When Andy Warhol began making experimental films in 1963, his films were practically paintings in motion. They lacked a storyline and were limited to depicting people, actions and objects with frames. Titles like Kiss, eat, empire either Blowjob They constitute Warhol’s first cinematic period, which is also the most famous in terms of innovation. This changed in 1965 with the arrival of Paul Morrissey at the Factory. Until then, Morrissey had made experimental short films –About a face, Like sleeping– which he screened at collective events in Manhattan’s East Village, a mecca of counterculture in the early sixties.
After the meeting, Morrissey became a regular presence in Warhol’s studio. As was often the case for newcomers who wanted to be part of the Factory, the first task they gave him was to hand over the broom. Shortly after, she already played a decisive role in Warhol’s environment and work.
He eliminates the original statism of his films, adds dialogue and action, thus promoting an all-star cast that ultimately forms an alternative version of the film. star system of Hollywood. But his role is not limited to the technical production of films like Chelsea Girls (1966). He also reorganizes the Factory, until then dominated by hedonism, to try to promote what is being forged there. Under Morrissey, the open-door, anything-goes policy declined. The attack perpetrated by Valérie Solanas against Warhol in June 1968 put a definitive end to this stage.
The trilogy ‘Flesh’, ‘Trash’ and ‘Heat’
That Morrissey directed the films signed by Warhol was an approach which was part of the creative philosophy of the artist, who had already used screen printing to reproduce pictorial series such as those of Campbell’s soup cans or Marilyn Monroe. Morrissey rode flesh in 1968, while Warhol was still recovering from the shooting. Thus began a trilogy of titles that popularized the world of the Factory beyond the circles of New York connoisseurs. For the first time, flesh It told a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. What was unconventional was the way it was told.
Exaggerated zooms, blurry images and above all actors who were not professional and who practically limited themselves to playing themselves. Joe Dallesandro stood out in the casting, whose body was exposed to the maximum by a camera that sought to present him as a sex symbol. The other main protagonists were Candy Darling, Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis, three trans actresses who left their mark on popular culture to come.
flesh began a trilogy which continued with Garbage can (1970) and ends with heat (19872). The three established a way of making films that would influence generations of independent filmmakers, from John Waters to Harmony Korine. None of the three managed to interest Hollywood in this world of crude transsexuals and men on the verge of nervous breakdowns or overdoses. Morrissey came closest to commercial cinema in midnight cowboy (1969). It was John Schlesinger who was able to absorb and metabolize the marginal potential of Morrissey’s cinema – drug addicts, pimps, street people – and turn it into a commercial product. In the film there is a sequence which recreates the Factory in its own way and in which Morrissey and others appear briefly. superstars.
After Warhol
Born into a Catholic family in New York in 1938, Paul Morrissey was always faithful to his religious upbringing. He criticized promiscuity and drug use, although both were key factors in the films he made during this period. His gruff character did not suit certain artists belonging to this milieu; in fact, their caustic statements would eventually allude to Warhol once they stopped working together. He never got along with Lou Reed and hated the music of the Velvet Underground, with whom he worked.
It was Morrissey who was responsible for launching the show called Exploding Plastic Inevitable, which mixed projections, dancing and strobe lights with the band’s live music. Singer Nico was the big exception. Morrissey admired her and some even point out that if the group got a contract to record an album, it was only in an attempt to launch Nico into pop stardom on her own. This attempt came to fruition in 1967 with the album Daughter Chelseabut the singer did not identify with this album nor did he want to become a celebrity.
Morrissey and Warhol’s breakup occurred in 1974. A few years earlier, they had attempted to reach commercial theaters with two horror films starring Joe Dallesandro and shot in Europe, where the Warhol brand commanded less attention. anxiety to producers. Such Meat for Frankenstein (1973, filmed in 3D and distributed in Spain by the cinema branch of the Bocaccio club) and Blood for Dracula (1974) were a critical and public failure. Instead of becoming box office hits, they joined the B series catalog.
Morrissey’s filmography after his time with Warhol was without pain or glory. In 1978, he directed a humorous version of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring the comedy duo of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook. He returned to underground cinema and Warholian intrigues in 1981 with At Madame Wang’s which tells the story of a lover of sadomasochism who travels from Germany to Los Angeles to meet Jane Fonda to help her carry out her particular social revolution.
Three years later, he filmed Mixed blood-released in Spain under the title Blood and sauce-a plot of clashes between Latin gangs which was one of John Leguizamo’s first roles and which also contains an appearance by Ari Boulogne, Nico’s son. His latest film, News from nowheredates back to 2010. Like almost all of his post-Warhol filmography, it found itself stuck in that uncertain territory where a film generates no more interest than its author’s CV can offer.
Recently, an IG account named @paulmorrisseyarchive had started posting material from his archives. Account administrator Michael Chaiken was the one who told the media that Morrissey died of pneumonia. Among the images posted on the said account is the autograph signed by George Cuckor which reads: “Paul, you have talent.” Morrissey was one of the extras at the beach party who appears near the beginning of Rich and famous. It was another one of those fleeting moments in which his name was entangled with those of 20th-century Hollywood royalty.
