Wikipedia

Chelsea Girls

This article is about the Andy Warhol film. For the album by Nico, seeChelsea Girl (album).For the title track of the Nico album, seeChelsea Girls (song).

Chelsea Girlsis a 1966 Americanexperimentalunderground filmdirected byAndy WarholandPaul Morrissey.The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line ofavant-gardeart films(both feature-length and short). It was shot at theHotel Chelseaand other locations in New York City, and follows the lives of several of the young women living there, and stars many ofWarhol's superstars.The film is presented in asplit screen,accompanied by alternating soundtracks attached to each scene and an alternation between black-and-white and color photography. The original cut runs at just over three hours long.[1]

Chelsea Girls
US theatrical release poster
Directed byAndy Warhol
Paul Morrissey
Written byRonald Tavel
Andy Warhol
Produced byAndy Warhol
Starring
CinematographyAndy Warhol
Paul Morrissey (uncredited)
Music byThe Velvet Underground
Distributed byFilmmakers Distribution Center
Release date
  • September 15, 1966(1966-09-15)
Running time
210 minutes (approx.)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3,000 (approx.)

The film was the inspiration for starNico's 1967 debut album,Chelsea Girl,which featured a ballad-like track titled "Chelsea Girls",which was written about the hotel and its inhabitants. The girl in the poster isClare Shenstone,at the age of 16, an aspiring artist later influenced byFrancis Bacon.[2]With its creativity and eroticism, the poster captures the sensual essence of the film, and was designed for its London release by graphic artist Alan Aldridge. Warhol was extremely happy with the design, and commented that he "wished the movie was as good as the poster".[3]The poster was used as the cover art forFelt's 1984 albumThe Splendour of Fear.

Production

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According to scriptwriterRonald Tavel,Warhol first brought up the idea for the film in the back room ofMax's Kansas City,Warhol's favorite nightspot, during the summer of 1966. InRic Burns' documentary filmAndy Warhol,Tavel recollected that Warhol took a napkin and drew a line down the middle and wrote 'B' and 'W' on opposite sides of the line; he then showed it to Tavel, explaining "I want to make a movie that is a long movie, that is all black on one side and all white on the other." Warhol was referring to both the visual concept of the film, as well as the content of the scenes presented.

The film was shot in the summer and early autumn of 1966 in various rooms and locations inside the Hotel Chelsea, though contrary to the film's title, only poetRené Ricardactually lived there at the time.[4]Filming also took place at Warhol's studioThe Factory.Appearing in the film were many of Warhol's regulars, includingNico,Brigid Berlin,Gerard Malanga,Mary Woronovas Hanoi Hannah, Ingrid Superstar,International VelvetandEric Emerson.According to Burns' documentary, Warhol and his companions completed an average of one 33-minute segment per week.

Nico(left) andOndine(right) in the final scene ofChelsea Girls.This still comes from the 2003 Italian DVD print of the film.

Once principal photography wrapped, Warhol and co-directorPaul Morrisseyselected the 12 most striking vignettes they had filmed and then projected them side by side to create a visual juxtaposition of both contrasting images and divergent content (the so-called "white" or light and innocent aspects of life against the "black" or darker, more disturbing aspects.) As a result, the 6.5 hour running time was essentially cut in half, to 3 hours and 15 minutes. However, part of Warhol's concept for the film was that it would be unlike watching a regular movie because the two projectors could never achieve exact synchronization from viewing to viewing; therefore, despite specific instructions of where individual sequences would be played during the running time, each viewing of the film would, in essence, be an entirely different experience.

Several of the sequences have gone on to attain acult status,most notably the "Pope" sequence, featuring avant-garde actor and poet Robert Olivo, orOndineas he called himself, as well as a segment featuringMary Woronovtitled "Hanoi Hannah," one of two portions of the film scripted specifically by Tavel.

Notably missing is a sequence Warhol shot with his most popular superstarEdie Sedgwickwhich, according to Morrissey, Warhol excised from the final film at the insistence of Sedgwick, who claimed she was under contract toBob Dylan's managerAlbert Grossmanat the time the film was made. Sedgwick's footage was used in the Warhol filmAfternoon.

Cast

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The cast of the film is largely made up of persons playing themselves, and are credited as follows:

Critical reception

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Still fromChelsea Girls,featuringMary Woronovin color photography on the left side, and black & white photography on the right.

Although the film garnered the most commercial success of Warhol's films, reaction to it was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 50%, based on reviews from 10 critics.[5]In the UK, it was refused a theatrical certificate in 1967 by theBritish Board of Film Classification.[6]

Roger Ebert reviewed the film in June 1967, and had a negative response to it, granting it one star out of four. In his review of the film, he stated, "what we have here is 3½ hours of split-screen improvisation poorly photographed, hardly edited at all, employing perversion and sensation like chili sauce to disguise the aroma of the meal. Warhol has nothing to say and no technique to say it with. He simply wants to make movies, and he does: hours and hours of them."[7]Varietywrote that the film was "a pointless, excruciatingly dull three-and-a-half hours spent in the company of Andy Warhol's friends."[8]

Kenneth Baker of theSan Francisco Chroniclereviewed the film in honor of its screening in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002, and gave the film a positive review, stating "The tyranny of the camera is the oppressionThe Chelsea Girlsrecords and imposes. No wonder it still seems radical, despite all we have seen onscreen and off since 1966. "[9]Jonathan Rosenbaum also gave the film a positive review, stating that "the results are often spellbinding; the juxtaposition of two film images at once gives the spectator an unusual amount of freedom in what to concentrate on and what to make of these variously whacked-out performers."[10]TV Guidereviewed the film in December 2006, granting it four stars, calling it "fascinating, provocative, and hilarious" and "a film whose importance as a 1960s cultural statement outweighs any intrinsic value it may have as a film."[11]

Availability

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Home media

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Chelsea Girlsis largely unavailable for home video format. The film belongs to the Andy Warhol Foundation, and it, along with Warhol's other films (apart from a handful of hisScreen Tests,which have since been released on DVD)[12]have never seen home video releases in the United States. In Europe, however, a handful of Warhol's films were released on DVD, including a short-lived DVD print ofChelsea Girlswhich was available in Italy for some time. This Italian DVD print, which is the film's only official home video release, was released on September 16, 2003.[13]

Museum screenings

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While the film is unavailable for personal purchase, it is often screened at art museums, and has been shown atThe Museum of Modern Art[14](which owns a rare print of the film reels) as well asThe Andy Warhol Museumin Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The film was screened in San Francisco for the first time in nearly 20 years atCastro Theatrein April 2002.[15]Screenings were held in 2010 at theSeattle Art Museum[16]and at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, North Carolina,[17]in 2011 at theHigh Museum of Artin Atlanta, Georgia,[18]and the Block Museum of Artin Evanston, Illinois in 2016.[19]The full 3 1/2 hour version of the film was screened at theBrooklyn Museumin a custom built theatre within their edition of theAndy Warhol: Revelationexhibit from November 19, 2021 to June 19, 2022.[20]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"All Movie: The Chelsea Girls".AllMovie.Com.Retrieved16 September2009.
  2. ^"Man in the Mask".The Guardian.London. 16 October 2005.RetrievedNovember 18,2012.
  3. ^"Online caption".Tate Gallerywebsite.
  4. ^Leve, Ariel 'New York Storeys'The Sunday Times Magazine,25 March 2007, pp. 40–51. p. 49
  5. ^"Chelsea Girls".Rotten Tomatoes.Retrieved9 July2009.
  6. ^Heins, Marjorie (September 11, 2007).Not in Front of the Children: 'Indecency,' Censorship, and the Innocence of Youth.Rutgers University Press. p. 208.ISBN9780813543888.
  7. ^Ebert, Roger (27 June 1967)."Roger Ebert reviews" Chelsea Girls "".Chicago Sun-Times.Archived fromthe originalon 11 January 2013.Retrieved8 July2009.
  8. ^"The Chelsea Girls".Variety.December 31, 1966.RetrievedSeptember 8,2017.
  9. ^Baker, Kenneth (11 April 2002)."Film flashes back to Warhol '60s / Rarely seen movie a near overdose of artist's voyeurism".San Francisco Chronicle.Retrieved8 July2009.
  10. ^Rosenbaum, Jonathan (26 October 1985)."The Chelsea Girls".Reader.
  11. ^"Review:The Chelsea Girls".TV Guide.17 December 2006. Archived fromthe originalon 6 March 2012.Retrieved9 July2009.
  12. ^"The 13 Most Beautiful Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests DVD".Amazon.com.7 April 2009.Retrieved8 July2009.
  13. ^"Chelsea Girls".Amazon.com.16 September 2003.Retrieved17 September2009.
  14. ^"MOMA: The Chelsea Girls screening: 8 June 2007".Museum of Modern Art.Retrieved8 July2009.
  15. ^"San Francisco Cinematheque Film Calendar: April–July 2002".San Francisco Cinematheque.Archived fromthe originalon 16 July 2011.Retrieved9 July2009.
  16. ^"Seattle Art Museum Film Calendar: May 21, 2010".Seattle Art Museum.Archived fromthe originalon 24 May 2010.Retrieved11 May2010.
  17. ^http://www.ackland.org/visit/calendar.php?q=2010-11-18[dead link]
  18. ^"High Presents" Modern Masters of Film: From Edison to Scorsese, "with 11 Films from One of the World's Most Important Film Repositories".High Museum of Art.Archived fromthe originalon 2014-10-06.
  19. ^"The Chelsea Girls".The Block Museum of Art.Retrieved19 January2019.
  20. ^"Brooklyn Museum: Andy Warhol: Revelation".
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