The Making (and Unmaking) of PULL MY DAISY.

PULL My Daisy (Film); MOTION pictures; IMPROVISATION (Acting); IMPROVISATION in art; LESLIE, Alfred, 1927-2023; FRANK, Robert, 1924-2019; KEROUAC, Jack, 1922-1969; MOTION picture industry

This article provides an account of the production of PULL MY DAISY (1959). A key film of the United States avant-garde of the 1950s, of the New American Cinema, and of the Beat Generation, it has generally been understood in terms of improvisation, corresponding to the tenets of "Spontaneous Prose" characteristic of Beat literature. However, the production practices of filmmakers Alfred Leslie and Robert Frank, working with a text by Jack Kerouac, demonstrated the lure of legitimacy and represented the attempted intervention of independent and marginal filmmakers in a form of commercial and professional cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]