The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol

by J.J. Murphy

Andy Warhol, one of the twentieth century’s major visual artists, was a prolific filmmaker who made hundreds of films, many of them― Sleep, Empire, Blow Job, The Chelsea Girls , and Blue Movie ―seminal but misunderstood contributions to the history of American cinema. In the first comprehensive study of Warhol’s films, J.J. Murphy provides a detailed survey and analysis. He discusses Warhol’s early films, sound portraits, involvement with multimedia (including The Velvet Underground), and sexploitation films, as well as the more commercial works he produced for Paul Morrissey in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Murphy’s close readings of the films illuminate Warhol’s brilliant collaborations with writers, performers, other artists, and filmmakers. The book further demonstrates how Warhol’s use of the camera transformed the events being filmed and how his own unique brand of psychodrama created dramatic tension within the works.

Genres: Art

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 4, 2012

About the author

J. J. Murphy is Professor of Film Production and Film Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His films have played at major international film festivals and have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Austrian Film Museum (Vienna), the Barbican Film Centre (London), and the Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris).

Reviews

[Brenda Meyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the part when the author talks about Warhol’s work and importance to film industry,the book is based on a very deep research of each movie and period of the films. I enjoyed it

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murphy has a strong love for these films and displays a great knowledge. As analytical as it is anecdotal, it's consistently interesting and insightful. I've been watching some of Warhol's films alongside reading his, and I have a few I've managed to track down that I'll watch in the coming weeks. Murphy helps to break down what Warhol accomplished with these raw, home movie styled pictures: They're psychodramas designed to provoke natural reactions from the actors. This often means slow moving, boring films. But it also means violent outbursts and a sense of realism. I'm sure these films will always have their critics, many of them are true struggles to watch, but they do something unique with cinema that had never been done before.

[Mike Everleth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal scholarship on Warhol's films with a keen insight never expressed before in print.