Notfilm
Apr 08 - Apr 11, 2016
(Ross Lipman, USA, 2015, DCP, 128 min)
Seattle premiere!
Notfilm documents the creation of Samuel Beckett’s collaboration with Buster Keaton, the contentious 1964 avant-garde short entitled, simply, FILM. Beckett’s only work of cinema was released to a deeply divided audience; some called it a masterpiece, some found it confusing. Beckett himself ultimately regarded the film as a failure, yet it remains as enigmatic and fascinating as ever in the cinephilic consciousness.
Ross Lipman’s film essay combines outtakes from the original work, audio recordings of production meetings, interviews, and Lipman’s own commentary. What results is not so much an explanation but a further investigation of Beckett’s own intentions, and into the origins, limits and human implications of cinema itself.