the Greek landscape. Gregory J. Markopoulos is a unique figure in film history, whose life’s work stands in testament to his strength of vision and commitment to the medium.
Contents: Introduction Film as Film: An Introduction, Mark Webber Foreword Markopoulos Writings, P. Adams Sitney I: Cinema, The Ideal (An Exposition) The Responsibility of the Cinema in Our Age, c.1955 Cinema The Ideal, 1960 Sto Palikari, 1968 Towards a Constructive Complex in Projection, 1968 A Supreme Art in a Dark Age, 1971 Dante Present, 1971 Inherent Limitations, 1966 The Pyramid of Sight, 1986 The Intuition Space, 1973 II: Avant-Garde Chronicle (On Films & Filmmakers) A Part of the Alphabet, 1961 Overtime, 1961 Avant-Garde Chronicle, 1963 Projection of Thoughts, 1964 Judgement Through Bad Conscience, 1965 What Are You Ready For?, 1965 Institutions Customs Landscapes, 1966 The Golden Poet, 1962 Scorpio Rising, 1963 Innocent Revels, 1964 Three Filmmakers, 1964 Stille Nacht, 1961 Jean Genet’s Only Film: Un chant d’amour, 1961 Film of the Absurd, 1962 Negatives, 1968 Robert Bresson: A Brief Survey, 1962 The Marvels and Lamentations of Mizoguchi, 1968 III: Disclosed Knowledge (On Markopoulos) L’Arbre aux champignons, 1950 Psyche’s Search for the Herb of Invulnerability, 1955 A Note for Hans Van Manen, 1971 Bruised by the Critics, 1966 Whither Motion Pictures, 1985 From Fanshawe to Swain, 1966 Statement Concerning Cinema, 1963 Towards a New Narrative Film Form, 1963 Twice a Man Statement, 1965 The Driving Rhythm, 1966 Twice a Man, Three Time Prize Winner, 1966 Galaxie, 1966 The Filmmaker as Physician of the Future. 1967 A Note (for Jean-Paul Vroom), 1971 The Divine Attributes, 1970 Correspondences of Smell and Visuals, 1967 Towards a New Sound Complement for Motion Pictures, 1967 Adventures with Bliss in Roma, 1967 The Adamantine Bridge, 1968 Disclosed Knowledge, 1970 Rebus, 1970 The Redeeming of the Contrary, 1971 The Celestial Inheritance, 1971 IV: The Threshold of the Frame (On Robert Beavers) 10th of July, 1967 The Siege of Bruxelles, 1968 Circumbendibus Notes, 1968 “And I Shall Pull Things From the Stars”, 1972 From First Creative Steps Forward, 1971 The Language of Diamonds, 1970 Love’s Task, 1971 In Other Words It Is His Tongue, 1971 Art Is Not Knowledge, 1973 The Threshold of the Frame, 1974 Clarity Upon Clarity Through Reflection, 1974 The Gathering of Perception and Judgement, 1974 Erb and Tree, 1975 Πνοιη (Pnoee), 1976 V: Towards a Temenos (On Temenos) Formal Account, 1970 Towards a Temenos, 1970 A Solemn Pause, 1971 The Filmmaker’s Perception in Contemplation, 1972 The Complex Illusion, 1972 Element of the Void, 1972 Towards a Complete Order, 1974 The Usury of the Creative Soul, 1976 Ηρακλής (Heracles), 1978 Εικόνες Αυτών (Ikones Auton), 1979 Προνώπιον (Pronopion), 1980 Ένθεος (Entheos), 1980 Aei!, 1981 Mosholibano, 1981 The Silk Road, 1982 The Ancient Future, 1983 Proposal to the Architect of the Temenos, 1984 The High Tableland, 1984 Ανάλαμψις (Analampsis), 1985 Message for D. W. Griffith, 1985 Hues Point, 1985 Αεί Καλόν (Aei Kalon A), 1985 Αεί Καλόν (Aei Kalon B), 1985 The Amygdaline Grove, 1986 The Bread of Angels, 1987 Unification of the Frame, 1990 The Future of the Temenos and its Boundaries, 1992 Ακρόπολης γης (Acropolis Gis), 1992 Images: 16 pages of colour and black & white images including film stills, production photos and archive materials Endnotes: Appendix I: Filmography of Gregory J. Markopoulos Appendix II: Publications supervised by Gregory J. Markopoulos Alphabetical Index of Titles
About the Authors: Gregory J. Markopoulos (1928-92) is acknowledged as one of the pioneers of independent and avant-garde cinema. His films, which include Twice a Man (1963), Ming Green (1966), The Illiac Passion (1967) and Eniaios (1947-91), are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris) and the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna).
P. Adams Sitney is a Princeton University professor and widely published critic. His Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde, first published by Oxford in 1974, remains the definitive historical text on the subject. He is also the author of Modernist Montage, Vital Crises in Italian Cinema, Eyes Upside Down, and The Cinema of Poetry (forthcoming, including a chapter on Markopoulos), and editor of The Film Culture Reader, The Essential Cinema, and The Avant-Garde Film.
About the Editor: Mark Webber is a film curator based in London, who has been responsible for major screening events or touring programmes hosted by institutions such as Tate Modern, LUX and ICA (London), Whitney Museum (New York), Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris), Kunsthalle Basel, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, IFFR Rotterdam and many international festivals, museums and art centres. He was a programmer for the BFI London Film Festival from 2000-12, and is the editor of Two Films by Owen Land.
