The Great Blondino

Blondino is a naïve young man who wanders the streets dressed in medieval attire and pushing a wheelbarrow. He has series of adventures, all the while being pursued by a cop. These stories are mixed with sequences showing Blondino's dreams. Blondino eventually dies after falling from a tightrope but is revived in the film's conclusion.

The Great Blondino stars William's brother Chuck Wiley as Blondino, with Beat poet Lew Welch as the cop. The film was shot in San Francisco over the course of 6–8 sessions in 1966.{{cite magazine |last=Macdonald |first=Scott |author-link=Scott MacDonald (media scholar) |year=2002 |title=fade in fade out |magazine=Release Print |publisher=Film Arts Foundation |volume=25 |page=31}}{{cite book |editor-last1=Anker |editor-first1=Steve |editor-last2=Geritz |editor-first2=Kathy |editor-last3=Seid |editor-first3=Steve |year=2010 |title=Radical Light: Alternative Film and Video in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-24911-0 |page=122 }} Filming began with a Bell & Howell camera, but after it broke down, Nelson bought an Arriflex camera for $3,500 as a replacement.{{cite magazine |last=Nelson |first=Robert |year=1970 |title=Robert Nelson on Robert Nelson |magazine=Film Culture |volume=48–49 |page=26}} The protagonist and his climactic tightrope scene were inspired by tightrope walker Charles Blondin, who performed stunts while crossing the Niagara Gorge. The film's soundtrack was performed by Wiley's band Moving Van Walters and His Truck. Nelson recorded them one day in Richmond, California. The total production budget was roughly $20,000, a large cost for an underground film at the time.{{cite news |date=April 16, 1967 |title=On the Town |work=San Francisco Examiner |page=20}}

The film premiered April 13, 1967 at the Cedar Alley Cinema in San Francisco. Later that year, it screened at the Brussels Experimental Film Festival.{{cite news |last=Whitehall |first=Richard |date=November 17, 1967 |title=Underground films grow in importance |work=Los Angeles Free Press |page=22}} When The Great Blondino was sent to Australia, it was censored by the customs department. A scene of Blondino stroking a rhinoceros horn required review by the chief censor, who took issue with a separate scene in which a girl uses profane language.{{cite newsletter |last=Cantrill |first=Arthur |date=April 1970 |title=Right Back to the Billabong |magazine=Canyon Cinemanews |publisher=Canyon Cinema}}

The film is now part of Anthology Film Archives' Essential Cinema Repertory collection.{{cite web |url=http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/about/essential-cinema |title=Essential Cinema |publisher=Anthology Film Archives |access-date=November 20, 2023}}

According to Lenny Lipton, The Great Blondino "went over…like a lead balloon."{{cite news |last=Lipton |first=Lenny |author-link=Lenny Lipton |date=March 7, 1969 |title=At the Flick |work=Berkeley Barb |page=10}} Nevertheless, Lipton championed the film following its release and said that it was "decidedly worth seeing", commenting that its "variations on the theme of the interesting and different in a super technological society are interesting, and often beautiful."{{cite news |last=Lipton |first=Lenny |author-link=Lenny Lipton |date=April 28, 1967 |title=Whee! 8mm Is Fun! |work=Berkeley Barb |page=14}} Film theorist Gene Youngblood called The Great Blondino his favorite piece by Nelson.{{cite news |last=Youngblood |first=Gene |author-link=Gene Youngblood |date=July 26, 1968 |title=Two films offer hypnotic assault on senses |work=Los Angeles Free Press |page=32}} P. Adams Sitney identified Nelson's The Grateful Dead and The Great Blondino as highlights of the 1967 {{ill|Knokke-Le-Zoute Experimental Film Festival|fr|Festival international du cinéma expérimental de Knokke-le-Zoute}}.{{cite magazine |last=Sitney |first=P. Adams |author-link=P. Adams Sitney |date=October 1968 |title=Report on the Fourth International Experimental Film Exposition at Knokke-le-Zoute |magazine=Film Culture |issue=46 |page=8 }} In Roger Greenspun's review for The New York Times, he remarked, "Blondino is a kind of cosmic clown, and…I feel guilty about not liking him better than I do."{{cite news |last=Greenspun |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Greenspun |date=March 31, 1972 |title=The Screen: Two Rare Gestures of Showmanship |work=The New York Times |page=15}} Critic J. Hoberman wrote for The Village Voice that Nelson "tosses off more good visual ideas in 45 minutes than many filmmakers do in a lifetime".{{cite news |last=Hoberman |first=J. |author-link=J. Hoberman |date=June 5, 1978 |title=Robert Nelson's Sentimental Journey |work=The Village Voice}}{{Cite news|date=1973-04-07|title=The Great Blondino|pages=38|work=The Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/76756865/the-great-blondino/|access-date=2021-04-30}}

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb title|0308331}}
• [https://canyoncinema.com/catalog/film/?i=4324 The Great Blondino] at Canyon Cinema

{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Blondino, The}}

Category:1960s avant-garde and experimental films

Category:American avant-garde and experimental films

Category:Censored films

Category:Film censorship in Australia

Category:Films shot in San Francisco

Category:1960s English-language films

Category:1960s American films