"Seeing the World," Part One: A Trip to New York, N.Y. - Rudy Burckhardt


Rental Format(s): Digital File

Maker: Rudy Burckhardt
Original Format: 16mm silent film 1.37:1
Featuring Joseph Cotton, Virginia Nicolson Welles, John Becker, and Edwin Denby
Sound added by Jacob Burckhardt in the 1970s.
Courtesy: Rudy Burckhardt

Burckhardt rolled into one film a lighthearted comedy and a NYC travelogue. At the time his partner, poet Edwin Denby was working with Orson Welles on the play Horse Eats Hat, and after-hours Joseph Cotton and Virginia Welles moonlighted for Burckhardt. Originally the recorded narration was spoken live at screenings, and the new narration read here by Donnie Brooke Alderson. The film boasts the earliest appearance on film of actor Joseph Cotton. -Bruce Posner

The film opens as a sightseeing portrait of New York, with lively narration taking the viewer aboard the New York elevated and subway trains. Then the view from the windows becomes slightly abstracted, the voice of the commentator becomes uncertain, and tension arises through curious acted scenes of conflict. -R. Bruce Elder

Rudolph "Rudy" Burckhardt (1914-1999) at 21 moved from Switzerland to New York City with poet-playwright Edwin Denby. He became an essential participant in the burgeoning modern art scene of painters, musicians, dancers, writers and the like. Taking up photography and filmmaking, Burckhardt "photographed and filmed his friends, including many New York School artists, as well as myriad views of his adopted city" [Roberta Smith] and produced substantial bodies of work in each, blending them together seamlessly in content and style. -Bruce Posner

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