Inner and Outer Space (1965)
One of the most important of Warhol's
films because it is one of the closest film approximations
to his portraits. Here Warhol studies the nature of
celebrity and personality, while also exploring the
psyche and the nature of wanting to be a celebrity
and a personality. The film also deals in the repetition
of images in the Warholian tradition in a way that
was far closer to his portraiture ideal than a film
like "Chelsea Girls" or other films that dealt with
projected images running simultaneously.
In his book about Warhol films,
"Stargazer," Stephen Koch mentions that reel one and
reel two of this film were shown side by side when
exhibited at the New York Cinematheque. This is how
I saw the film myself. This is the first mention of
side by side screenings in Koch's Warhol Filmography.
While Warhol may have indeed flirted with this idea,
replicating the repetition of images so apparent in
his paintings, "Inner and Outer Space" takes this
idea one step further than it had before because Warhol,
presumably for the first time, deals with the repetition
of images within a single frame. Here, Edie Sedgwick
sits in front of a TV screen which is also projecting
her facade. When both reels are shown side by side,
simultaneously, we are delivered four images of Edie,
two on camera, and two on the TV screens behind each
of her images. This four-plex of facade (hers or anyone
else's) may never have occurred in any other Warhol
film. The effect is mesmerizing, like a Warhol four
panel painting suddenly becoming animated.
To further accentuate the similarities
between the film and Warhol iconography, the image
of Sedgwick on the TV screen is occasionally manipulated
to be distorted. One assumes that even though the
film was made in 1965, Warhol had access to video
technology and Sedgwick's TV images were captured
via video cameras (probably some sort of television
technology) before she was filmed in front of them
on TV. We see another Warhol person (it seems to be
Gerard Malanga) walk around in the background (obviously
The Factory) and occasionally he reaches behind Sedgwick's
head to adjust the volume of the TV screen behind
her, so that at times it is Sedgwick's "recorded"
voice and at times it is her "live" voice that we
hear. To make this work, when her "TV" voice is audible,
Sedgwick, who continually seems to be talking to am
unseen person just right of the camera, begins to
pantomime and mouth words or whisper them lightly.
The effect adds an aural four panel ideology to the
otherwise visual work.
In addition, this unseen entity
(the on that is probably Malanga) is also probably
responsible for adjusting the white tint and visual
knobs on the TV so the "recorded" image is often distorted.
This entity also seems, at times, to play with the
tracking of the video source to make the reflected
TV image distort and fade. The effect visually represents
Warhol's wont of "distorting" images by splashing
paint across them or becoming sloppy while making
the silkscreen background of a painting. In other
words, what Warhol does with paint and silkscreening
techniques on a canvas, he does with the tracking
knob and the tint knob on the presumably videotaped
image here.
It is no accident that Sedgwick
is the model, the personality, of this film. Her beauty
is glowing and here she is effervescence times four.
Her image snaps and pops out of the flat blackness
of the monochromatic image like champagne poured on
black velvet. Most importantly, she is beautiful enough
and bright enough that we don't mind looking at her
for 30 minutes (although the 60 minutes of the two
films projected one after the other would be far less
interesting and more in line with Warhol's fascination
with ennui.)
Sedgwick is also the perfect model
here for the "ideas" of the film. In the piece, Sedgwick
rambles for 30 minutes (at least she did on the film
projected on the right during the screening I attended.
The other film, projected to the left, had sound but
the volume was kept far below the other. The effect:
The far right image, with which the sound synced up
became the focal point of the images). She discusses
the nature of fame, fashion, and celebrity in the
film so that the replicated four-panel representation
we see of her becomes a literal as well as a figurative
discussion about "image." The idea of a goldfish-bowl
and a glass-bottom boat are also mentioned in her
dialogue so that the film, which is visibly about
image and celebrity becomes a discussion on the themes
of image and fame. The TV's supply a subtextural theme
on celebrity and iconography as well.
This is one of Warhol's most fascinating
early films.
Notes:
In some instances, this film may
have been titled "Outer and Inner Space."
Viewed at a retrospective of Warhol
films, provided by the Warhol Museum to the Alamo
Drafthouse, in October
of 2003. Other films on the program that evening
included "Poor Little Rich Girl," "Blowjob," and "Mario
Banana."
