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Ron Rice
A short-lived pioneer in new-wave, counter-culture underground cinema. His wild, experimental work paved the way for Warhol, and he collaborated with Jack Smith, working in the same circles as both. Produced a few short films, two full-lengths, then died suddenly of pneumonia in 1964. Beatnik, counter-culture classic bore featuring Warhol star Taylor Mead prancing around San Francisco doing what he calls clowning around. He plays with kids, explores an old warehouse, drinks from an old milk carton, picks up an abandoned teddy bear and waves a flag, hides in a locker, steals flowers, dances with a woman in a ruined building, etc. Spliced with this is meandering footage of San Francisco locals and play-acting with strange artists, artsy super-impositions, and random music, poems and spoken passages. Boring. The Atom Man is a Chaplinesque skinny guy that constantly does strange things, makes moronic facial expressions, and represents a childish but innocent, anarchical way of life. Amongst other things he feeds heroin to his mouse under the sink, licks magazines, and puts antennas on his head. The Queen is a fat, rich, mostly-naked black woman who represents industrialism, commercialism and rich lifestyles. She likes to have tumble in bed with skinny white men and be served various foods and comforts. This movie casts them together as a social statement, the meaning of which is clear. The movie is silent B&W, with an entertaining musical soundtrack, the antics of these two characters are amusing for a couple of minutes like Chaplin on acid, and the symbolism grabs your interest for another two minutes, but then the ideas run out and we have to watch 100 more slow-moving minutes of pointless antics. |
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