George Kuchar
15 min
USA 1966

A film in which we see through the eyes of a frustrated director who is desperately attempting to realise his ‘vision’. An assault on ‘good taste,’ this film-within-a-film is lead by the vocal directions explaining and interrupting the scenes and performances of the ‘no-talent actors’. An actress (in a poorly synced overdub) is heard protesting that she is “sick and tired about being naked in almost every scene”. A distorted soundtrack of scratched records evoke faded Hollywood clichés – suspense, romance, drama - often clashing with otherwise banal rehearsed scenes.

This early Kuchar film is typical of a signature kitsch style which seems to simultaneously mock and celebrate an earlier ‘golden-age’ of Hollywood cinema. Gaudy and colour- saturated the film is at once trashy and light-hearted but at the same time also reflects an underlying sense of melancholy and frustration.

George Kuchar
(1941) USA

George Kuchar has made over two hundred films, including a number with his twin brother Mike Kuchar. His films have been characterised by a lo-fi, kitsch style often employing ‘no-talent’ actors for his films. Kuchar became part of the growing ‘underground’ filmmaking scene in New York in the late 1960s when his films would be shown alongside work by other ‘underground’ figures including Kenneth Anger and Andy Warhol. Since 1971 Kuchar has taught in the Film department of the San Francisco Art Institute where he has continued to maintain a prolific output of his own work.

George Kuchar Hold me While I'm Naked 1966 © courtesy of the artist / Anthology Film Archives