Notes On Marie Menken
Martina Kudlácek
Austria | 2006 | 97mins | Beta | Colour and Black & White
Marie Menken was an icon of the New York avant-garde filmmaking scene of the 1950s and 1960s. She was the inspiration for the character played by Elizabeth Taylor in the film of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and was a confidante to the likes of Kenneth Anger, Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol, appearing in the latter’s Chelsea Girls. Complimented by a musical score by John Zorn, the documentary allows a glimpse of her social and artistic struggle and radical integrity, drawing the picture of a modern myth in personal diary style.
According to filmmaker Jonas Mekas Marie was one of the first filmmakers to improvise with the camera and edit while shooting. She filmed with her entire body, her entire nervous system. You can feel Marie behind every image, how she constructed the film in tiny pieces and through the movement. The movement and the rhythm – this is what so many of us seized upon and have developed further in our own work. |
