Wholly Communion is a short documentary film made in 1965 by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead.[1] It was filmed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and documents a poetry event held on 11 June 1965 called the International Poetry Incarnation. It features poetry readings by Beat poets from the UK and U.S.[2][3][4]
| Wholly Communion | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Peter Whitehead |
Release date |
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Running time | 33 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Cast
editReception
editThe Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a record of that celebrated meeting of poets which packed the Royal Albert Hall last June, Wholly Communion certainly has its points: here, preserved for the curious and the social historian, are the narcissistically mumbling poets (Logue, Ferlinghetti and Mitchell are notable exceptions), and the huge audience, which came expecting one knows not what, listening reverentially (did they enjoy themselves?). Aside from its interest as a document, unfortunately, the film is a clumsy piece of work. The single camera, rather uncertainly doing its best to give an overall coverage, wobbles and shudders, zooms in to a _target, misses, tries again and re-focuses, in a poor approximation to the much more professional American cinéma-vérité approach. A good deal of the framing is also ugly, and there is an interminable sequence in which the camera seems to be hypnotised by a girl in the audience who is waving her arms about like a third-rate interpretative dancer in time to Ginsberg's poetical mutterings."[5]
References
edit- ^ "Wholly Communion". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Wholly Communion (1965)". www.screenonline.org.uk. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
- ^ Donnelly, Mark (2011). "Wholly Communion: Truths, Histories, and the Albert Hall Poetry Reading". Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media. 52 (1): 128–144. doi:10.1353/frm.2011.0033. ISSN 0306-7661. OCLC 5556770249. S2CID 194081663.
- ^ Riley, James (2019). The Bad Trip: Dark omens, new worlds and the end of the sixties. London: ICON Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-78578-594-8. OCLC 1119619147.
- ^ "Wholly Communion". The Monthly Film Bulletin. 33 (384): 113. 1 January 1966 – via ProQuest.