Psychomontage

NY: Grove Press, 1963. Original five inch reel of 8mm film in plain cardboard box with paper label affixed to the front. Some light overall soiling, couple of small tears, top flap creased, else very good with the film in presumably fine condition. An uncommon artifact from Grove Press' brief foray into film. Although uncredited, the British filmmaker, famous for his collaborations with William S. Burroughs, contributed footage to this montage of sexually suggestive images backed with a soundtrack that consists mainly of agitated monkeys and heavy breathing. While at first it comes off as a possible send up of avant garde films of the time, you start to realize that these people aren't joking.

"Sexologists, psychologists, and proponents of sexual freedom, the Kronhausens here attempt to induce erotic response in the audience by carefully chosen visual stimuli and juxtapositions (aimed at both conscious and unconscious). Phallic symbols and open orifices, a tongue licking an orange, an unexpected finger entering the frame: almost any object or act, no matter how innocuous, the Kronhausens show, can be made to appear erotic, and reveals our predisposition towards ‘shaping' visual evidence for purposes of erotic gratification."

Film as a Subversive Art, Pages 229-30.