MUBI brings you a great new film every day.  Start your 7-day free trial today!
Watch a new film every day for $4.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 

Fuses

United States

1967

22 Min
Color
1.33:1
None
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

   |   

DIR Carolee Schneemann

DP Stan van der Beek

CAST Carolee Schneemann, James Tenney

ED Carolee Schneemann

Cannes (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs)

Synopsis

A silent film of collaged and painted sequences of lovemaking between Schneemann and her then partner, composer James Tenney; observed by the cat, Kitch.

“…I wanted to see if the experience of what I saw would have any correspondence to what I felt— the intimacy of the lovemaking… And I wanted to put into that materiality of film the energies of the body, so that the film itself dissolves and recombines and is transparent and dense— as one feels during lovemaking… It is different from any pornographic work that you’ve ever seen— that’s why people are still looking at it! And there’s no objectification or fetishization of the woman.” – Carolee Schneemann

Director

Original

Carolee Schneemann

Carolee Schneemann, a multidisciplinary artist, transformed the definition of art, especially discourse on the body, sexuality, and gender. The history of her work is characterized by research into archaic visual traditions, pleasure wrested from suppressive taboos, and the body of the artist in dynamic relationship with the social body.

Schneemann has had paintings, photographs, performance art and installation works shown at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; and a retrospective at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York entitled “Up To And Including Her Limits”. Film and video retrospectives were shown at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, NY; National Film Theatre, London; Whitney Museum, NY; San Francisco Cinematheque; and the Anthology Film Archives, NYC.

She has taught at many institutions including New York University, California… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 wall posts.
Picture of Andrei Rus

Andrei Rus

19Jul12

Great film. You can watch it here: http://www.ubu.com/film/schneeman_fuses.html

Dafnias and João BotaDouro like this

Picture of Clarice the Specter

Clarice the Specter

5Apr12

Stan van der Beek did not shoot this. Schneemann and Tenney did (obviously.)

  • Picture of Clarice the Specter

    Clarice the Specter

    16Nov12

    I stand corrected!: "We passed the camera back and forth, or in other instances I set it up. Also, Vanderbeek shot one section where we're kissing." C.S. interview from MFJ Nos. 7/8/9

Picture of Max

Max

3May10

Thanks for the link, Grey!

Picture of occam

occam

27Jan10

it's just plain beautiful.

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 66 fans.

Lists

Displaying 5 of 19 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 1 of 1

fuses

By Chuck Vollers on February 26, 2011

A short from 1967, in which Carolee Schneemann films herself while having sex with her lover, composer James Tenney. Schneemann boasts about how FUSES features “no objectification or fetishization…  read review

Forum

Displaying 0 discussion topics.