Andy Warhol Movies
American pop artist Andy Warhol became a pop icon himself, symbolizing the wild decadence of the "beautiful people" of the 1970s. Born Andrew Warhola in Pennsylvania, he studied at the Carnegie Institute of Technology before designing advertisements for women's shoes. After gaining notoriety for his pop-art renditions of things such as Campbell's Soup cans and silk screens of Marilyn Monroe, Warhol began making experimental films during the early '60s. Most of his early works were little more than passive chronicles of the ordinary. For example, in the film Sleep, he simple recorded a man sleeping for several hours. Such endeavors were heralded as groundbreaking by other experimental filmmakers, but the public and most critics generally regarded them as wastes of film, and their time. Still, Warhol continued making these plotless films until he eventually began adding crude soundtracks and sketchy scripts. Many of these films are filled with his "players": the beautiful people, "freaks," and wealthy dilettantes that constantly surrounded the artist and his "Factory," an art studio he founded in 1962. His films became a form of cinéma vérité, a voyeur's delight of strange people doing equally strange things. Some of the players Warhol turned into underground celebrities included Candy Darling, Viva, Holly Woodlawn, and Ingrid Superstar. Simply playing versions of themselves, they left the viewer to decide if they were, in fact, real people or simply fantastical figures. Many of Warhol's films were centered on sex and death, and the sex in his films was often explicit and transcended traditional gender boundaries. In 1968, Warhol was wounded by a disgruntled Factory reject, an incident which inspired the 1996 movie I Shot Andy Warhol. While healing, he began to withdraw from filmmaking, closed the Factory, and turned the reins of his operation over to filmmakers such as Paul Morrissey, who helped make subsequent movies more commercially accessible. Morrissey was behind Warhol's best known films Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula, both of which were shot while in Rome in 1973. Although Warhol never fully recovered from the attempt on his life and had stopped making films, he did continue his voyeurism of the strange lives of his illustrious friends via the Polaroid camera he carried with him until he died in 1987 from complications following surgery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Queen is a ribald hour-long documentary about a "Miss All-American Beauty" contest held in New York in 1967. So what, you say? Well, it happens that all the contestants are male transvestites -- and some of them are real knockouts. Alternately hilarious and depressing, Queen was considered the cutting edge of obscene outrageousness when originally distributed by Grove Press (the publishers of several above-the-counter "alternative" magazines of the 1960s). Nowadays it's practically kid stuff, thanks to the surfeit of TV tabloids and Fox Network sitcoms. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Doroshow
- 1968
This experimental western from cult icon Andy Warhol concerns nine people in a ghost town looking for love. A truly twisted improvisational comedy should have emerged, but Taylor Mead's shrill screeching and some annoying in-camera editing results in a fairly grating experience. Ramona Alvarez (Viva) and her perpetually stoned nurse (Mead) run into five gay cowboys led by Louis Waldon. They all want to have sex with a handsome drifter (Tom Hompertz), except for the transvestite sheriff (Francis Francine), who can't be bothered about anything but his outfit. Ramona is raped by the cowboys then has sex with Hompertz and wants to form a suicide pact in the afterglow. Hompertz wants no part of such a pact, however, and rides off into the sunset with another man (Eric Emerson). All of this takes nearly two hours, and although there are some cute moments, it never comes together as a whole. Improvisation is difficult to stretch into a coherent feature-length film without at least some attempt at setting up individual scenes. Warhol does none of that here, although he would do better with later films directed by Paul Morrissey, this film's executive producer. His sole interest appears to be in putting attractive young men in front of his camera and having them seduce each other and act silly. Viewers will either be mildly amused, bored, or terribly annoyed, depending on individual tolerance levels. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viva, Taylor Mead, (more)
- 1968
Rull (Wolfgang Schneider) is in his last year at a classical German state school. Believing all authority figures are repugnant, he engages in a series of bizarre behaviors. He literally acts like a bull in a china shop, alienates his friends, loses his girlfriend and infuriates his teachers. When he paints a swastika on a wall of the Parliament building, he really gets in trouble. This film is based on the novel The Unadvised by Thomas Valentin. In the novel, the principle character was a hero, but he turns into an alienating buffoon in the celluloid version. Neither authority figures nor the counterculture is spared in this satire. Music is provided by Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guenther Lueders
- 1967
One of the first "underground" films of the 1960's to achieve a degree of mainstream acceptance (it was an actual hit in New York City, was well-received in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and was banned in Chicago and Boston), Andy Warhol's The Chelsea Girls offered a long, unblinking look into the lives of Warhol's retinue of "superstars" as they showed off for the camera in their various rooms in the notorious Chelsea Hotel, long a favored New York hangout for writers, artists and bohemians. Along with such notables of the moment as Eric Emerson, Brigid Polk, Ondine, and Mario Montez, one of the "girls" was Mary Woronov, years before she gained a cult following for her work in Rock 'n' Roll High School and Eating Raoul. The three-and-a-half hour film consisted of two series of images shown simultaneously, though only one soundtrack was audible; in 1995, Warhol associate Paul Morrissey prepared a video edition for broadcast on British television, though the film has yet to be broadcast in the United States and there is no authorized video release as yet in North America. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ondine, Mary Might, (more)
- 1967
The medieval writings of Thomas a Kempis supposedly are the inspiration behind this Andy Warhol film. A young son reflects on his place in the world. Brigid Polk is the young boy's mother, with Ondine as his father. Nico plays the maid and Taylor Mead place a homeless man in this lifeless feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigid Polk, Ondine, (more)
- 1967
Tom Baker is a blonde bisexual and the only man in this experimental exploitation film directed by Andy Warhol. He and his female co-stars are shown in various stages of nudity as Warhol continues his cinematic voyeurism. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Baker, Cynthia May, (more)
- 1967
Andy Warhol shows technical improvement in this experimental film with music by the Velvet Underground. He effectively blends multi-printed scenes in an effective display of psychedelic colors. Warhol continues his voyeuristic tendencies as the camera films two people making love. A rape scene is included, and Ondine recalls a homosexual experience. A model applies makeup as her boyfriend tries to get her to answer his pointless questions. Fans of Warhol and his films will find this enjoyable, while others will be offended and possibly bored. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- International Velvet
- 1967
Joe Spencer plays the title character in this typical experimental film from Andy Warhol. Spencer is the object of sexual desire for several willing females, and Warhol continues his cinematic voyeurism with nudity from both genders. The end result is more tedious than erotically provocative. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Wiener
- 1967
Viva make her film debut in this typical Andy Warhol exploitation film. She plays a waitress in a restaurant where, you guessed it, everyone is at least partially nude. Although she does not ignore the advances of men, they never get to have sex with her because of her incessant talking. All the men she meets seem to want nothing more than the pleasures of the flesh and make no effort to gain insight on her inane character. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Taylor Mead
- 1966
For this memorable color film, director Andy Warhol turned his camera on Julia Warhola, his own mother, whom he filmed in her small basement apartment. A tiny woman in a hair net and house dress, she looks uncannily like her son and talks constantly in an almost unintelligible, heavy Czech accent. A friend continually heckles her in an affectionate way (accusing her of having lovers, trying to poison him, being an Oscar winner, etc.), while she makes him some scrambled eggs and irons his shirt. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Warhol
- 1966
Andy Warhol gathered together several performers and friends and had them each do a turn for this black-and-white feature: a sort of revue, hosted by Gerard Malanga. Paul Swan dances with Baby Jane Holzer. Mario Montez sings and dances to "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate". Mar-Mar performs yo-yo tricks. Jody Babb takes a stab at "Let Me Entertain You". Tally Brown tries to talk her way out of performing. The highlight is Jack Smith, who declines to perform and instead insists that he wants to "open the closet"; eventually, he persuades Warhol's otherwise immobile camera to come follow him to a glass cabinet that contains nothing but a Batman comic book. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1966
This Andy Warhol art film was first released in 1966. It is his chronicle of the Velvet Underground jamming while blonde German model Nico sits on a stool. Unlike other Warhol art films, the camera becomes an active participant in the film as it zooms in, pans, and moves chaotically around the performers Lou Reed, John Cale and other Undergrounders. The film is not really edited and includes a scene where the police burst in to stop the noise. Warhol himself also appears briefly. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Andy Warhol's short experimental feature Closet (1966) stars Nico and Randy Bourscheidt as a couple who live, full-time, in the titular location. The film opens outside of the closet, with the couple off-camera -- the muffled voices provide the only indication of their presence behind the door. As director Warhol charts the interior and the exterior surfaces of the closet with his lens, the couple discuss their turn-ons, their pet peeves, and the option of leaving the compartmentalized space once and for all. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nico
- 1966
In this sometimes hilarious color film directed by Andy Warhol, the German-born rock singer Nico hires drag queen Mario Montez to baby-sit her three-year-old son Ari. Dressed in a pale blue lounging outfit and adorned with a lot of makeup and costume jewelry, Mario runs into endless difficulties trying to distract this lively little boy, who, for some reason, has almost no interest in watching Mario sing and dance. ("Ten Little Indians" is one of his tunes of choice.) Warhol can be heard offering numerous comments from behind the camera, all designed to incite Ari to even more rambunctious behavior, much to the put-upon Mario's dismay. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Montez, Nico, (more)
- 1965
The action in the first reel takes place at a bungalow on the beach at Fire Island. Ed Hood (the John) plays a bitchy, aging queen has ordered a blonde male hustler, Paul (Paul America) from a service called "Dial-a-Hustler." He is watching the hustler from the back porch of the bungalow, where he is joined by self-described "fag hag" Genevieve (Genevieve Charbon), who wants to steal Paul away from the John just to see him suffer. Another, older hustler (Joe Campbell, also known as "The Sugar Plum Fairy"), shows up, claiming already to have "had" Paul, much to the consternation of the John, who proposes a bet to see who will win Paul's heart and soul in the end. The entire second reel takes place in a bathroom which is filmed from the hallway outside an open door. Sugar Plum and Paul are showering, shaving, and cleaning up as they have a long conversation about the pros and cons of hustling. Sugar Plum is about to make the move on Paul when he is interrupted by Genevieve, who promises Paul a good time if she will go off with him. Genevieve is followed by the John, who offers Paul money, cars, and girls in exchange for companionship. A woman (Dorothy Dean) with lipstick and glasses, not previously seen in the film, stops by to suggest that hustling might not be the best career choice for Paul and that he should probably seek an education instead. The question is left hanging as the film runs out of Andy Warhol's camera. ~ David Lewis, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul America, Ed Wiener, (more)
- 1965
By 1965, Jack Smith was exhibiting versions of Normal Love, mixing his soundtracks live and often re-editing the film as it was being shown. After Smith's death, Jerry Tartaglia prepared this restored 105-minute version, which premiered in 1997. Although shot on backdated color-film stock and paced more languidly than Flaming Creatures, Normal Love again features women and cross-dressed men in an idyll of sexual anarchy. Smith filmed almost entirely outdoors, emphasizing pinks and greens in the scenery, costumes, and props, and combining textural passages with allusions to film icons such as the Mummy and the Werewolf, Maria Montez, and Busby Berkeley. The inspired finale is set atop a massive pink cake (where the dancing Cake Cuties include Andy Warhol). The Yellow Sequence, an additional 20 minutes of footage -- in which gold tones predominate and the players include Tiny Tim -- was also restored by Tartaglia as an addendum to Normal Love, and the two films are inevitably shown together under the single title. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Montez, Diana Baccus, (more)
