In my movie - dreamscape screenplay extends signature reframing of mass-media iconography

ArtForum, Oct, 2003 by Richard Prince

WHEN ARTFORUM INVITED RICHARD PRINCE TO CONTRIBUTE A WRITING PROJECT IN TUNE WITH HIS VISUAL WORK, THE ARTIST LOOKED TO HIS ONGOING SERIES OF "NURSE PAINTINGS" AND TO A RECENT PHOTO SHOOT WITH KATE MOSS--AND CREATED THIS DREAMSCAPE SCREENPLAY THAT EXTENDS HIS SIGNATURE REFRAMING OF MASS-MEDIA ICONOGRAPHY.

Two drunks wandered into a zoo and stopped in front of a lion's cage. They stood watching the animal for a few minutes and suddenly it let out a roar. "C'mon let's go," said one. "Go ahead if you want to," said the other. "I'm gonna stay for the movie."

In my movie there's a cowboy, a nurse, a comedian, and a girl on a motorcycle. The nurse tells jokes. The cowboy takes care of people. The comedian rides a horse. The girl on the motorcycle stays home.

The nurse is played by Kate Moss. I don't know if she can act, but she can tell a joke.

Kate rents the movie Freud. Montgomery Clift plays Freud's part. John Huston directs the movie, in the movie Clift, playing Freud, says art is about sublimated libidinal energies. He says art isn't like science, it isn't analytical, abstract, unemotional, left-brain, Apollonian. In the movie Clift, playing Freud, says art is playful, concrete, intuitive, Dionysian. After watching the movie Freud, Kate says art is the Coke bottle in the movie On the Beach.

The girl on the motorcycle moves away from home and works at a video rental store, renting mostly pornographic videos and DVDs. She says pornography is a fragmented emotion, a natural consequence of a high visual gradient in any culture.

The cowboy seems to have a life of his own or at least a sensation of unreality that looks real. He has an oppressive effect, glowing hallucinatory energy.

The comedian comes very close to being tragic, his humor very close to being terrifying.

You know that part in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still, when Michael Rennie ... he plays this intergalactic diplomat ... he comes to earth and shuts everything down, makes everything even ... he shuts all the machines down, anything that moves stops and all of a sudden everything is still like a picture in a frame and the entire population of Washington, DC, can't figure out what's happening and they're all just standing there on the street looking in the same direction ... Do you know that part?

In my movie Kate says the primary component of art is truth. Once you know how to manipulate the truth you should be able to produce art.

Nicknames are visual memberships in society. You want to be smart, you want to be a genius, you want to be divine, you want to be an angel, you want to be a saint. But first you have to have a nickname. In my movie my nickname is Guy.

SCENE 3:

In Texas Hold 'Em, the poker game that's played at the World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe Las Vegas, the reraise, or "all in" bet on "fourth street" (that's the fourth community card, after the initial flop of three community cards and before "the river," or fifth community card), is sometimes referred to as "accidentally on purpose." This scene should include Kate, the cowboy, the comedian, the girl on the motorcycle, and someone who works in the body shop.

Kate dresses up: "I think dressing up is a physical act. First of all you've got to clean up. You've got to take a big bath. You've got to be excited because you are drying yourself. You've got to be excited about what you're going to wear. It takes time. It takes planning. You've got to think of earrings ... that special touch. Dressing up has nothing to do with vanity. It has to do with exuberance. It's an athletic activity. Your throat will get smaller. Your neck will get longer. Your hair will get thicker. Dressing up is a pleasure-giving thing. But caution. You can't compete when it comes to dressing up. Competition is devastating. Compete and you'll lose your individualism. You'll be competing against an advertisement or something or someone you've seen in the street. Don't try to be popular. Popularity is a barrier. If you've ever been popular you know how easy it is to lose the sense of yourself. As for the doubt about what to wear, that's a detail. Your dress is a detail. But your eyes, your essence ... that's not a detail, that's the point. Pour it on, wrap it up, get the right temperature going." (What's actually happening here is a breakdown. Kate's character is sounding like she wrote this for some kind of beauty book. Think Stepford Wives, Marisa Berenson, Dormitory Nurse.)

In my movie Kate plays Washington Nurse, Man-Crazy Nurse, Nurse of Greenmeadows. She looks like a nameless new form of life. Half-present, half-absent, a fragmentation where what she looks like is herself and her ghost simultaneously.

The music from the Rolling Stones song "2120 South Michigan Avenue" comes up slowly. (Kate puts on a surgical mask. It's all she'll wear tonight.)

The cowboy (he's played by Sigourney Weaver) buys a 1967 Shelby Mustang GT350. He parks it under the carport, a plastic transparent aquamarine roof suspended between house and garage. The Mustang is a fastback, with competition suspension and front air spoilers. It has a small bloc 351 Cleveland, a drag-pack option with positive-action no-spin lockers. Riding on it is a valve lifter camshaft, 780 cfm Holley carb (high nodular iron crank), forged-aluminum pistons, and four-belt main caps on number 2, 3, and 4 pistons. Sigourney's Mustang is alive.