Program notes for George Kuchar screening at Carnegie Museum of Art
(1/6/1981)
GEORGE KUCHAR DIRECTORS SERIES TUESDAY JANUARY 6, 1001 MUSEUM OF ART THEATRE 3:00PM
CORRUPTION OF THE DAMNED (1955) 55 min
All by Georoe Kuchar.
HOLD ME WHILE I'N NAKED (1956) 15 min.
LEISURE (1955) 9.5 min.
MOSHOLU HOLIDAY (1966) 9 min.
ECLIPSE OF THE SUN VIRGIN (1967) 15 min.
"The Kuchar Brothers are twins. From ages 8 to 13 they spent all .their spare time in movie theatres, developing in the process a keen appreciation for the forms and affectations of Hollywood. Mike .liked the fantastic colors and pounding Max Steiner sound tracks of the Uarner Brothers product, while George preferred the cheap black-and-white drama of Republic Pictures' detective movies.
"When 12 they began to make 50 foot 8mm Slapstick costume pieces, such as THE MET DESTRUCTION 'OFTHE,ATLANTIC EMPIRE (1954). They began to make longer movies with SCREWBALL (1957) and THE. NAKED AND THE NUDE (1957). These early films were pretty much improvised, as'was SCREWBALL, which was planned as one long love scene. It got boring, however, so they had the hero go insane and choke the heroine to death.
"By age 16 the Kuchars ware turning out works consistent with their Mollywood-in-the-Bronx aesthetic. For these pictures they discovered their own kind of stars, people 'who were fat,.but they wanted to be Marilyn Monroe.' Together they made THE SLASHER (1953), THE THIEF AMD THE STRIPPER (1959), A TUB NAMED DESIRE(1969), I HAS A TEENAGE RUMPOT (1960), and PUSSY ON A HOT TIN ROOF (1961). The later film the more elaborate the plot....
"Gradually the Kuchar Brothers began to work separately. They worked on each other's films, but each film was definitely directed by one or the other. As their work has matured, each has developed a definite style. Mike likes color and visual spectacle. George likes steamy drama." —Sheldon Renan, An Introduction to the
American Underground Film, 1967
"The flew American Cinema, and the underground filmmakers who sparked it, emerged in the late fifties to recycle the American dream. The Kuchars' were part of this generation of Mew York 'underground' filmmakers which included Jack Smith, Ron Rice, and Ken Jacobs, but as J. Hoberman has noted, 'only the Kuchar brothers really wanted to make Hollywood movies, albeit in the Bronx.'
"Since 1955 George Kuchar has been exploiting much of the same iconography as commercial producers, transforming the creatures who swell in the trash heaps and neurotic wells of contemporary society into personal statements of fierce humor. His characters.and situations are often drawn from the same screaming places as those on 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.' But Kuchar pushes his peopled dramas way beyond the normal limits of even the most extreme soap opera. His melodramas are twisted and anguished, coarse reminders that the mad spectres trapped within us can only be exorcised by intrepid artists who are willing to flip open the lid.
"Kuchar has been teaching film at the San Francisco Art Institute for more than 5 years. Highly influenced by the Hollywood tradition, he refers to his own movies as 'pictures,' and his method of v/orking has virtually changed the facility at the Art Institute into a B-film studio. . ,
"Much of Kuchar technique is based on the practical use of available resources. You deal with what you've got in such a way that chance and accident become major ingredients in any production. And you let the mistakes show. He writes parts for people he finds interesting enough to cast in a film rather than cast exclusively for a preconceived role. But he readily admits that working on a movie puts a great deal of pressure on relationships.
"Of actors he said, 'It's like working with a keg of dynamite...On every picture you
lose a few friends.' Yet he's quite willing to incorporate the daily tribulations of the actors into their performances. The finished product generally reflects the emotional turmoil in the lives of the people involved. In the end, he suggested, you get a document of your personal life. But the humor in Kuchar's effort is rarely absent. As writer, designer, photographer, editor and producer he's not beyond hurling amusing digs at himself... .
'Wow in California, Kuchar continues his maverick movie making career. And like ans-r other master of cinematic pulp, Roger Corman, he'll probably push us to the very edge of bad taste. This man is an original, the real product. It's Roger Corman who's made convincing parodies of George Kuchar pictures. — program notes from Thames 7th Film Festival, Feb. 1973.
CORRUPTION OF THE DAMNED: "Starring Mary Flanagan, as Cora, a girl with a reputation as long as her hair; Gina Zuckerman, as Aunt Anna, too much woman for even a mob to fondle; Donna Kerness, the top-heavy medium with a built in set of crystal balls; Frances Leibowitz, a mammoth woman of overdeveloped mother instincts; Floraine Conners as Connie, big and blond with a gut full of liquor on an empty head; Mike Kuchar, the vengeful anti-hero with hate in his heart, hair on his chin; Larry Leibowitz, a body too big to be controlled by a peanut; Steve Packard as Paul, who made love with his body, made 'waste with his bowels; Michael T. Zuckerman, big business was his line, big bosoms were his curve. And Featuring a Large Supporting Cast.
"Overwhelming in Plot, Gargantuan in theme, trash-ridden in execution, CORRUPTION OF THE DAMNED possesses the ultimate in action-drama visuals and starlet stimulation.
Big in everything it says, Big in everything it does, this oicture bursts from Its girdle of traditional Hollywood pyrotechnics and falls all over the place in a paroxysm of flabby sensuality, senselessness and insanity...words that aptly describe its maker." — George Kuchar.
HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED: "A dazzling ruby in Kuchar's jewelry box of cinema gems and gossamer garbage. Financed with unemployment checks,...this film goes beyond the erotic into the world of the hyper-neurotic, a world that exists behind the film-maker's shower curtain. Lead may shield delicate tissues from radiation, but a poly-stelene shower curtain is no protection from the painful penetration of a Bolex HI6. Filmed in the glamour bathrooms fo the East Coast,...this film relentlessly exploits the problems and bodies of today's creative youth." -- Goege Kuchar.
LEISURE: "A dramatized social commentary with the horrifying impact of a 300 ton chunk of margarine. It shamelessly shows the wanton bombardment of soft, female flesh, by the phalluses of Audio-visual atmosphere perturbations. The youthful, the sinful, the senile, all victims in the biggest mass poisoning since the Horn & Har-dart riots of 1906. From little transistor models to massive consoles, the voice and image of obscenity himself comes into the home to massage the protuberances of those in the heat of leisure." - George Kuchar.
ilQSHOLU HOLIDAY: "A documentary-1 ike movie about the Bronx and its hell spawn filmed in hot weather and on location. Edited during the hot weather. ... The film reveals the senselessness of this. Big people are manipulated like aimless puppets on a merry-go-round of hilarious idleness. A special guest appearance of Canadian TV star Bill Ronald along with the massive presence of 'Mrs. Bronx' herself, Frances Leibowitz, and her girlfriend Iris, make this film a must-see for travel enthusiasts and horror fans."— George Kuchar.
ECLIPSE OF THE SUM VIRGIN: "I dedicate this film poem to the behemoths of yesteryear that perished in Siberia along with the horned pachyderms of the pre-glacial epoch. This chilling montage of crimson repression must be seen by the victims of perversity, regardless of sex or age. Painstakingly filmed and edited, it will be painful to watch, too." — George Kuchar.
This program is made possible in part by grants from the .National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the Howard Heinz Endowment.
