Me and My Brother

New York: Contemporary Films, 1969. Vintage reference photograph from the 1969 film, showing Robert Frank, Peter Orlovsky, and Allen Ginsberg. Printed mimeo snipe affixed to the verso, along with the stamp of Israel Film Archive.

Director Robert Frank's first feature film and Sam Shepard's screenwriting debut, following Frank as he accompanies poet Peter Orlovsky and Orlovsky's catatonic, mentally ill brother Julius through the late 1960s Beat scene. When Julius wanders off, he is replaced in the film by actor Joseph Chaikin, pushing the boundaries of cinematic reality.

The film was restored and released by Steidl in 2007, alongside a book publication outlining the film, which notes: "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."

10 x 8 inches. Near Fine.

[Book #155087]