Wholly Communion
{{Short description|1965 British film by Peter Whitehead}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2015}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Wholly Communion
| image = Wholly Communion film Opening titles (1965).png
| caption =
| director = Peter Whitehead
| producer =
| writer =
| narrator =
| starring =
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|1965}}
| runtime = 33 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget =
}}
Wholly Communion is a short documentary film made in 1965 by British filmmaker Peter Whitehead.{{Cite web |title=Wholly Communion |url=https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/150326785 |access-date=19 August 2024 |publisher=British Film Institute}} It was filmed at the Royal Albert Hall, London, and documents a poetry event held on 11 June 1965 called the International Poetry Incarnation. It features poetry readings by Beat poets from the UK and U.S.{{Cite web|title=BFI Screenonline: Wholly Communion (1965)|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1379899/index.html|access-date=2020-08-01|website=screenonline.org.uk}}{{Cite journal|last=Donnelly|first=Mark|date=2011|title=Wholly Communion: Truths, Histories, and the Albert Hall Poetry Reading|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5556770249|journal=Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media|language=en|volume=52|issue=1|pages=128–144|doi=10.1353/frm.2011.0033|s2cid=194081663|issn=0306-7661|oclc=5556770249|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite book|last=Riley|first=James|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1119619147|title=The Bad Trip: Dark omens, new worlds and the end of the sixties.|publisher=ICON Books Ltd|year=2019|isbn=978-1-78578-594-8|location=London|language=en|oclc=1119619147}}
Cast
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "As a record of that celebrated meeting of poets which packed the Royal Albert Hall last June, Wholly Communion certainly has its points: here, preserved for the curious and the social historian, are the narcissistically mumbling poets (Logue, Ferlinghetti and Mitchell are notable exceptions), and the huge audience, which came expecting one knows not what, listening reverentially (did they enjoy themselves?). Aside from its interest as a document, unfortunately, the film is a clumsy piece of work. The single camera, rather uncertainly doing its best to give an overall coverage, wobbles and shudders, zooms in to a target, misses, tries again and re-focuses, in a poor approximation to the much more professional American cinéma-vérité approach. A good deal of the framing is also ugly, and there is an interminable sequence in which the camera seems to be hypnotised by a girl in the audience who is waving her arms about like a third-rate interpretative dancer in time to Ginsberg's poetical mutterings."{{Cite journal |date=1 January 1966 |title=Wholly Communion |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1305834331/B58E4FAB072D455EPQ/1 |journal=The Monthly Film Bulletin |volume=33 |issue=384 |pages=113 |via=ProQuest}}