Experimental Film Research

“Empire”

Its 1964, Stanley Kubrik is releasing arguably one of the greatest films of all time 'Doctor Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb', Dick Van Dyke is procuring infamy for his questionable cockney accent in 'Marry Poppins', Sergio Leone is cementing the ever growing popularity of the 'spaghetti western' with his hit 'a Fistful of Dollars' and Andy Warhol is confusing the public with 'Empire'; a film often referred to as being completely un-watchable.

'Empire' is an experimental film which consists purely of a single shot of the Empire State Building at night. Throughout the film's run time the camera never moves and there are no edits at all; an intriguing prospect, so why did Warhol's movie have audiences demanding there entrance fee back? Put simply the film is long, very long, so long that even the most dedicated Warhol fan would struggle to endure its eight hour and five minutes running time. Due to the oddity and length of the video 'Empire' has never been distributed on home video or DVD, in fact the movie can only be viewed in the Andy Warhol Museum and even then only a sixty minute extract is projected.

So what is the reason behind such an un-watchable experimental film? When asked, Warhol simply replied 'to see time go by'. I feel before we can begin to comprehend such an ambiguous explanation it is important to remember that Warhol was primarily a painter and to paraphrase Adrian Apro (a film historian), it's as if the abstraction of the world is spotlighted with one static skyscraper. After watching a twenty minute section of 'Empire' I began to find meaning in this statement. The film is so abstract, so minimalist that it becomes captivating, almost hypnotic. I felt that the film almost helps its viewers to appreciate the excitement and beauty that, when looked for can be found in the mundane and the every day. For example after ten minutes of blankly staring at the flickering image I found myself excited by a light turning on at the base of the tower, as it provided a change, a slight altercation to the unwavering formula. I was then left questioning how did I derive any form of enjoyment from such a dull scene? Lets see Micheal Bay inspire that kind of reaction from his viewers.

Warhol has completely subverted all expectations and preconceptions of conventional cinema and produced an abstract film that relies on the viewer to approach subjectively for them to obtain any kind of reward for their endurance. I feel that the film contains a deeper level of meaning than 'I'm watching Warhol stare out of a window'. The very unwatchability of 'Empire' is its ally, it forces the viewer to question their opinions of cinema and to consider that perhaps it is important not to let a film 'think for you'. That being said I would not want to sit through the whole eight hours and five minutes!