In partnership with ICP’s exhibition William Klein: YES; Photographs, Paintings, Films, 1948–2013, Anthology Film Archives hosts a final special screening:
WILLIAM KLEIN
Wednesday, August 24, at 7 PM
Want a full day of film and photography? Select the combo ticket option when purchasing your screening tickets to also receive discount admission to the International Center of Photography to view William Klein: YES; Photographs, Paintings, Films, 1948–2013, called by The New Yorker a “knockout retrospective." Purchase holders can show their combo ticket receipt at ICP for admission to the exhibition.
“Impossible to imagine attempting authorial distance (control) over the aura that is Little Richard. Which William Klein does not. Which is why THE LITTLE RICHARD STORY is a great, great film. Klein is dumb, nearly stupid, in the face (startling), body (possessed), voice (singular) of Richard, the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll’ who changed everything....[W]hat Klein shows in his nearly perfect, essayistic form is just how nightmarish his image might seem to you, the prototypical American. Whose black nightmare is Richard? Yours? And do you like it? Klein opens these questions up, making them more than reflective, by visiting Macon, Georgia (Richard’s hometown), where one hears the voices of women – of which Richard’s is a loving tribute. Working in a world they did not make, these women make it over by wailing, really mourning, the conditions – racism, sexism, class discrimination. Listening to them, we realize Richard had nothing to lose by crying so loudly too. Who would listen?” — Hilton Als, Village Voice
Though he remains best known for his photographic work (despite a resurgence of interest in his moving-image work in recent years), Klein has made numerous films over the course of his career, which run the gamut from short and feature-length documentaries to peerlessly inventive fictional satires, as well as uncategorizable works such as his globe-spanning, Handel-themed essay film Messiah. Dizzyingly eclectic as they are, Klein’s films are united by the same sensibility that distinguishes his photography, which itself encompasses both street and fashion photography: above all, a unique fusion of the penetrating journalistic eye of Weegee, Robert Frank, Helen Levitt, and others, and an unbridled, savagely satirical expressionism that is more reminiscent of an artist like George Grosz.
From the Walker Art Center’s Ruben/Bentson Moving Image Collection. Special thanks to William Klein; Brian Belovarac (Janus Films); Audrey Kamga, Whitney Marin, and Sophie Soghomonian (ARTE France); Tiffanie Pascal; Bruno Ryterband; Vincent Sacripanti (KUIV); and Michael Walsh (Walker Art Center).
