Watch Empire

Empire is a 1964 film directed by filmmaker Jonas Mekas and produced by iconic artist Andy Warhol. The film is an experimental piece that depicts the Empire State Building for a full 8 hours and 5 minutes. This film is unique in its execution and has been considered an avant-garde masterpiece despite its simplicity. Empire is a one shot film that was filmed with a stationary camera on the 41st floor of the Time-Life building in New York City. The uninterrupted shot begins at about 8:06 p.m. and ends at approximately 2:42 a.m. The camera looks out of a window which frames the Empire State Building in the distance. The camera doesn't move throughout the entire film, and the only changes are made to the lighting in the room.

The film manages to capture the building's beauty and proportions although the simplicity of its premise is commendable. The film is a slow exercise in film-making, and its intention is to emphasize the value of cinema itself. The length of the film is a way of celebrating the potential of the medium to show real-time and to create emotions in the viewer through the use of sound and image without traditional narrative techniques.

The film's simplicity becomes more complex as it progresses. The film's monochromatic display of the Empire State building shifts as the daylight fades, and night enshrouds New York City. The slow-moving clouds passing over the tower also add a dimension of visual interest to the otherwise still shot. The soundtrack is just as minimalist as the visuals with the sound of traffic being the only noise on the track for the majority of the film.

Empire's length is a testament to the film medium's ability to convey a sense of time and space that isn't possible in other art forms. The film patiently creates a sense of tension between fast-moving time-lapses and long static shots in order to immerse the viewer in the experience of being in the room and looking out at the city from atop the skyscraper. In doing so, the film becomes a meditation of time itself.

The film was also a reflection of the art world at the time as it reflects Warhol's distinct vision of art. It portrays an aesthetic that values repetition, simplicity, and detachment from traditional techniques of storytelling. Empire would subsequently emerge as a cornerstone of the Factory and the avant-garde art world, as it marked a turning point from films mostly driven by plot, character, and overall entertainment, to the concept of the film as an object in itself.

Overall, Empire is a stunning, captivating and immersive film that revolutionized experimental filmmaking. It's a significant piece of art history worth watching for anyone interested in avant-garde cinema, and it stands out as Warhol's most prominent contribution to the medium. The film's length, simplicity, and minimalism became an early example of conceptual art that challenged the traditional norms of storytelling and aesthetics, and it remains a classic of its genre to this day.