Description

Rarely do landmark works of cinema seem so . . . wrong. Robert Downey Sr. emerged as one of the most irreverent filmmakers of the New York underground of the sixties, taking no prisoners in his rough-and-tumble treatises on politics, race, and consumer culture. In his midnight-movie mainstay Putney Swope, an advertising agency is turned on its head when a militant black man takes over. Like Swope, Downey held nothing sacred. Presented here are five of his most raucous and outlandish films, dating from 1964 to 1975, each a unique mix of the hilariously crude and the fiercely experimental.

Collection IncludeS

Babo 73
Robert Downey Sr.’s first feature is a rollicking, slapstick, ultra-low-budget 16 mm comedy experiment that introduced a twisted new voice to the New York underground.

Chafed Elbows
This riot of bad taste was a breakthrough for Downey, thanks to rave notices. Visualized largely in still 35 mm photographs, it follows a shiftless downtown Manhattanite having his “annual November breakdown.”

No More Excuses
Downey takes his camera and microphone onto the streets (and into some bedrooms) for a look at Manhattan’s singles scene of the late sixties.

Putney Swope
The most popular film by Robert Downey Sr. is this offbeat classic about the antics that ensue after Putney Swope, the token black man on the board of a Madison Avenue advertising agency, is inadvertently elected chairman.

Two Tons of Turquoise to Taos Tonight
“A film without a beginning or an end,” in Downey’s words.