Sunset

Title: Sunset
Director: Andy Warhol
Running Time: 33 minutes
Production Date: 1964-1966
Release Date: 1967-00-00 [US]
Cast: With the voice of Nico
Note: Sunset, commissioned by art patrons Jean and Dominique de Menil, is the film of a California sunset for something to do with a bombed church in Texas that they were restoring. Andy Warhol shot several colour reels of sunsets in East Hampton, San Francisco and New York City, but none of them were satisfactory. However, some of them were included in **** (Four Stars). The sunset in Sunset was filmed in California. While the sun sets (and then seemingly rises), we hear Nico's deep voice off screen reciting a poem. At a couple of points in the film a plane appears flying through the sunset. The whole effect both beautiful and mesmerizing is reminiscent of Warhol's earlier works such as Empire where a static camera captures a self-contained event and bears a marked resemblance to the paintings of Mark Rothko.

© 1996-2011
Serge Mironneau