“The brilliant work of Peter Lorrimer Whitehead, full of an incomparable
energy, pulverises the false barriers between formal research,
documentary reportage, psychedelic cinema, cinema engage, pop cinema and
auteur cinema. Whitehead’s work accomplishes an exceptional synthesis,
open to every different dimension of avant-garde cinema, tending towards
perceptual explosion and euphoric fusion with phenomena. “
Nicole Brenez: “The Exigency of Joy.”
NATIONAL MEDIA MUSEUM.
BRADFORD
15TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2009
PETER WHITEHEAD has
RECEIVED THE 2009 FELLOWSHIP AWARD.
"PETER
WHITEHEAD;
The WORD and the IMAGE - A Retrospective.
Peter Whitehead as been a scientist, newsreel cameraman, writer,
publisher, falconer, erotic photographer and an occultist. He has lived
a rich life of extraordinary, almost hallucinogenic, intensity.
He pioneered a highly subjective, personal style of documentary cinema
influenced by the cinema vérité and direct cinema movements that offers
audiences a singular vision.
Whitehead's films are a unique interaction with documentary, art,
politics and the supernatural (in its inventive rather than religious
sense).
This
retrospective of his films exists to place Whitehead firmly at the
forefront of cinematic experimentation and proclaims him as a genius of
the Documentary Art."
Mark Goodall.
1.
“Whitehead’s works speak for
themselves, presenting an artist who struggled to come up with a
straight definition for the turbulent period he documented. If you can’t
wrap your head around the questions Whitehead poses in The Fall or any
of his other eleven films, it’s not hard to sit back and enjoy the
music.”
John Lichman. Anthology Archives Film Festival New York.
PETER WHITEHEAD WAS THERE. “As much scene-maker as film-maker,
Whitehead personified the late-‘60s breakdown of boundaries in post-war
Britain. This working-class Cambridge grad was the original rock’n’roll
documentarian: with reckless camerawork, matched by tumultuous editing,
he plunged into London’s sex-drugs-and-protest counterculture with a
frenzied there-ness”.
J.
HOBERMAN. The VILLAGE VOICE.
STILL SWINGING: The Art-House auteur Peter Whitehead: “For years, the
British director Peter Whitehead has been a legend among a rarefied
group of cineastes. Now the rest of us will be able to enjoy this work.”
New York Times. Maura Egan.
1.
The
CRAZED GENIUS OF BRITISH FILM. Audience with Peter Whitehead: “I
invented the pop video? Not likely!” ... “Pioneering film-maker,
falconer and father of eight, Peter Whitehead has led a full life.” “His
world-wide retrospective includes “Charlie is my Darling”, The first
documentary made of The Stones, and “The Fall”, the film that devotees
consider to be his masterpiece. “
John
Preston: Sunday Telegraph.
POP,
AGIT-PROP, PARADOXE. Les films de Peter Whitehead. “Le montage pour
Whitehead est une acte de la pensée, d’aggression contre la matiere
premiere, une appropriation logique.”
Eithne O’Neill:
POSITIF Magazine.
1. “The
work of Peter Whitehead says much about how post-imperial Britain was
seduced into becoming a manipulable appendage of the United States, with
ominous consequences for the rest of the world. Its re-discovery is
nothing if not timely”.
Neil
Barry: ARAB NEWS.
“In a brilliant four-year burst, Peter Whitehead shot footage of some of
the seminal events of the 1960s. And then, at the height of his powers,
he gave it all up”. The Ceremony of Innocence.
Paul Cronin. Sight and Sound Magazine.
Tete Blanche, époque rouge ... “Parfaitement synchronise avec
l’Histoire” ...
Cahiers
du Cinema; Antoine Thirion
1.
Le
CHE GUEVARA de la Camera. “Sans Lui, les annes 60 se redirent au Sex
Drug and Rock’n roll. Mais grace a l’oeuvre de Peter Whitehead, le mot
“revolution” est aussi au generique.
ARTE:
French TV.