I believe that the more you research this film, you’re going to get a lot of different interpretations from various viewers and their thoughts and what they got out of it. It’s improvisation in filmmaking at its best. It’s the capturing of human emotion during the late 1960’s, peace and love with guerrilla filmmaking at its core. A time capsule from 1968 and continued in 2003, two films which I believe is worth seeing. It’s not your typical film, there is no overlying plot from beginning to end but more of an experiment caught on film with interesting results. And in the end, a truly unique and solid DVD release from THE CRITERION COLLECTION that is worth giving a try!
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TITLE: symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves – THE CRITERION COLLECTION #360
DURATION: symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One – 75 minutes / symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take 2 1/2 – 99 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Take One: Color, Monoraul, 1:33:1 Aspect Ratio, Take 2 1/2: Color, Monoraul, 1:78:1 Aspect Ratio
COMPANY: The Criterion Collection/Janus Films
RELEASED: 2006
symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
Written, Directed, Produced and Edited by William Greaves
Co-Producer: Manuel Melamed
Associate Producer: Manny Meland
Music by Miles Davis
Cinematography by Steven Larner, Terrence McCartney Filgate
symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2
Written and Directed by William Greaves
Executive Producer: Steve Buscemi, Steven Soderbergh
Co-Producer: Louis Archambault
Line Producer: Bill Stitt
Cinematography: Henry Adebonojo, Stevan Larner, Terence McCartney Filgate, Phil Parmet, Jonathan Weaver
Edited by Christopher Osborn
Sound Department: Matt Gundy
Visual Effects: Keith Yurevitz
Starring:
symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
Patricia Ree Gilbert as Alice
Don Fellows as Freddie
Susan Anspach as Alice
William Greeves
Robert L. Rosen
Miles Davis
Audrey Heningham
Jonathan Gordon
symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2
Audrey Heningham as Alice
Shannon Baker as Freddie
Marcia Karp as the Psychodramatist
Ndeye Ade Sokhna as Jamilla
Jonathan Gordon
Terence McCartney Filgate
Bob Rosen
Phil Parmet
William Greaves
Steve Buscemi
In his one-of-a-kind fiction/documentary hybrid Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One, director William Greaves presides over a beleaguered film crew in New York’s Central Park, leaving them to try to figure out what kind of movie they’re making. A couple enacts a break-up scenario over and over, a documentary crew films a crew filming the crew, locals wander casually into the frame: the project defies easy description. Yet this wildly innovative sixties counterculture landmark remains one of the most tightly focused and insightful movies ever made about making movies. Criterion presents this long-unreleased gem in a special two-disc edition, along with its sequel, Take 2 1/2, made thirty-five years later with executive producers Steven Soderbergh and Steve Buscemi.
William Greaves is known for his documentary work for PBS, the United Nations and the United States Information Agency and between 1968 and 1970, Greaves was the executive producer and co-host of “Black Nation” (the first African-American produced news and public affairs show on television) which the filmmaker won various awards including an Emmy. Having a distinction as one of the original African-American filmmakers.
Having studied at Actor’s Studio and having roles on Broadway, Greaves was also an actor. But within his wonderful career, a film that written, directed and produced in 1968 titled “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” is considered as an avant-garde film because it was a film experiment in which William Greaves brought together a film crew and fellow acting students to Central Park and everyone believes they are actually filming a movie (in which they are), while a documentary film crew films what’s going on behind-the-scenes.
While the film crew focuses on the talent, and the documentary crew focuses on the film crew…everyone has their opinions.  Debating on Greaves approach to filmmaking and people bad mouthing the director and the whole situation while being filmed. No one truly understands what is going on but they continue, because they feel that despite Greaves being a good/bad director…it’s his perspective of how he wants to do things. If they disagree, it doesn’t matter. As long as they go along on the ride and see what happens.
The film captures 1968 life and filmmaking at that time as 16mm cameras are being used. Cameras that hold only eleven minutes of film and having to try and sync them and technology used of yesteryear. In some ways, “symbiopsychotaxiplasm” is like a time capsule of how film crews work together and how they work with the staff. But in a way, unorthodox because of Greaves approach to the filmmaking.
What we do know is that William Greaves is not just a filmmaker, he’s an actor. Who is the real William Greaves? Is what see on film an act or was it for real? Obviously the goal for Greaves as he has mentioned in Q&A sessions after the film’s screening was trying to create conflict in which people discuss that conflict. Greaves is not only the protagonist, he is the antagonist of his own film. Everyone begins to criticize but those who think they know what William is planning believes he is doing something special. But also, everything is being filmed. From the police officer requesting for a permit, the kids who want to be part of the film and the homeless man who talks about how he was evicted from his home. Everything around them was literally captured on film.
One of the highlights of “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” is that the film utilizes a score by Mile Davis which gives the film this cool jazzy score. While the music is calming, scenes of the crew are not.  What could be seen as a film of film crew madness, never gets too chaotic but is more constructive debate. Most of all, Greaves, knew which parts to include in the final cut via the editing and made things entertaining for the viewer.
And one thing revealed after the film’s release and actually makes the film work is that while Greaves was editing the film, he finds out that the documentary crew was also filming the film crew during their gripe sessions and their gripes make sense but in a way the people take on their interpretation of Greaves filmmaking is almost philosophical in a way.  “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” is literally a time capsule of filmmaking in 1968 and the creativity brought by the director and those involved with the film (even though they didn’t know what the final cut would be).
Originally planned, Greaves wanted to do five films as he had over 50 hours of film footage but no one wanted to take the risk of distributing the film and thus for the next 30 years, the film would be shown only to museums and at film festivals.
It wasn’t until 1992 when actor Steve Buscemi, who saw the film at a film festival was entranced by the film wanted to help produce a sequel. Director Steven Soderbergh was shown the film and became interested in producing a sequel and thus these two well-known individuals gave William Greaves the opportunity to work on the sequel “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2”.
For the 2003 sequel, the film includes more of the 1968 footage of the film crew planning of what they wanted to accomplish during the day of filming on top of a high rise in New York City as the staff discuss the film while sirens around the city play in the background. The film continues the experimentation of the characters of Alice (played by Audrey Henningham) and Freddie (Shannon Baker), the two interracial characters that were shown at the end of the first film.  As the first half continues with what was filmed at the end of the day, we are then taken to a screening of the film over 30 years later in which we see a Q&A session featuring director William Greaves, one of his original crew members and also see actor Steve Buscemi.
This leads to the third part of the film which brings back the two interracial characters from 1968: Alice (played by Audrey Henningham) and Freddie (played by Shannon Baker) reuniting 30 years later and a conclusion of the story of the two characters.
Steve Buscemi takes on the job as one of the cameramen and again, we see certain film crew not knowing what the heck is going on. Those familiar with “symbiopsychotaxiplasm” want to be taken on the wild ride and see where Greave’s takes them, while those not familiar with it are similar to the 1968 film crew and question Greaves direction. Does the director William Greaves know what he is doing or is he acting?
“Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves” is featured on two DVD’s, with each DVD featuring one film: the 1968 “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” film and 2003 sequel “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2”.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
“symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” is featured with an aspect ratio of 1:33:1 so the black bars will appear on the left and right of the image. As for picture quality, the 1968 film shot on 16mm actually looks pretty good considering that this was filmed over 40-years-ago. According to Criterion, the new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm print. But William Greaves wanted corrections tot he picture and sound to be kept at a minimum to retain the “authentic” look of the film.
Greaves said that one of the theories behind the making of the film was that any “mistake” that was consciously or unconsciously made during or after filming would add to the immediacy of viewers’ experience and making them more involved in the filmmaking process.
Criterion also used their MTI Digital Restoration System to remove instances of dirt, debris and scratches caused by the degradation of film sources.
As for “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2”, the aspect ratio is 1:78:1 and was created from the original 16mm and 35mm elements from Take One and modern digital video sources from various tape formats.   So, the first half of “Take 2 1/2” is similar to Take One but as we get to the screening of the film and then the newer footage, there is a difference in film quality which is natural as the film source is from 1968 and 2003.
As for audio, the soundtrack is mono and according to Criterion, the soundtrack was mastered in 24-bit from optical soundtrack prints and audio restoration tools were used to remove occasional pops, hiss and crackle.  The film is center channel driven but on surround system, people can switch to two-channel playback. Or if you have a receiver that can send audio to all channels, even better.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves” comes with the following special features:
DISC 1:
- Discovering William Greaves – (1:01:13) A documentary created by The Criterion Collection, William Greaves, filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, actress Ruby Dee, wife and producing partner Louise Archambault and film scholar Scott MacDonald discuss William Greaves career and symbiopsychotaxiplasm in depth.
- Theatrical Trailer – (1:21) A trailer made in 2005 for Janus Films theatrical distribution for “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One”.
DISC 2:
- Steve Buscemi Interview – (12:41) A 2006 interview with actor Steve Buscemi talks about his experience of watching “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” back in 1992 and how he pledged his support for William Greaves and future sequels. And his involvement with “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take 2 1/2”.
Also, included is a 34-page booklet featuring an essay titled “still no answers” by Amy Taubin, production notes written by William Greaves prior to and during the filming of “symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” and produced in “Screen Writings: Scripts and Texts” by Independent Filmmakers, edited by Scott McDonald. Definitely wonderful reading, especially to read what was going on in the mind of William Greaves during the making of the 1968 film.
“symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves” is unlike anything that one expects to see from THE CRITERION COLLECTION. In fact, I am so happy that Criterion decided to release these two films on DVD and recognize this avant-garde work of Greaves.
I looked at the film as the precursor to what people are now seeing on YouTube or network shows. Greaves called the film as an exploration into the future of cinema art. Improvisation. A rebellion against traditional cinema form. The film crew which features hippies filming a movie about suburbanites is an understatement. This is a film that filmmakers can watch and see how work is done, even though Greaves intentionally (or intentionally) makes them feel uneasy about their job and not knowing what to do.
Reading the insert booklet, Greaves said that his goal was to make a conventional theatrical short inside a major unconventional feature film. A conventional screen test inside a major unconventional feature film. Letting nature run its course and what you see are people’s emotions driving this film. Spontaneous and true reactions which is captured on film.
Personally for me, during my college project, I had my staff and talent during the long arduous process of waiting for scenes to be completed, having a camera to record their thoughts, their feelings, their frustrations and as a filmmaker, I can understand what William Greaves probably may have felt when he had to edit this film. But its that spontaneity that you want captured, is what makes it all worthwhile and that’s why I enjoyed both films a lot.
And what a solid release from The Criterion Collection. You get both films on DVD, an hour long documentary on William Greaves and also a featurette with an interview with Steve Buscemi. If anything, I looked at this release as “Take One” being the major film and “Take 2 1/2”, although a sequel, more like an extra bonus that one can enjoy differently.
“symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Two Takes by William Greaves” is a DVD release that I can easily recommend to those who are thespians or filmmakers. For the casual viewers, only if they have an interest in the filmmaking process. This is not your typical film with a plot, it’s literally a film experiment of capturing true emotions and how it starts to work itself out during the making of the film. So, I’m quite grateful for The Criterion Collection for giving this a proper and solid release but also to Steve Buscemi and Steven Soderbergh for giving Greaves the opportunity for a sequel over 30 years later.
I believe that the more you research this film (which I did prior to purchasing it), you’re going to get a lot of different interpretations from various viewers and their thoughts and what they got out of it. It’s improvisation in filmmaking at its best. It’s the capturing of human emotion during the late 1960’s, peace and love with guerrilla filmmaking at its core. A time capsule from 1968 and continued in 2003, two films which I believe is worth seeing. It’s not your typical film, there is no overlying plot from beginning to end but more of an experiment caught on film with interesting results. And in the end, a truly unique and solid DVD release from The Criterion Collection that is worth giving a try!