Pull My Daisy The evocative Pull My Daisy (1959), co-directed by Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie, remains just as watchable as it was in the 1960s. It's included in the evening program of the 5/15 Robert Frank retro at Lincoln Center. Jack Kerouac's narration was a spontaneous improvisation, but here's what makes it work so beautifully: When the narration was joined to the film, instead of being synchronized to the moment, it was moved back a few seconds, making Kerouac's delivery anticipate the images.  


The 28-minute film was adapted from the third act of Kerouac's play, The Beat Generation. The cast includes Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers, Peter Orlovsky, David Amram (who also did the music) and Delphine Seyrig (1932-1990), who starred two years later in Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad (1961). Appearing as the Bishop's wife is the painter Alice Neel (1900-1984), famed for her painting of Joe Gould with multiple penises. She was portrayed by Susan Sarandon in Joe Gould's Secret (2000) and is the subject of the recent documentary Alice Neel (2007) by her grandson, Andrew Neel. The Bishop's sister is played by dancer Sally Gross, the subject of a recent Albert Maysles documentary, Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness (2007). Ginsberg and Kerouac did the lyrics for "The Crazy Daisy," sung by Anita Ellis. (When you see Rita Hayworth sing in Gilda and other films, you're actually hearing Anita Ellis.) In 1996 Pull My Daisy was added by the Library of Congress to its National Film Registry.

Labels: amram, daisy, ellis, frank, ginsberg, kerouac, leslie, resnais

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