Paul Morrissey
My mother googles the film hero of her youth: Helmut Berger. She is shocked: only an addicted shadow of the former icon seems to be left. She decides to halt the obvious catastrophic decline of the once “most handsome man in the world”. As a consequence, this one-time god of the screen is suddenly sitting on my mother’s sofa in Nordsehl in Lower Saxony. And he stays put - for several months. While he trustingly rolls out his whole life before us, the dividing lines between film team, world star and family intermingle. This is a film about ageing, rising and falling - and about the fact that it is sometimes possible to regain an element of dignity in life.
DANNY SAYS is a documentary unveiling the amazing journey of Danny Fields. Fields has played a pivotal role in music and culture with seminal acts including: the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, MC5, Nico, the Ramones and beyond.
James Rasin's documentary “Beautiful Darling” honors American Transgender actress and best-known Warhol Superstar, Candy Darling, and her all-too-brief life and career, with a combination of current and vintage interview material, rarely seen archival photos and footage, and extracts from Darling's movies.
Takes an in-depth look at the lives and times of the people who hung out with Andy Warhol and "worked" at the Silver Factory during the Sixties, making it all click as a new counter-culture arose and began to exert its influence throughout the arts.
Esther Robinson's portrait of her uncle Danny Williams, Warhol's onetime lover, collaborator and filmmaker in his own right, offers a exploration of the Factory era, an homage to Williams's talent, a journey of family discovery and a compelling inquiry into Williams's mysterious disappearance at age 27.
Vera von Lehndorff is a Prussian noblewoman and daughter of the Count Lehndorff, a leader of the anti-Nazi resistance, executed during WW II. She was discovered in 1959 by Italian photographer Ugo Mulas. After initial failure, she changed her name to Veruschka, became one of the first top models and was also considered for a long time one of the most beautiful women in the world. Muse to Antonioni in Blow up, and to Dalì, in the 1960s she was on the cover of magazines like Life, Vogue and Queen, and photographed by the most important talents of the time (Avedon, Newton). In 1965 she began working on "transfigurations", which would lead to body art, where make-up becomes real body painting: from cat-woman, to snake, plant, mineral, African idol and finally to an immortal metallic body (for Rubartelli, director of the films Stop Veruschka and Trülzsch) which survives the natural decay of objects over time.
The film icon/Andy Warhol darling is interviewed is his legendary cluttered apartment.
Andy Warhol described Jackie Curtis as “A pioneer without a frontier.” In this biographical documentary, Curtis’s co-workers and friends speak of her work and her influence, along with clips from Curtis’s Warhol films as well as never-before-seen footage from her stage shows.
A Cannes red carpet tribute for three iconic protagonists of Warhol's Factory glory days.
Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century (who also coined the immortal catchphrase "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes"), gets the definitive treatment. This film includes a look into his inner circle and examines both his artistic and personal impact on society. From day-glo Marilyns and Elvises to Campbell's Soup cans to the groovy 1960s and '70s, step into the limelight of the Warhol world.
Documentary about American artist and former Warhol superstar, Brigid Berlin.
The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters.
A look into the many lives of Christa Päffgen, otherwise known as Nico; from cutie German mädchen to the first of the supermodels, to glamorous diva of the Velvet Underground, to cult item, junkie and hag. Many faces for the same woman, whom, you realize, just couldn't bring herself to care enough to live.
Not a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it is a journey through the world of the artist Jonas Mekas - one of the exponents of independent U.S. movies; founder and director of the New York Anthology Film Archive.
Spike Fumo is an Italian kid apsiring to be a boxer. He falls in love with a rich girl, who turns out to be the daughter of a Mafia boss. Spike is threatened to leave Bensonhurst by the mob, and then goes to a poverty-stricken Puerto Rican part of Brooklyn.
The first major profile of the American Pop Art cult leader after his death in 1987 covers the whole of his life and work through interviews, clips from his films, and conversations with his family and superstar friends. Andy Warhol, the son of poor Czech immigrants, grew up in the industrial slums of Pittsburgh while dreaming of Hollywood stars. He went on to become a star himself.
A computer hacker uses his high-tech skills to get into personal computers, and from their into their homes. His sister is the only chance the world has of stopping him.
The plot centers around old Beethoven's fixation on the welfare of his nephew, for whom he fought a lengthy custody battle against his brother's former wife. Beethoven thought she was a bad influence on the boy. Sadly, the nephew isn't receptive to Beethoven's "overtures", and resents his boorish uncle's efforts on his behalf. The nephew is a complete nonentity, lacking in both interest and talent. He seems to wish only to be left alone.
On the mean streets of New York City, a dog-eat-dog mentality reigns among the destitute citizens. In one of the many abandoned buildings in the neighborhood of Alphabet City lives the Brazilian Rita La Punta, along with her delinquent son, Thiago, and a gang of Hispanic teens charged with selling heroin and cocaine. When Rita and her young gang members get involved in a minor turf war, the violence escalates out of control, touching everyone and sparing no one.
A young hustler tries to get drug money by selling a boy to a middle-aged man; his plans are disrupted when the kid dies.
Madame Wang's is a story about a Sadomachistic East German, (played by Patrick Shoene) who comes to L.A. looking for Jane Fonda to help lead the revolution.
Director Paul Morrissey applies a hefty dose of humor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective story in this interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Comedian Peter Cook takes on the role of brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, who's not so gifted here as he relegates much of the investigation of demonic dogs to his bumbling sidekick, Watson (Dudley Moore), while he spends time with his mother and searches for an assistant.
Deathly ill Count Dracula and his slimy underling, Anton, travel to Italy in search of a virgin's blood. They're welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore, who's desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters incestuous lesbians with vile blood and Marxist manservant Mario, who's suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.
Donna and Jane are two American hippies, searching for sex and romance in Paris but, mainly, rich husbands. Eventually, Donna finds a perfume industrialist, Michael, who wishes to marry her, providing she will accept sharing his special friendship with local gigolo Max. Drama ensues as Michael changes his mind when meeting Jane, but all is well that ends well.
With a rambling, unstructured style that echoes Andy Warhol’s own approach to filmmaking, this 1973 documentary profiles his career, showing him to be a brilliant manipulator, dedicated voyeur and person of astute commercial judgment.
David Bailey, self-taught photographer and one of the prime architects of the Swinging Sixties, broadened his horizons in the early 1970s by making high-profile documentaries for ATV. With his standing among the artistic community, Bailey was given unprecedented access to Pop Art legend Andy Warhol and his followers, in an attempt to penetrate behind the expressionless exterior of a man who was one of the most controversial figures of his generation.
Within the decadent walls of the Frankenstein mansion, the Baron and his depraved assistant Otto have discovered the means of creating new life. As the Baron's laboratory begins to fill up with stitched body parts, the Baroness dallies with the randy new manservant and soon the decadent, permissive household is consumed by an outrageous, bizarre, and hilarious orgy of death and dismemberment.
Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.
One camera in one setting, one attic and eight young directors – the result is a unique Dadaistic collage of seven short sketches. The original task for each filmmaker was to keep each short under three minutes, to set it in one hotel room, and to include the sentence “I miss Sonja Henie." This experimental film was shot over a single night at the international film festival FEST in Beograd in 1971.
Three women join a militant feminist group, P.I.G. (Politically Involved Girls), but their newfound liberation doesn't make them any happier.
The movie follows Joe (Dallesandro), a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers around Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend (Woodlawn). During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.
Viva and Louis Waldon spend an idyllic afternoon together in an apartment in New York City.
Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.
Five lonesome cowboys get all hot and bothered at home on the range after confronting Ramona Alvarez and her nurse.
Viva and Taylor Mead are a married couple renting an extra beach-house to a group of surfers sent to them by a Mr. Morrissey of La Jolla Realty. Their daughter, Ingrid Superstar, is pregnant and on the hunt for a husband. Mr. Mead, who is gay, tries to pawn her off to one of the surfers. Meanwhile, Viva wants a divorce from her boy-crazy hubby, who wants a surfer of his own. Tom, a surfer, is inveigled by Mr. Mead to urinate on him. In a close-up, Mr. Mead receives Tom's offering ecstatically, after which he comments, "I'm a real surfer now."
Ondine is a gay man attempting to re-adjust his sexuality via various encounters with different women. After trying his luck with three women, Ondine becomes a background character in a sequence in which a group of Latin American men, calling themselves The Bananas, engage in a food fight. Ondine then engages in a wrestling match with Joe Dallesandro, who is married to Brigid Berlin.
“The film flickers through a millennium of culture as it would appear to a tourist. It is an intense film, yet there is an incredible wealth of information surprisingly accessible. Aside from the exciting experience itself, the breakneck history lesson is a reminder that the mind can move in lightning steps: The plodding way information is typically presented is an insult to mental capability.” - Bartlett Naylor
Morrissey and Warhol's commercial take on the Swedish film I, A Woman. Somebody suggested to Warhol that they wanted a sexploitation film in the vein of I, A Woman, and so he and Morrissey concocted I, A Man. They created the story of this male hustler who talks with and sleeps with a series of women over the course of the film. The women are: a young woman who worries about parental acceptance of her sexuality, a woman who is on a couch, a woman with whom he does a seance, a woman who speaks French, a lesbian, and a married woman.
Joe Spencer, a member of a motorcycle gang, is taking a shower. After his bout with personal hygiene, Joe encounters Andy Warhol's "superstars," who engage him in conversation. The superstars crack jokes he doesn't understand and continually correct his poor pronunciation in an attempt to deflate his machismo. In response to these provocations, Joe becomes more obscene and more boasting, but ultimately, he cannot compete with the put-downs that are part of the put-on performances of the Warhol superstars, who prevail over him in the end.
Documentarians Juan Drago and Bruce Torbet follow a surprisingly relaxed and open Andy Warhol, at the peak of his powers in 1965 and 1966, around his bustling original "Factory" in midtown Manhattan. Warhol experiments with an early videotape machine, recording a beautiful, laughing Edie Sedgwick - his "superstar" of the moment - for the video portion of "Outer and Inner Space," his filmed record of the "live" Sedgwick juxtaposed against her video image on an adjacent monitor. Also captured is a Warhol show at the Leo Castelli gallery, including the famous Mylar "Clouds," as various unnamed art dealers and critics muse in voiceover about the meaning and significance of Warhol's work.
A series of Andy Warhol’s screen tests, focusing on an actor’s face for 4-5 mins.
Andy Warhol (Rene Ricard) invites a friend (Edie Sedgwick) over to his apartment one evening to discuss his career. As they talk, the truth about how Warhol uses and then throws people away comes out. The woman begins to come undone and reveals to Warhol how he ruined her life with drugs and false promises of fame.
Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's mammoth film follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City. The film was intended to be screened via dual projector set-up.
Or "Moe in Bondage" - The "Moe" of the title is the Velvet Underground's drummer, Maureen Tucker, whose band-mates have tied her to a chair and are now hanging around nibbling on sandwiches and pieces of fruit.
Documents each member of The Velvet Underground having their cards read at a big apartment party. The tarot reader is continually interrupted in her readings by the chaos created by the characters around her.
Screen Test: Helmut, by Andy Warhol, is a five minute silent black and white continuous close-up of a young man’s face. The face remains deathly still other than the occasional blink or involuntary bat of his eyelash. The film is slowed down to about 24-frames per-second to capture these slight movements a bit better, but other than this and the choppy fade-in’s and out’s at the beginning and end respectively, nothing changes throughout the film.
One of Andy Warhol's screen tests, focusing on an actor's face for 4-5 mins.
The film depicts a rehearsal of The Velvet Underground including Nico, and is essentially one long loose improvisation.
Filmed on Fire Island, this two reel, 70 minute Warhol film covers the activities of the "Dial A Hustler" service, as an older man seeks a young hustler for a companion.
The films were made between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol's Factory studio in New York City. Subjects were captured in stark relief by a strong key light, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film at 24 frames per second. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in 'slow motion' at 16 frames per second.
A young man and a young woman seat on a sofa and use the traditional tools to inject drugs into their veins.
One of Andy Warhol's screen tests, focusing on an actor's face for 4-5 mins.
A young man reads a comic depicting what the title says. We see his face and reactions. He finally finishes the book and leaves the scene.
A young man smokes a cigarette and then uses a surgeon scalpel to wound his thigh.
Diane the Zebra Woman follows four women’s misadventures through the streets of NYC 1962. All played by Flame [Schon], the characters consist of The Detective, The Mother, The Child, and the Medium (Girl on Bicycle). Amidst the enclave of the French new wave, an evident influence says Flame, metaphor is enacted and embodied through each figure. “He sometimes would imagine that I reminded him of Jeanne Moreau, he liked the dark circles under her eyes.” Evocative of the scene from which it emerged, the film features cameos from integral figures like William (Bill) Levy, Jonas Mekas, Paul Morrissey and features an original score composed by Malcolm Goldstein. (The End of Being)
Tayor travels in his white Rolls Royce to the Second City nightclub, where he dances. With Tayor Mead, Katherine Roberts, and Roberts Blossom.
Legendary filmmaker Paul Morrissey waxes disgruntled about sex, religion, & art.
Anthony Kiedis and Sofia Coppola try to escape the fashion influence of Debbie Harry.
