Empire (1964)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

Director:

Andy Warhol

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

A single shot of the Empire State Building from early evening until nearly 3 am the next day. |

Plot Keywords:

Building | Real Time | Non Narrative | Black And White | Single Take

Awards:

1 win

Cast

The Empire State Building	...	Itself
Andy Warhol	...	Himself

Runtime:

485 min

Country:

USA

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

Andy Warhol shot the film at 24 frames per second, but screened it at 16 frames per second. Thus, although only six hours and 40 minutes of film was shot, the film is 8 hours and 5 minutes when screened.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol (1990)

Pure Warhol

Andy Warhol made many movies that are meant to be watched. VINYL, LONESOME COWBOYS, WOMEN IN REVOLT, THE CHELSEA GIRLS are all masterpieces of avant-garde, minimalist cinema. On the other hand, he made many movies that were never meant to be watched, but only looked at. SLEEP, **** (FOUR STARS), EAT, COUCH and, of course EMPIRE.

Anyone who attempts to watch EMPIRE from start to finish (nearly five hours in length when viewed at the correct speed) is missing the point. Just as with much of Warhol's work, the art is that the piece exists, not necessarily the piece itself.

I had a teacher in film school who bragged about having watched EMPIRE in its entirety. I have often wondered what Warhol would have said to that. My guess is, "What a waste of time." EMPIRE is simply a moving still life. Instead of spending eight hours painting the Empire State Building, Warhol photographed it for eight hours, at a fast camera speed so when played at normal projection speed, the image is actually slowed down. The film was intended to be projected on a wall during gallery shows, so that people could stop and look at it the same way they would a painting. It was not meant to be watched like a regular movie. Yet countless underground and art film aficionados have done just that, as though they are accomplishing something.

The fact that people find this movie so fascinating and have written and pondered so much about it is a testament to Warhol's genius. Aside from being a phenomenally imaginative and intelligent artist, Warhol was one of the world's greatest satirists, in that he led much of the world, and particularly America, to become a parody of itself, without even realizing it. That was, in many ways, his greatest work of art.

Now, we have paparazzi inundating us with images of famous people who are viewed by the public as demi-gods, simply for being famous. We have people paying outrageous amounts of money to be walking billboards for companies such as Tommy Hilfiger, Nike and Ambercrombie and Fitch.

And many people still think EMPIRE is a deep, meaningful masterwork of cinema.

It's a five hour long static shot of the Empire State Building. Nothing more. And Warhol is still laughing his ass off at all the people who've read more into it than that.

Because a star rating would be meaningless for this film, I have not given it one.