FACTORY GIRL
US, 2006, 90 minutes, Colour.
Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon, Jack Huston, Tara Summers, Mina Suvari, Shawn Hatosy, Beth Grant, James Naughton, Edward Herrmann, Illeana Douglas, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Patrick Wilson.
Directed by George Hickenlooper.
No, this is not another workplace social action drama like Norma Rae. The Factory was not that kind of factory. The Factory was the New York studio of artist Andy Warhol and his followers in the 1960s and 1970s.
As we watch the lives (and deaths) of the Factory people – and there are also quite a number of films in which Warhol appears like Basquiat and I Shot Andy Warhol – we might well wonder whether it is really worth our time. They belonged to another world that most people might find curious for a short visit and an opportunity to be close to celebrities for a moment or two, but you wouldn’t want to live there.
Factory Girl is an ambiguous film. It celebrates the short life of a woman with whom, for a brief time, Andy Warhol was infatuated, escorted her and included her in a number of his ‘underground’ films. Edie Sedgwick was from a family that traced its lineage and wealth to ancestors aftermath of the Revolution and in the writing of the Constitution. However, there were traces of insanity in the family as well. Edie, all bright-eyed, goes off to New York for art work but is almost immediately welcomed into The Factory, into the films, into the glitzy Warhol art world. She is also introduced to drugs and becomes desperately dependent, squandering her money. For a short moment, she is involved with a Bob Dylan like musician, but he marries. Warhol loses interest in her and, drug-dependent, she goes to an institution in her home town of Santa Barbara. A few years later, she died of an overdose at the age of 28. It was not exactly a life to celebrate. Rather, it is a wasted life to regret.
Sienna Miller brings some verve and vitality to the role but, as with Edie Sedgwick’s life, we might ask, to what purpose?
Guy Pearce immerses himself in the role of Warhol and demonstrates his versatility. Hayden Christensen, on the other hand, may be imitating Bob Dylan, but he comes across as singularly colourless as the musician.
There is some interest for those in the know in the re-creation of life at the Factory, the penny-pinching making of the films, Warhol’s skills at graphic design which, with his soup cans and Marilyn Monroe pictures, influenced art, and the bizarre personalities who frequented the Factory. Warhol himself seems an odd personality, fidgety and reticent yet a limelighter, confident yet quite diffident in manner, especially in the sequence where he tries (or does not) to direct the musician for a film. At the end, there is an excerpt from an interview with the actual Warhol where he speaks of his detachment from people which highlights his seemingly callous embracing of and then discarding Edie Sedgwick.
1.Audience interest in the characters? A niche interest? Andy Warhol and the Factory?
2.Audience knowledge of Andy Warhol, of the Factory? Of Edie Sedgwick? Of his career, art, films? His reputation, following?
3.New York in the 1960s, the interiors of the factory, the hotels, the art world, the musical score and songs of the time?
4.The title, the role of the factory, Warhol and his soup cans and photographic art? His films and their style? The drug world? His range of cast? Followers? Celebrities?
5.Edie Sedgwick and the opening, her running, her being in rehabilitation, her memories? Going to the university, Syd and his help? Chuck and his accompanying her to New York, the opportunity to meet Warhol, her knowledge of him, watching programs about him? The meeting, his infatuation with her? The people at the factory, the filming of Horse? Her intervening? Warhol and his reaction, being charmed?
6.The portrait of Edie Sedgwick: her early life, her father and the history of mental illness, her story about his sexual advances? Her brother and his being gay, suicide? The madness in the family, the other brother who crashed his bike into a bus in Manhattan? Her saying she told this story of her father’s advances to her mother and her mother not doing anything? Her father paying for her rent? The meal with Warhol and her parents, her father’s insult about his being gay? The background of her father putting her in an institution, her brothers? The treatment? Her reminiscing about her past? Her point of view? In New York, her interest in art, hopes? The films, Chuck and his becoming one of Warhol’s directors? Going out with Warhol, his support? The meal at home with his mother? The easy atmosphere with his mother? The drugs, her use, the questions by Chuck when he was filming, intrusive? Her age, lack of experience, mental problems, her hopes, living in a moral vacuum, celebrity, Diana Vreeland – and her later rejection of her? A girl of vitality – spoilt?
7.Quinn and the parallel with Bob Dylan? (Dylan and his lawyers trying to take action against the release of this film.) Syd and the introduction, Edie and her being in awe of Quinn, talking with him, getting the photo taken with him, Warhol not talking to her after seeing the photo? The meetings, the relationship, the sexual relationship? Going to the Studio? You had a hiccough as you said it.) the film and the agent wanting money, the awkward interview with Quinn, his leaving, knowledge of his marriage? The effect on Edie? How well delineated a character? Hayden Christensen’s performance – and lack of charisma?
8.Guy Pearce’s portrait of Andy Warhol, in himself, the significance of the confession sequences, talking to the priest, eating chocolate? His following? The breakthrough with his art, design? The exhibitions? His contemplative films? Sex and pornography? The followers and their taking drugs? Living at home with his mother, his mother and her Czech background, concern about him? The importance of Edie Sedgwick for this time of his life, going out with her? With the other members of the team? Quinn and his clash? The awkwardness of his interview? Giving Edie fifty dollars, her plea for money? The interview at the end with the real Warhol and his explanation of his detachment? His going through life detached?
9.Syd, love, introducing Edie to Quinn? His being there for her?
10.Chuck, joining Warhol, exploiting Edie?
11.The various friends? Richie Berlin? Listening to Edie? At the Studio? Gerard Malanga, the intimate scenes with him, the kiss – and her awkwardness? Bridget Polk and the other members?
12.The glitz world, glamour, celebrities?
13.Edie and her dependence on drugs, the injections, her depending on others, a victim? The rent, being ousted? The burning of the apartment? Her desperation? James Townsend and his interviews with her about the money, her sad story and his giving her money?
14.Going to Santa Barbara, the interviews with the therapist, the information about her marriage, her death – and her being aged twenty-eight?
15.A film about a particular era, a particular clique? New York social, American art world?
