When the cameraman was next to us, we had to be able to tell him that we wanted something absolutely identical to the drawing. Because it was vital that we remain in control. Gilbert: We wrote a screenplay with a very detailed shooting script. And he said, ‘Well then, put everything in it: the things you love, the things you hate, the dreams you have, your fears and hopes for the future.’ Whatever crossed our mind, or heart. But what did we want to put in the film?, he asked, and we realised then that we wanted to put everything in it. George: He didn’t have the means to make a film, to act the big producer. He had knocked around quite a lot on English stages. Gilbert: We met a young American in Athens, a friend of Jean Bernier’s, a theatre actor. George: …and the shooting was completed in 1981. What prompted you to make a film in 1981? Still from A Portrait of the Artists as Young Men (1972) by Gilbert & George Here's how they describe the making of the film to the art critic: To offer a little insight into how these two artists would make a movie, we've reproduced this exchange, from our book Gilbert & George: intimate Conversations with François Jonquet. However, the new show will also screen the duo's one feature length film, The World of Gilbert & George (1981). Such brief films as Gordon's Makes Us Drunk (1972) A Portrait of the Artists as Young Men (1972) and In the Bush (1972), mark a transition in the artists' career, where their lives themselves were the works of art, through to their later period, where they produced more conventional gallery offerings. Gilbert & George Films and Video Sculptures, 1972-1981 features short, early repetitive works.

Yet the New York gallery Lehmann Maupin has just opened a show of vintage films and ‘video sculptures’ by the British art duo. Today we might think of Gilbert & George in terms of the pictures they make, or, for those who come across the pair on the streets of North East London (we regularly see them in our local Turkish restaurant), as long-form performance artists.

On the eve of a Lehmann Maupin NY show we look at how they made The World of Gilbert & George movie Courtesy the artists and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong.

16mm colour film transferred to video, dimensions variable. Gilbert & George, The World of Gilbert & George (video still), 1981.

The Noble Edge by Christopher Gilbert