Me and My Brother

New York: Two Faces / New Yorker Films, 1969. Vintage poster for the 1969 film, an experimental mix of documentary and fiction. Poster designed by Robert Frank.

Director Robert Frank's first feature film, in which he follows poet Peter Orlvosky and his mentally ill brother Julius as they move through the late 1960s Beat scene, while Peter tries to care for his mostly catatonic brother. When Julius wanders off, he is replaced in the film by actor Joseph Chaikin. The film examines the boundaries of reality and sanity, and features the screenwriting debut of Sam Shepard and the first feature film appearance of Christopher Walken.

The film was restored and released by Steidl in 2007, along with a book publication outlining the film. From the Steidl book: "Frank's feature debut was first screened in 1968 at the Venice Film Festival. Everything which had defined Frank’s art up to that point turns up in this film – the look at America 'from the outside,' the poetic libertinage of the Beats, the marginal in a central role. It celebrates the return of the poetic essay as assemblage, the affirmation of the underground as a wild cinematic analysis in the form of a collage, and skillfully weaves together opposites, plays counterfeits against the authentic, pornography against poetry, acting against being, Beat cynicism against hippie romanticism, monochrome against colored. The story contains bizarre twists and turns, and appears to be a rather artless-film-within-a-film being shown at a rundown movie theater."

26.75 x 20.75 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #141375]