Chelsea Girls (1966)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Directors:

Paul Morrissey
Andy Warhol

Writers:

Ronald Tavel (writer)
Andy Warhol (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Lacking a formal narrative, Warhol's art house classic follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City, presented in a split screen with a single audio track in conjunction with one side of screen. |

Plot Keywords:

Avant Garde | Chelsea Hotel | Bizarre | Multi Screen | Art Film

Cast

Brigid Berlin	...	Herself - The Duchess (as Brigid Polk)
Randy Borscheidt	...	Himself
Christian Aaron Boulogne	...	Himself (as Ari)
Angelina 'Pepper' Davis	...	Herself
Dorothy Dean	...	Herself
Eric Emerson	...	Himself
Patrick Flemming	...	Himself
Ed Hood	...	Himself
Arthur Loeb	...	Himself
Donald Lyons	...	Himself
Gerard Malanga	...	Son
Marie Menken	...	Mother
Mario Montez	...	Transvestite
Nico	...	Herself
Ondine	...	Himself - Pope

Runtime:

210 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Italy:VM18 (DVD rating) | Singapore:R21 (cut) | UK:R

Filming Locations:

Chelsea Hotel - 222 West 23rd Street, Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

Mary Woronov's mother, on seeing the film, sued Andy Warhol, as she had not signed a release allowing Warhol to use footage of her in the film. Warhol then paid the actors $1000 each for their releases.

Quotes:

Ingrid Superstar: Who wants to be an angel?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Warhol's Cinema 1963-1968: Mirror for the Sixties (1989) (TV)

"Everything is pretty."

Maddening but exquisite--one of the most beautiful of all American movies. The genius of Warhol as filmmaker was his stubborn insistence--conscious or otherwise--on bringing the principles of portraiture in painting to movies. Warhol understood that the power of the portrait is as psychological as it is technical, and his strategies for eliciting "acting" were as excruciating as they are potent. In his filmed "still lifes" of Edie Sedgwick and Henry Geldzahler he seemed to extract a spiritual radiance through duration and discomfort as if from a syringe, and in "Chelsea Girls" the concentrated sadism of his directing style produces similarly unpredictable, human, extravagant results. Shown with two projectors (one randomly producing sound, the other silent), the film shows three and a half hours of faces--superstars and hangers-on hung out to dry in front of an impassive and directionless camera that, after the maestro's fashion, silently encourages the "performers" to entertain. Some twist in the wind, others outdo all expectations; something palpably human, essential, unprojected is born of all of them. The film is hard going when seen in a theatre, but by the time Warhol gets to the transcendent, almost wordless rhapsody of the final garishly colored reels, the trek pays off like a sunburst.