In the summer of 1968, William Greaves wrote, directed, and
starred in Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One, a delirious
Möbius strip of a film long relegated to the forgotten dustbin of
history. Recently rediscovered and heralded as a classic of the
American New Wave, Symbio is a cinematic hall of mirrors: a
movie about a fake movie (also directed by William Greaves), which
involves yet another fake movie (dir. Greaves) about said movie being
made.
Greaves plays himself the same way that Larry David “plays himself”
on Curb Your Enthusiasm, and like the contemporary TV show,
Symbio is shot in a documentary style that lends the film an
unearned varnish of reality. Greaves’ “character” (Greaves) is
directing an Edward Albee-ish film called Over the Cliff in
Central Park, although he does little actual directing, except to tell
the cast and crew to basically do as they please, so long as they film
the process of their filmmaking. Greaves is maddening in his
ineffectiveness, and soon the crew forms a mutiny/bitch session, which
they also record on film, as part of the all-inclusive process.
Theseself-reflective tropes encircle the production of one scene in
Over the Cliff, which two actors execute repeatedly. The
hackneyed, enacted scene is oddly compelling, despite Symbio‘s
theoretical neon sign that flashes above every frame, screaming, “These
are just bad actors, dummy!”
It’s a total closed loop of meta-splooge, but Symbio directly
foreshadows contemporary films like Adaptation and shows like
the UK’s The Office. True, Symbio is a much film-nerdier
version, but it contains layer upon layer of ideas to unpack, many of
which are unexpectedly funny. Throw in a score by Miles Davis, and
Symbio makes the surprise jump from “40-year-old experimental
film” (complete with suicidal noose gesture) to “crazy
thought-provoking film,” complete with onscreen meta-splooge.