James Herbert
Directing
Biography
James Herbert is an internationally known American painter and filmmaker. His work is known for its obsession with the nude figure in romantic and erotic figurations with an emphasis on the role of sexuality and scene context. Herbert was born in 1938 in Boston and grew up in Rhode Island. He began his informal art education as a teenager attending nude figure drawing classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned his B.A. degree in art history from Dartmouth College in 1960 and his M.F.A. in painting in 1962 from the University of Colorado where he studied briefly with Clyfford Still and Stan Brakhage.
Known For
This 50-minute release features promotional videos to the band's four singles from Out of Time ('Losing My Religion', 'Shiny Happy People', 'Near Wild Heaven' and 'Radio Song') in addition to videos to the album tracks 'Low', 'Belong', 'Half A World Away' and 'Country Feedback'; an acoustic performance of 'Losing My Religion' from The Late Show; and a live acoustic performance of 'Love Is All Around' from MTV Unplugged. Also included is 'Endgame', an instrumental track, played over the feature's credits; and several avant-garde clips, ranging from ten seconds to one minute, playing in between each song. This incidental footage was directed by Michael Stipe.
R.E.M. - This Film Is On
Film from James Herbert
La Presenza
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Two Figures
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Mars
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R.E.M.: Succumbs
Promotional film for R.E.M.'s second album, Reckoning, directed by James Herbert.
Left of Reckoning
A cyclical film, without sound, that goes from day to night and back again. First, from the porch glider, daytime movement is seen--children running and bicycles and cars going by. The nighttime scene is a long poetic and dream-like look at adolescent lovemaking.
Porch Glider
No description available.
Alcove in the Palazzo Rosso
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Carnival
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Earth Red
Director James Herbert and editor Mark Jordan -- both visual artists who work in other media -- crafted this non-narrative look at Carter and Andy, two American artists summering in an unnamed Tuscany city. The young men discuss art and each other as they explore the city and its women, while the camera explores Carter and Andy.
Speedy Boys
Abandoned House is about a group of young people in Italy who exchange stories. The protagonist Maria listens to young men and women who report on sexual abuse and warped pleasure and she seems to feel the need to manipulate their vulnerability and rediscover her own lost love. Pictures of Tuscany and the sensual light within which the young naked figures in the film bathe serve to temper the darker aspects of the film with a tangible lyricism. In the end, the scars of abuse give way to the tenderness of the visual language itself.
Abandoned House
Experimental short by James Herbert.
Three
The theme of erotic love and tenderness, longing and desire, expressed through the innocent awakenings of two young men and a woman in three settings. The figures are, for the most part, nude, and move through lush environments of antique and contemporary rooms.
John Five
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Frontier
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Fish
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Island
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Window
For this film, Herbert photographed the original 16mm material framed by frame with a 35mm camera. On screen, sensuality and sexuality, mythical and profane associations, motion and stationariness, framing, light, diaphragm and composition vie for supremacy. We see a boy in beautiful back lighting, the girl curling in the sunlight and we experience the existential and aesthetic inevitability of the physical contact. Herbert allows us to share the act of watching and paints his models like a portrait painter.
Jumbo Aqua
Short film from James Herbert