Chelsea Girls
Encyclopedia
Chelsea Girls is a 1966 experimental
underground film
directed by Andy Warhol
and Paul Morrissey
. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde
art films (both feature length and short). It was shot at the Hotel Chelsea
and other locations in New York City
, and follows the lives of several of the young women who live there, and stars many of Warhol's superstars. It is presented in a split 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.
The title, Chelsea Girls, is a reference to the location in which the film takes place. It was the inspiration for star Nico
's 1967 debut album, Chelsea Girl
. The album featured a ballad
-like track titled "Chelsea Girls
", written about the hotel and its inhabitants who appear in the film.
, Warhol first brought up the idea for the film in the back room of Max's Kansas City
, Warhol's favorite nightspot, during the summer of 1966. In Ric Burns
' documentary film Andy 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, although it is worth noting that of all those who starred in the film, only poet René Ricard
actually lived there at the time. Filming also took place at Warhol's studio The Factory
. Appearing in the film were many of Warhol's regulars, including Nico
, Brigid Berlin
, Gerard Malanga
, Mary Woronov as Hanoi Hannah, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet and Eric Emerson
. According to Burns' documentary, Warhol and his companions completed an average of one 33-minute segment per week.
Once principal photography wrapped, Warhol and co-director Paul Morrissey
selected the twelve 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 6½ 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, as 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 a cult status, most notably the "Pope" sequence, featuring avant-garde actor and poet Robert Olivo, or Ondine
as he called himself, as well as a segment featuring Mary Woronov
entitled "Hanoi Hannah," one of two portions of the film scripted specifically by Tavel.
Notably missing is a sequence Warhol shot with his most popular superstar Edie Sedgwick
which, according to Morrissey, Warhol excised from the final film at the insistence of Sedgwick herself, who claimed she was under contract to Bob Dylan
's manager, Albert Grossman, at the time the film was made.
Brigid Berlin
as herself (The Duchess)
Nico
as herself
Ondine
as himself (Pope)
Ingrid Superstar as herself
Randy Bourscheidt as himself
Angela 'Pepper' Davis as herself
Christian Aaron Boulogne (Nico's son) as himself (as Ari)
Mary Woronov
as Hanoi Hannah
Ed Hood as himself
Ronna as herself
International Velvet
as herself
Rona Page as herself
Albert Rene Richard as himself
Dorothy Dean as herself
Patrick Flemming as himself
Eric Emerson
as himself
Donald Lyons as himself
Edie Sedgwick
as herself (footage cut)
Gerard Malanga
as Son
Marie Menken
as Mother
Arthur Loeb as himself
Mario Montez
as Transvestite
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."
Kenneth Baker
of the San Francisco Chronicle
reviewed 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 oppression The Chelsea Girls records and imposes. No wonder it still seems radical, despite all we have seen onscreen and off since 1966."
TV Guide
reviewed 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."
Internet film review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
has the film ranked as 57% "fresh", or positive, out of eight collected reviews.
format. The film belongs to the Andy Warhol Foundation, and it, along with Warhol's other films (apart from a handful of his screen tests
, which have since been released on DVD) 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 of Chelsea Girls which 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.
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The film was screened in San Francisco for the first time in nearly twenty years at Castro Theater in April 2002. A screening was also held May 21, 2010 at the Seattle Art Museum
. Screened at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, NC on November 18th 2010 by The Ackland Art Museum and The Interdisciplinary Program in Cinema of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A screening was done at the High Museum of Art
in Atlanta, GA on November 5, 2011 as a part of their Masters of Modern Film series. Since the film is so hard to come by, it has become a rarity for Warhol fans.
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
underground film
Underground film
An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre, or financing.-Definition and history:The first use of the term "underground film" occurs in a 1957 essay by American film critic Manny Farber, "Underground Films." Farber uses it to refer to the work of...
directed by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
and Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...
. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
art films (both feature length and short). It was shot at the Hotel Chelsea
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
and other locations in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and follows the lives of several of the young women who live there, and stars many of Warhol's superstars. It is presented in a split screen, accompanied by alternating soundtracks attached to each scene and an alternation between black-and-white
Black-and-white
Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...
and color photography
Color photography
Color photography is photography that uses media capable of representing colors, which are traditionally produced chemically during the photographic processing phase...
. The original cut runs at just over three hours long.
The title, Chelsea Girls, is a reference to the location in which the film takes place. It was the inspiration for star Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
's 1967 debut album, Chelsea Girl
Chelsea Girl (album)
Chelsea Girl is the debut solo album by Nico. It was released in October 1967 by Verve Records, also home to The Velvet Underground. The name of the album is a reference to Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls, which Nico starred in...
. The album featured a ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
-like track titled "Chelsea Girls
Chelsea Girls (song)
"Chelsea Girls" is the title track to Nico's 1967 debut album, Chelsea Girl. The song was written by Lou Reed and Sterling Morrison of The Velvet Underground, who Nico had collaborated with for their debut album the previous year....
", written about the hotel and its inhabitants who appear in the film.
Production
According to script-writer Ronald TavelRonald Tavel
Ronald Tavel was an American screenwriter, director and actor, best known for his work with Andy Warhol and The Factory.-Early life and career:...
, Warhol first brought up the idea for the film in the back room of Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South, in New York City, which was a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Origin of name:...
, Warhol's favorite nightspot, during the summer of 1966. In Ric Burns
Ric Burns
Ric Burns is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries for nearly 20 years, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series The Civil War , which he produced with his older brother Ken Burns and wrote with Geoffrey C...
' documentary film Andy 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, although it is worth noting that of all those who starred in the film, only poet René Ricard
René Ricard
René Ricard is an American poet, art critic and painter.Ricard grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts. As a young teenager he ran away to Boston and assimilated into the literary scene of the city. By age eighteen he’d moved to New York City, where he became a protege of Andy Warhol...
actually lived there at the time. Filming also took place at Warhol's studio The Factory
The Factory
The Factory was Andy Warhol's original New York City studio from 1962 to 1968, although his later studios were known as The Factory as well. The Factory was located on the fifth floor at 231 East 47th Street, in Midtown Manhattan. The rent was "only about one hundred dollars a year"...
. Appearing in the film were many of Warhol's regulars, including Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
, Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin is an American artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years:Berlin was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years...
, Gerard Malanga
Gerard Malanga
Gerard Joseph Malanga is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, curator and archivist.-Early life:Born in the Bronx, New York, Malanga graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan and attended Wagner College on Staten Island...
, Mary Woronov as Hanoi Hannah, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet and Eric Emerson
Eric Emerson
Eric Emerson was an American musician, dancer, and actor. Emerson is best known for his roles in films by pop artist Andy Warhol, and as a member of the seminal glam punk group, the Magic Tramps.-Career:...
. According to Burns' documentary, Warhol and his companions completed an average of one 33-minute segment per week.
Once principal photography wrapped, Warhol and co-director Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol.Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army...
selected the twelve 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 6½ 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, as 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 a cult status, most notably the "Pope" sequence, featuring avant-garde actor and poet Robert Olivo, or Ondine
Ondine (actor)
Robert Olivo aka Ondine was an American actor. He is best known for appearing in a series of films in the mid-1960s by Andy Warhol, whom he claimed to have met in 1961 at an orgy....
as he called himself, as well as a segment featuring Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
entitled "Hanoi Hannah," one of two portions of the film scripted specifically by Tavel.
Notably missing is a sequence Warhol shot with his most popular superstar Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
which, according to Morrissey, Warhol excised from the final film at the insistence of Sedgwick herself, who claimed she was under contract to Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's manager, Albert Grossman, at the time the film was made.
Cast
The cast of the film is largely made up of persons playing themselves, and are credited as so:Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin
Brigid Berlin is an American artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years:Berlin was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 32 years...
as herself (The Duchess)
Nico
Nico
Nico was a German singer, lyricist, composer, musician, fashion model, and actress, who initially rose to fame as a Warhol Superstar in the 1960s...
as herself
Ondine
Ondine (actor)
Robert Olivo aka Ondine was an American actor. He is best known for appearing in a series of films in the mid-1960s by Andy Warhol, whom he claimed to have met in 1961 at an orgy....
as himself (Pope)
Ingrid Superstar as herself
Randy Bourscheidt as himself
Angela 'Pepper' Davis as herself
Christian Aaron Boulogne (Nico's son) as himself (as Ari)
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov is an American actress and writer. She is primarily known for her roles in independent and cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies, as well as numerous appearances in mainstream television series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider.-Early life:Woronov was born in the...
as Hanoi Hannah
Ed Hood as himself
Ronna as herself
International Velvet
Susan Bottomly
Susan Bottomly , also known as International Velvet, is a former American model and actress. She is known for her appearances in several of Andy Warhol's underground films.-Early life and career:...
as herself
Rona Page as herself
Albert Rene Richard as himself
Dorothy Dean as herself
Patrick Flemming as himself
Eric Emerson
Eric Emerson
Eric Emerson was an American musician, dancer, and actor. Emerson is best known for his roles in films by pop artist Andy Warhol, and as a member of the seminal glam punk group, the Magic Tramps.-Career:...
as himself
Donald Lyons as himself
Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick
Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was an American actress, socialite, model and heiress. She is best known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars. Sedgwick became known as "The Girl of the Year" in 1965 after starring in several of Warhol's short films in the 1960s...
as herself (footage cut)
Gerard Malanga
Gerard Malanga
Gerard Joseph Malanga is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, curator and archivist.-Early life:Born in the Bronx, New York, Malanga graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan and attended Wagner College on Staten Island...
as Son
Marie Menken
Marie Menken
Marie Menkevicius was an American experimental filmmaker and socialite.-Early life:The daughter of Catholic-Lithuanian immigrants, she grew up in Brooklyn.-Personal life:...
as Mother
Arthur Loeb as himself
Mario Montez
Mario Montez
Mario Montez was one of the Warhol superstars, appearing in thirteen of Andy Warhol's underground films from 1964 to 1966. He took his name as a male homage to the actress Maria Montez, an important gay icon in the fifties and sixties...
as Transvestite
Critical reception
Although the film garnered the most commercial success of Warhol's films, reaction to it was mixed.Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
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."
Kenneth Baker
Kenneth Baker
Kenneth Wilfred Baker, Baron Baker of Dorking, CH, PC , is a British politician, a former Conservative MP and a Life Member of the Tory Reform Group.-Early life:...
of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
reviewed the film in honor of its screening in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
in 2002, and gave the film a positive review, stating "The tyranny of the camera is the oppression The Chelsea Girls records and imposes. No wonder it still seems radical, despite all we have seen onscreen and off since 1966."
TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
reviewed 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."
Internet film review aggregator
Review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
has the film ranked as 57% "fresh", or positive, out of eight collected reviews.
Home video
Chelsea Girls is largely unavailable for home videoHome video
Home video is a blanket term used for pre-recorded media that is either sold or rented/hired for home cinema entertainment. The term originates from the VHS/Betamax era but has carried over into current optical disc formats like DVD and Blu-ray Disc and, to a lesser extent, into methods of digital...
format. The film belongs to the Andy Warhol Foundation, and it, along with Warhol's other films (apart from a handful of his screen tests
Screen Tests
Andy Warhol's Screen Tests are a series of silent film portraits consisting of several-minute unbroken shots of Factory regulars, Warhol superstars, celebrities, guests, friends, or anyone he thought had "star potential".-Production background:...
, which have since been released on DVD) have never seen home video releases in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In Europe, however, a handful of Warhol's films were released on DVD, including a short-lived DVD print of Chelsea Girls which 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.
Museum screenings
While the film is unavailable for personal purchase, it is often screened at art museums, and has been shown at The Museum of Modern Art (which owns a rare print of the film reels) as well as The Andy Warhol MuseumThe Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum, located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the largest museum in the United States dedicated to a single artist...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The film was screened in San Francisco for the first time in nearly twenty years at Castro Theater in April 2002. A screening was also held May 21, 2010 at the Seattle Art Museum
Seattle Art Museum
The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...
. Screened at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, NC on November 18th 2010 by The Ackland Art Museum and The Interdisciplinary Program in Cinema of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A screening was done at the High Museum of Art
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art , located in Atlanta, is the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States and one of the most-visited art museums in the world. Located on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district, the High is a division of the Woodruff Arts Center.-History:The Museum was...
in Atlanta, GA on November 5, 2011 as a part of their Masters of Modern Film series. Since the film is so hard to come by, it has become a rarity for Warhol fans.
See also
- Andy Warhol filmographyAndy Warhol filmographyThe following are the films directed or produced by Andy Warhol....
- Hotel ChelseaHotel ChelseaThe Hotel Chelsea, also known as the Chelsea Hotel, or simply the Chelsea, is a historic New York City hotel and landmark, known primarily for its history of notable residents...
- Reality films
- Arthouse cinema
External links
- YouTube: The Chelsea Girls (1966): 5 minute clip of the film.
- Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog