Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One

Name: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1968-10-28
Duration: 75 min
Rating: 4.5
Cast: Audrey Heningham, Jonathan Gordon, Stevan Larner, Patricia Ree Gilbert, Susan Anspach

Rating

4.5 (1)

Release Date

10/28/1968

Runtime

75 mins

Genres

Documentary

Overview

In Manhattan's Central Park, a film crew directed by William Greaves is shooting a screen test with various pairs of actors. It's a confrontation between a couple: he demands to know what's wrong, she challenges his sexual orientation. Cameras shoot the exchange, and another camera records Greaves and his crew. Sometimes we watch the crew discussing this scene, its language, and the process of making a movie. Is there such a thing as natural language? Are all things related to sex? The camera records distractions - a woman rides horseback past them; a garrulous homeless vet who sleeps in the park chats them up. What's the nature of making a movie?

Status

Released

Original Language

English

Budget

Revenue

Homepage

Visit

How It Feels

Read from this film's synopsis, keywords and credits, and used to work out what it sits beside.

A layer-cake of cameras and philosophizing unfolds in Central Park as a director attempts to film actors while being filmed himself, creating a dizzying, digressive meditation on what's real versus performed. It's a self-aware puzzle-box that's as interested in its own distractions as in its ostensible subject.

Mood

WhimsicalContemplativePlayfulUnsettling

Themes

Art and creationIdentityIsolationComing apart

Tone

Ironic

Pacing

Meditative

Look

Documentary-likeHandheld

Structure

Nonlinear

Patricia Ree Gilbert

Self - Actress Testing for Alice

Don Fellows

Self - Actor Testing for Freddy

Jonathan Gordon

Self - Soundman

William Greaves

Self - Director

Susan Anspach

Self - Actress Testing for Alice (uncredited)

Audrey Heningham

Black Lady Clapping Her Hands (uncredited)

Stevan Larner

Self - Cameraman (uncredited)

Terence Macartney-Filgate

Self - Cameraman (uncredited)

Maria Zeheri

Self - Camera Assistant (uncredited)

Robert L. Rosen

Self - Production Manager (as Bob Rosen)

Reviews

nicolascagegoons

Aug 27, 2026

a meta documantery of a messy film making production of a probably homophobic and sexist script. the film more so asks allot of qeustion in terms of what these people are doing or what the film means in the grand scheme.
imo no matter the outcome, its a fascinating film to talk about that gives you allot to think about.
i can't even tell if this is an actually documentary or not because while everything feels like it has intend, every line of dialogue spoken and every movement done by any person feels very real.