October 8, 2006

I’m in Cinematheque for Warhol’s Empire. The movie will start in a few minutes. I thought there would be very few people going to see it but actually right now, there are 18 people in the theater.

1:14 pm Two women leave, and a man comes in late. 1:17 pm A man and a woman leave. 1:20 pm Two more women in their middle age are leaving. I heard somebody just coming in but not sure. 1:45 pm One more person left the room. Don’t know if just to the toilet or forever. The lights on the Empire were turned on about 5 minutes ago. People are serious. It is so quiet. You can even hear my stomach’s grumbling noise. 2:11 pm Two more people are leaving, a young couple. I’m kind of cold and sleepy. It’s dark in here. 2:16 pm Another young man left the room. I hope he’ll come back. It seems he’s just out for a break, or I hope so. This is really a psychology test although I don’t want to say so. You have to be certain about yourself to stay here because you don’t question if yourself are stupid. 2:26 pm Unbelievable! The man in front of me also left. He’d seemed so certain, but he left – I hope it was for a break only, I hope he’ll come back. 2:32 pm Ok, the couple in the same seat row with me is leaving. I knew that they would be leaving. But it’s okay, so that I don’t have to worry about the sound of my grumbling stomach. 2:45 pm A guy was just coming in and walking around in a weird way. I had no idea what he was doing, but I was about to tell him: “Excuse me, but we are watching a movie here, sir!” He finally left. 3:02 pm One more person left about 5 minutes ago but another one just came back in. The people who are still in the theater have a good level of craziness, I believe. The screen hasn’t changed for more than an hour. People are still watching it. My stomach is still grumbling a lot. I don’t know if they hear it. I think I got to go for a pee. 3:26 pm One more person is leaving. I hate to have to stop to write. I don’t want to stop to write. The person came back in though. That’s nice. 3:54 pm Something great happened. A minute ago I just woke myself up from a little nap, and I saw the reflection of Andy Warhol on the glass window of the building where he was doing the shooting. Probably because the focus was changed so the glass and the reflection was seen. He was doing something, like changing the reel. Then he walked away. 4:37 pm The projection is stopped for a break. I can count there are 7 people and me in the theater. People walk out for a break. The film resumes just after a few minutes. During the break, I talked to a woman. She isn’t an artist. She’s working at a library. She is planning to see the whole thing. She is with a man, and they are going to get some coffee. She said she was at Warhol’s exhibition at the AGO, and at Gerard Malanga’s lecture here last night too. She said: “This is not a movie. It’s different. It’s intellectual.” 5:24 pm The reflection of Warhol walking by again appeared on screen for a few seconds. 7:02 pm I just went out for the last half of my sandwich. Everybody is still watching. It is like we are waiting for something to happen. Probably for the dawn appears on screen and shines on the Empire State Building? But we all have to sit here and wait. Why? The woman who works at a library said we are all doing performance art here. 7:11 pm The lights of the Empire building turn off. You can’t see the shape of the building, only some flickering lights recall the trace of that shape. 7:33 pm Somebody appears on screen again. It looks like Gerard Malanga touching his sexy hair. 7:42 pm The screen is so obscure right now. Quite a few more people came back in the theater. Like the guy in front of me, he just came back in after hours of being outside. They just come back for the last hour, the last scene. They’ve missed a lot. 8:15 pm The film ends. Isn’t it earlier than what they said? On the way out, I asked the curator of Cinematheque’s Warhol program, and she said: “No, it was just because our projector runs 19 frames per second, and the original film was 16 frames per second, so it was speeded up a little bit. But you didn’t miss anything. We just didn’t know that out projector can’t be that slow.” I said thank to her, and she said “You’re welcome.” But what I meant was not only thanking her for the answer, but more thanking Cinematheque for the experience that I’ve just made.

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