Naked Lens: Beat Cinema [Paperback]

Jack Sargeant (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2009

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.

Editorial Reviews

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 Paperback 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 out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Soft Skull Press; Revised Edition edition (January 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593762208
• ISBN-13: 978-1593762209
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,672,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars long overdue, November 2, 2000

By 

barry (Tasmania, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Naked Lens: Beat Cinema (Creation Cinema Collection) (Paperback)

Naked Lens is a stunning piece of scholarship that gives some focus to some of the lesser lights of 'underground film making'. The sections on Harry Smith are particularly enlightening, going a long way in giving some due to this criminally neglected artist/anthroplogist/filmaker. The same can be said for the sections on the visionary artists Brion Gysin and Anthony Balch who along with William.S. Burroughs made some of the most unsettling and groundbreaking films of the 1960's. The book is both educational and entertaining and that in itself is a testament to Sargeants skill both as a critic and writer. In short, buy this book you won't be dissapointed.