Gregory Battcock

Movies

The Illiac Passion
Phaeton
Prometheus, on an Odyssean journey, crosses the Brooklyn Bridge in search of the characters of his imagination. After meeting the Muse, he proceeds to the "forest." There, under an apple tree, he communes with his selves, represented by celebrated personages from the New York "underground scene" who appear as modern correlatives to the figures of Greek mythology. The filmmaker, who narrates the situations with a translation of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound , finds the personalities of his characters to have a timeless universality.
Galaxie
Himself
In March and April of 1966, Markopoulos created this filmic portrait of writers and artists from his New York circle, including Parker Tyler, W. H. Auden, Jasper Johns, Susan Sontag, Storm De Hirsch, Jonas Mekas, Allen Ginsberg, and George and Mike Kuchar, most observed in their homes or studios. Filmed in vibrant color, Galaxie pulses with life. It is a masterpiece of in-camera composition and editing, and stands as a vibrant response to Andy Warhol's contemporary Screen Tests.
Eating Too Fast (Blow Job #2)
Himself
"Andy Warhol's 1966 'sequel' to his Blow Job begins with a long static shot of Gregory Battcock looking bored; small movements of his head reframe the elegant tight close-up to make sun and shadow symmetrical on his face, or unbalance them again, while street noises expand the shot's implied space. Halfway through this 70-minute film, the camera pans down to reveal the back of another man's head. Zooms and more pans follow, yet each blocky, high-contrast composition has an assertive power characteristic of Warhol." - Fred Camper
Horse
Warhol plunked a horse named Mighty Byrd in the middle of the Factory for this dark, homoerotic take on the classic oater that later anticipates his later western epic Lonesome Cowboys.
Batman Dracula
Batman Dracula is a 1964 black and white American film produced and directed by Andy Warhol, without the permission of DC Comics. The film was screened only at Warhol's art exhibits. A fan of the Batman series, Warhol made the movie as a homage. Batman Dracula is considered to be the first film featuring a blatantly campy Batman. The film was thought to have been lost until scenes from it were shown at some length in the documentary Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis.