With a title like NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL one might expect a finely crafted, well-honed piece of cinema, something given quite a bit of care and finesse, as that is what the word "control" implies where film and art meet most times. Instead, director (and I use that term as loosely as possible) Michael Snow has chosen to unleash upon the general viewer a banal reel of unembellished detritus under the somewhat protective umbrella of the 'Avant-Garde' film movement.
N Y E&E C is, simply put, one of the most boring, annoying and completely insulting films I've ever had the displeasure to watch. Improper exposures, lack of composition (both within the film frame and structurally), empty subject matter, run-on scene-takes, and a soul-strangling "freestyle" Jazz soundtrack (imagine bleating goats, whinnying horses and trumpeting elephants all thrown in a blender and set on "Mince") only begin to exemplify what this film pushed out on the audience like so much afterbirth. It became clear quickly that Snow really didn't have much of a plan going into the shooting or editing of the work, and throwing in his famous Walking Woman cut-outs seemed like a weak attempt to legitimize whatever artistic leanings the piece might be able to scrape by on. Once again, the Avant-Garde inherits another legacy of half-baked, infantile, self-satisfying palp.
My lack of interest soon slipped into depressive-level boredom, which was shunted over into sheer frustration and finally pure rage by the film's end, and by my observance of the audience surrounding me I'd say I was clearly in the majority with my dis- enjoyment of NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL. By the film's end I was very near to throwing my shoe at the screen in protest. (The only reason I deigned to made it through was because I had come to see the subsequent films in the program at that screening.)
1/10. One of the truly most horrible viewing experiences of my life; Utter garbage!