The Cut Ups (1966) User Reviews

Offbeat experimental short

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 16 June 2011]

Essentially a dizzying montage of quirky shots of legendary Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs and noted surrealist artist Brion Gysin, this nearly 20 minute avant-garde short features repeated articulations of such random things as "Hello," "Where are we now?," and "Loook at that picture" instead of music or standard dialogue. The narrative is decidedly nonlinear and perplexing, with no discernible plot whatsoever as we see images of Gysin working on his paintings and calligraphic designs and Burroughs rummaging through draws, packing a suitcase, giving a young man a physical, making a call in a phone booth, and waiting on a platform for a subway train. The fiercely edited visuals are shot in stark black and white and occasionally overlap each other. The whole thing reaches a delirious crescendo at the very end. While it's impossible to figure out the exact point of this genuinely bizarre venture, it nonetheless remains fascinating despite (or maybe even because of) its gloriously wigged-out incomprehensible strangeness. An interesting one-of-a-kind oddity.

Experimental "hello", "yes", "hello", "yes", "hello", "yes" XD

[chribren · 7/10 · 14 September 2013]

"The Cut-Ups" is a 20-minute experimental film from 1966 made by Antony Balch, who also made the 1963-film "Towers Open Fire".

Basic about this movie: The film has little to no plot, we see a man doing some paintings and calligraphic designs, while an another man is packing a suitcase, having a phone call etc. The soundtrack is nothing more than repeated words like "yes, "hello", "look at that picture", "thank you" and some more words. The editing itself is very quick.

The above mentioned repeated words might be enough to either make you amazed or crazy/annoyed. I even mentioned briefly about this film to my big sister; she would have gone crazy just after a few minutes. I was more of the "amazed" ones, and laughed throughout this short flick.

So basically, this is not your typical British film ala products from BBC, Channel 4, UK Film Council and similar companies, due to the fact this is an avant-garde film. Well worth a look if you find this film. Also worth checking out "Towers Open Fire".

Yes/Hello/Yes/Hello/Yes/Hello/Etc./Etc./Etc.

[Seamus2829 · 10/10 · 3 May 2008]

Here is an experimental short that is guaranteed to try the patience of most folk that manage to catch it. It's a (nearly)20 minute short of William S.Burroughs & Bryon Gysin in a disconnected series of images, with a soundtrack consisting of the phrases "Yes", "Hello","Look At That Picture", and a few others. At times, it seems to have a (kind of) Andy Warhol like texture to it. Either way, it's going to either amuse or irritate some people who do manage to see it. Like 'Towers Open Fire', 'Ghosts At Number Nine', and some others, this film seems to feel like an extended dream sequence (probably something to do with Gysin/Burrough's cut up technique,first applied to Gysin's paintings, then Burrough's writing,then tape recordings,then film,itself).

rapid-fire editing and non-sequiturs in this experimental short film "Yes, hello? Thank you."

[FieCrier · 1 July 2005]

The spoken words in this are mostly limited, with many variations, to "Yes, hello" and "Look at that picture. Does it seem to be persisting? Good. Thank you."

It's composed of many short clips of Brion Gysin and of WIlliam Burroughs, sometimes together. Gysin walks through the street wearing a sweater with some of the calligraphic characters he created on it. In some of the early shots, Burroughs seems to be rifling through things, or packing. Many of the shots are sped up, and the editing is very, very quick.

There are a number of shots of Gysin's Dreamachine, and also of him working on various paintings and calligraphic designs. Many of these start with a paint roller rolling out a rough sort of grid, sometimes some of which is shaded and then repeatedly written over.

As with Towers Open Fire, this can be found on the videotape Towers Open Fire and Other Films by Antony Balch, and as a special feature on the DVD of the horror anthology film Bizarre, also directed by Balch. (The Cut Ups is far more bizarre.)

What does it all mean? Who knows?

Do you see the picture?

[rdoyle29 · 10/10 · 5 November 2017]

This is the zenith of Burroughs's collaborations with Antony Balch. The visuals are a mix of footage of Burroughs wandering New York, Brion Gysin working on paintings, and miscellaneous nonsense images. The audio is the real feature here ... Burroughs and Gysin recite variations on "Yes", "Hello", "Thank You", "Look at the picture" and "Does it seem to persist?" in various combinations for 20 minutes. The topic is Gysin's Dream Machine (which is pictured briefly), but really, the experience is a sort of trance inducing meditation on how these words evolve and devolve into nonsense. I expect people with either adore or despise it. I could watch it for hours.