Celebrating the celluloid expression of the Beat spirit—arguably the most sustained legacy in U.S. counterculture— Naked Lens is a comprehensive study of the most significant interfaces between the Beat writers, Beat culture, and cinema. Naked Lens features key Beat players and their collaborators, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Brion Gysin, Antony Balch, Ron Rice, John Cassavetes, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Klaus Maeck, and Gus van Sant. As well as examining clearly Beat-inspired films such as Pull My Daisy, Chappaqua, and The Flower Thief, Jack Sargeant discusses cinéma vérité and performance films ( Shadows and Wholly Communion ), B-movies ( The Subterraneans and Roger Corman’s Bucket of Blood ), and Hollywood adaptations ( Heart Beat and Barfly ). The second half of the book is devoted to an extensive analysis of the films relating to William Burroughs, from Antony Balch’s Towers Open Fire to David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch. This book also contains the last ever interview with writer Allen Ginsberg, recorded three months before his death in April 1997.
From Library Journal
The highly influential writings of the original circle of Beat generation authors have been widely studied, but motion pictures emerging from the Beat movement have been largely neglected. Film journalist Sargeant (Lost Highways: Road Movies), an authority on underground movies, fills that void with this articulate and entertaining cinema history. Starting with a detailed synopsis and analysis of Pull My Daisy (1958), a film written and narrated by Jack Kerouac, and ranging through subsequent underground efforts, Sargeant shows that the nonconformist Beat attitudes of social disillusion and rebellion against convention are especially conducive to visual expression in alternative film. Also, several lively interviews, most notably with Allen Ginsberg and Jonas Mekas, brim with vivid digressions and flashes of insight about cinema and American culture. The original 1997 British edition, upon which this expands, was largely overlooked, likely owing to the lurid nature of other titles in the publisher's cinema series, such as Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood, and Madness in Japanese Cinema. However, for admirably examining the emerging genre of a Beat-related underground cinema, the present work is essential for cinema collections. Recommended for academic libraries. Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Jack Sargeant is a writer whose books include Flesh & Excess, Against Control , Deathtripping , Naked Lens , as well as a curator and film-programmer. He lives in Australia. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
Sargeant not only understands the mechanisms of the art world, he also knows the workings of the 'power of transgression'. He laces his essays with the ideas of theorists such as Foucault, Bataille, and Deleuze. In the process of conducting his interviews, Sargeant reveals that he is more eloquent and well versed than his subjects. Could this be further proof that intellectuals have a place in the underground after all? -- Your Flesh
The focus he (Sargeant) shines intelligently upon the concept of 'Beat Films' is years overdue. A book of this nature must surely have been done before, but no, it has not. As much a book about the atmosphere of Beat creation as it is of film making, Jack Sargeant has come up trumps here. -- Beat Scene --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Description:
Celebrating the celluloid expression of the Beat spirit—arguably the most sustained legacy in U.S. counterculture— Naked Lens is a comprehensive study of the most significant interfaces between the Beat writers, Beat culture, and cinema. Naked Lens features key Beat players and their collaborators, including William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Charles Bukowski, Brion Gysin, Antony Balch, Ron Rice, John Cassavetes, Andy Warhol, Bob Dylan, Klaus Maeck, and Gus van Sant.
As well as examining clearly Beat-inspired films such as Pull My Daisy, Chappaqua, and The Flower Thief, Jack Sargeant discusses cinéma vérité and performance films ( Shadows and Wholly Communion ), B-movies ( The Subterraneans and Roger Corman’s Bucket of Blood ), and Hollywood adaptations ( Heart Beat and Barfly ).
The second half of the book is devoted to an extensive analysis of the films relating to William Burroughs, from Antony Balch’s Towers Open Fire to David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch. This book also contains the last ever interview with writer Allen Ginsberg, recorded three months before his death in April 1997.
From Library Journal
The highly influential writings of the original circle of Beat generation authors have been widely studied, but motion pictures emerging from the Beat movement have been largely neglected. Film journalist Sargeant (Lost Highways: Road Movies), an authority on underground movies, fills that void with this articulate and entertaining cinema history. Starting with a detailed synopsis and analysis of Pull My Daisy (1958), a film written and narrated by Jack Kerouac, and ranging through subsequent underground efforts, Sargeant shows that the nonconformist Beat attitudes of social disillusion and rebellion against convention are especially conducive to visual expression in alternative film. Also, several lively interviews, most notably with Allen Ginsberg and Jonas Mekas, brim with vivid digressions and flashes of insight about cinema and American culture. The original 1997 British edition, upon which this expands, was largely overlooked, likely owing to the lurid nature of other titles in the publisher's cinema series, such as Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood, and Madness in Japanese Cinema. However, for admirably examining the emerging genre of a Beat-related underground cinema, the present work is essential for cinema collections. Recommended for academic libraries. Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
About the Author
Jack Sargeant is a writer whose books include Flesh & Excess, Against Control , Deathtripping , Naked Lens , as well as a curator and film-programmer. He lives in Australia. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Review
Sargeant not only understands the mechanisms of the art world, he also knows the workings of the 'power of transgression'. He laces his essays with the ideas of theorists such as Foucault, Bataille, and Deleuze. In the process of conducting his interviews, Sargeant reveals that he is more eloquent and well versed than his subjects. Could this be further proof that intellectuals have a place in the underground after all? -- Your Flesh
The focus he (Sargeant) shines intelligently upon the concept of 'Beat Films' is years overdue. A book of this nature must surely have been done before, but no, it has not. As much a book about the atmosphere of Beat creation as it is of film making, Jack Sargeant has come up trumps here. -- Beat Scene --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.