“Crispin Hellion Glover, auteur, is a force to be reckoned with.” --Laura Kern, The New York Times
"Glover...puts impenetrably odd and tender poetry on the screen." --Bill Stamets, The Chicago Sun-Times
"Scenes with naked women in elephant masks, Shirley Temple, Glover
being lowered deus-ex-machina style into a Maxfield Parrish
scene...It's like Fellini on psychedelics -- wildly creative but
completely twisted." -- Jane Ganahl, San Francisco Examiner
"It's unlike anything I've ever seen before...the unrestrained id of
an artist at full frenzy, unafraid to mount onscreen what others would
judiciously edit out. Glover's film is like that the fever dream of a
crazy person. " --Dennis Dermody, Paper Magazine
“ABSOLUTELY the most uncompromising and original thing I've seen.
People try to compare it to the likes of surrealist hero Luis Buñuel
and trailblazer Werner Herzog, but I say Glover has transcended even
them. " --Kelly O, The Seattle Stranger Weekly
We are excited to announce that over the course of the 10 Years of
ATP weekend we will be presenting "Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide
Show part 1” and "Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show part 2” in
the cinema in which Crispin Hellion Glover performs a one hour dramatic
narration of eight different books that are profusely illustrated.
"Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show part 1” will be performed
before his film part 1 of the IT trilogy "What is it?" then a Q&A
and a book signing. "Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show part 2”
will be performed before part 2 of the IT trilogy "It is fine!
EVERYTHING IS FINE" then a Q&A and a book signing.
He
will also be performing his Big Slide Show on the Thursday at In
Between Days followed by a film, Q&A and a book signing.
Biography
Crispin Hellion Glover is a multifaceted
American artist. He is primarily known as a film actor, but is also a
publisher, filmmaker and author. His career has been marked by some
portrayals of wonderfully eccentric people, such as George McFly in
BACK TO THE FUTURE or Willard Stiles in WILLARD. In the late 1980s,
Glover started his own publishing company Volcanic Eruptions which
turned in to a production company in the 1990's for his film works.
Born in New York City, Glover moved to Los
Angeles at the age of three and a half. As a child, he attended the
Mirman School for the academically gifted. His father, Bruce Glover, is
an actor best remembered for playing the offbeat SPECTRE assassin Mr.
Wint in the James Bond movie DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, and one of Jack
Nicholson's hood assistants Duffy in CHINATOWN. Crispin Glover's first
professional acting appearance was in 1978 in Los Angeles at the
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in “The Sound of Music.” He played Friedrich
Von Trapp and Florence Henderson played Maria. He also appeared in some
commercials and several sitcoms as a teenager, including “Happy Days”
and “Family Ties.” His first film role was in 1983's MY TUTOR. He has a
small role in RACING WITH THE MOON opposite Sean Penn. He also played
the title role in an AFI film THE ORKLY KID, in which he portrayed a
young man whose obsession with Olivia Newton-John raises the ire of his
small-town neighbors. Later that year he appeared in FRIDAY THE 13th:
The Final Chapter (1984) and then TEACHERS (1984). Also in 1984 came
his breakout performance as as George McFly in Robert Zemeckis's BACK
TO THE FUTURE. Glover did not participate in the film's two sequels.
Nevertheless, Zemeckis used facial prosthetics on another actor to
simulate Glover on screen, and inter-spliced small portions of footage
from the original film. Glover sued the producers. Because of Mr.
Glover's lawsuit there is a precedent and new laws in SAG so that
actors and producers are not allowed to ever do this again.
BACK TO THE FUTURE was an international box
office smash following its release in 1985. Glover followed the release
of that film with RIVER'S EDGE. From that point, Glover pursued a
defiantly individualistic path. His characters were notable for their
peculiar personality traits and unconventional thought processes. He
played Andy Warhol in Oliver Stone's THE DOORS in (1991) and has
continued to play exceedingly eccentric types, e.g. the title
characters in BARTLEBY (2001) and WILLARD (2003). He has received some
considerable mainstream attention recently as the "Thin Man" in the
Charlie's Angels films
In 1987, Glover appeared on Late Night with
David Letterman to promote his new film RIVER'S EDGE, wearing a long
wig and platform shoes. His bizarre appearance was exceeded only by his
unusual behavior, which was thought by some to have been influenced by
drugs, while others presume it was a conceptual art piece (the
character has a similar look to the character he played later in 1990's
Rubin from Rubin and Ed. After an attempt to challenge Letterman to an
arm wrestling match, Glover feigned an impromptu karate kick just
inches from Letterman's face. Letterman abruptly ended the segment and
cut to commercial. The segment is available on youtube.com. Glover
never formally explained his behavior while appearing on the show. The
character appears again in the video for "Clowny Clown Clown" and seems
to have made some recent appearances almost twenty years later also
available inYouTube.com posts. It is also noted that in the film FRIDAY
THE 13th: The Final Chapter Glover, when asked to perform a dance,
performed a wild dance. This clip is also available on YouTube.com.
Music
From 1987 to1989, in between shooting films,
Glover released an album called The Big Problem ? The Solution. The
Solution = Let It Be through Restless Records, produced by Barnes &
Barnes (of "Fish Heads" fame). The album features original songs like
"Clowny Clown Clown" (which has its own music video), covers of Lee
Hazlewood's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and Charles Manson's
"Never Say Never to Always," and readings from his art books Rat
Catching and Oak Mot (Glover made new books utilizing elements from old
books and by adding original and altered pictures, text, and drawings).
Sample pages from these books are featured in the album's liner notes.
The music itself is similar to outsider music, with seemingly absurd,
dream-like lyrics.
The back cover of the album is a collage of
figures relating to each track on the album, with a puzzle: "All words
and lyrics point to THE BIG PROBLEM. The solution lay within the title;
LET IT BE. Crispin Hellion Glover wants to know what you think these
nine things all have in common." He included a telephone number in the
collage on the back of the album, encouraging listeners to phone when
they had figured out the "solution". Glover later commented that he was
surprised how many people figured it out. Currently in reprints the
telephone number has been replaced with www.CrispinGlover.com.
In 2003, he recorded a cover version of the
Michael Jackson classic song "Ben" to coincide with the release of the
film Willard. In the eccentric music video for the song which Glover
directed and is included on the Willard DVD, he sings to a rat named
Ben. This video also is available on Youtube.com
There have also been at least three songs
written about him, titled "Crispin Glover," one by a New Jersey-based
band Children In Adult Jails, the band Scarling., as well as Wesley
Willis. The Colorado band Warlock Pinchers also released a song
entitled "Where the hell is Crispin Glover?". In addition, some members
of the indie rock rock band Reggie and the Full Effect were at one time
in a local Kansas City band known as, "Onward Crispin Glover."
After receiving a number of requests to act in
first time director's films, Glover decided he wanted to try his hand
at directing. Having collaborated on unfinished video projects with
David Brothers since the 1980's, Glover started WHAT IS IT? as a short
and then determined that there was a feature film in it. After
considerable effort to produce the film entirely with his own money
over nine years, he premiered WHAT IS IT? at the 2005 Sundance Film
Festival. Glover toured with the film theatrically in 2006, performing
his slide show prior to the film and discussing the film with the
audience after the screening. He plans to continue this unique model of
distribution with the remaining films in the “It” series. His second
feature as a director is It Is Fine! EVERYTHING IS FINE. which
premieres at Sundance in 2007. The last film in the “It” trilogy is IT
IS MINE.
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