Jørgen Leth
Warhol Eating a Hamburger

Let acclaimed film director Jørgen Leth take you through the iconic scene with Andy Warhol eating a hamburger from his film ’66 Scenes from America’.

In this interview Jørgen Leth (b.1937) explains the thoughts behind the scene with Andy Warhol and how he managed to persuade him, in spite of the fact that many people, including his own film crew, told him it was absolutely impossible. But as Jørgen Leth explains: “This was a one shot scene, a real Warhol scene, that was close to the way Andy Warhol worked with films himself. So I was confident that I could get him to do it.”

This scene sums up the experimental essence of Jørgen Leth’s expanding film oeuvre with over 40 films and counting. The examining method, when looking at a person or an object within a determined frame, is a trademark for Jørgen Leth. An approach used in other acclaimed films such as ‘The Perfect Human’, ‘Motion Picture’ and ‘The Five Obstructions’ which was made with another highly acclaimed film director, Lars von Trier.

Andy Warhol eating a hamburger was shot in photographer, Torkil Gudnason’s, studio on 14th Street, close to Fifth Avenue in New York in 1981. And as Jørgen Leth puts it: “This particular scene is the artistic essence of Andy Warhol, in all its simplicity.”

Jørgen Leth was interviewed by Kasper Bech Dyg at the Danish Film Institute in June 2014.

Camera: Nikolaj Jungersen
Produced and edited by: Kasper Bech Dyg
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2014

Supported by Nordea-Fonden

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