Chelsea Girls (1966)

Almost needless to say, this DVD is an extremely breathtaking remaster of the underground classic film - the colors are vivid and the image is extremely sharp. It's a huge beaut, but...

I'm REALLY shocked by the fact that no one even commented on the following minor flaw - but enough to merit this as a 4 star critique, not 5 star release for me:

One of the most riveting episodes in this film has no audio whatsoever! It stars Marie Menken, Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov and it has a really crazy, cool Velvet Underground soundtrack in the background. Menken plays a disturbing sadomasochistic mom who chides her son and constantly whips his bed. An extract of this 30 minute episode is readily available for streaming, but the sound is quite oddly MISSING from the DVD.

I find this glitch unexplicable and maddening, and mars the viewing experience more than a bit. In order to watch it, at least I have my old VHS version of the movie, but the picture is quite inferior to the DVD. Oh, well.

Let's hope the Warhol Foundation releases this on official DVD in the near future and fixes this. PLEASE!!!

Some relevant information about this DVD set of The Chelsea Girls directed by Andy Warhol & Paul Morrissey (USA 1966).(*1)

0. There are currently two listings at this site: The Chelsea Girls (listing 1) and The Chelsea Girls (listing 2). As far as I can tell, they are identical, both Varo Video's Italian release. At the time of writing, listing 2 costs almost twice of listing 1.

1. This is the only release of The Chelsea Girls on DVD. It has no region code, but is encoded in the PAL format. The video and audio quality is good, considering that the film was shot on 16mm. (A vertical line scratch is visible in the beginning of "Father Ondine and Ingrid" and elsewhere, but lasting only for a few minutes and not very intrusive. Not sure if it's intentional.) Subtitles are available in English and Italian.

2. This film lasts 3 hours and 15 minutes in this edition. There are 12 vignettes or episodes on 12 reels showing on split ("black" and "white") screens, mostly two reels at the same time. Each reel runs approximately 30 minutes. (All films are 24 fps.) Warhol has certain instructions as of how they should be projected, but leaves plenty of things (order of the reels, when a reel should enter and when to turn sound on or off -- within certain parameters) to the discretion of the programmer/projectionist. An (officially approved) plan of screening can be found on p. 171 of J.J. Murphy's book The Black Hole of the Camera: The Films of Andy Warhol. This DVD edition uses identical order (see 3 below), but with significant differences in the entry time of reels and sound: relative level/on-off etc..

3. Order of the films on Split-Screen (in this DVD)
--------------------------------
Right Screen:
* Reel #1, Nico in Kitchen
* Reel #3, Brigid holds Court
* Reel #5, Hanoi Hannah
* Reel #7, Mario Sings Two Songs
* Reel #9, Eric Says All
* Reel # 11, Pope Ondine

Left Screen
+ Reel #2, Father Ondine and Ingrid (enters half a minute after Reel #1 starts)
+ Reel #4, Boys in Bed
+ Reel #6, Hanoi Hannah and Guests
+ Reel #8, Marie Menken
+ Reel #10, Colored Lights on Cast
+ Reel #12, Nico Crying
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4. Special features:
* A video by Enrico Ghezzi
* Interview with Achille Bonito Oliva
* Interview with Mario Zonta
* Paul Morrissey meets Jonas Mekas
* Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol (a film by Jonas Mekas)

5. A thick booklet (in both English and Italiano), featuring writing by Silvia Baraldini and Mario Zonta and illustrated with stills from the film, is included in the package. There are also brief synopsis of each episode in the booklet. N.B. The DVD case is inadequate and the booklet is inevitably scratched. (I had to change the DVD case.)

6. A reviewer complains about the loss of sound for about half an hour (in about midway of the film). I am not sure copyright is the only cause since it is not mentioned anywhere in the otherwise carefully planned package. As mentioned in 2, Warhol left some sample plan for the screening, which includes when to turn the sound on or off, and relative sound level of the left/right reels. My guess is that the "loss of sound" is INTENTIONAL.(*2)

7. Don't hold your breath for the "official" release from the Warhol Foundation. The Foundation refuses to release this film on DVD, perhaps insisting in the fluidity and changeability of each screening, and the subtle effect of projection. In my humble opinion, this is a dubious excuse. It would be extremely nice, for example, to have a multi-disc edition, which includes the split-screen theatrical version AND unedited version of 12 episodes with full sound, whenever available.

Needless to say, this DVD set is highly recommended. Get it before it disappears! (It is already out of print from Varo Video.)

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(*1) The film itself has attained the stature of a historical document and part of the culture. Whether one likes it or not eventually, it is an experience nobody serious in film should miss, I think.

(*2) 3 evidences of the theory of intentional silence. Firstly, there ARE segments of the film, e.g. just past 3-hou mark, in which Velvet Underground's music can be heard. Secondly, according to a Youtube uploader davesshindig, "This reel is completely silent in the split-screen version of the theatrical release." Lastly, this film is subtitled throughout when the sound is intended. Those silent segments have no subtitles.

I just saw this film at MOMI in NYC (that's the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City, Queens, Astoria for non-NYCers), and I was surprised at how much I liked it. The film (or films...this film is show with 2 projectors running simultaneously, showing something completely different on each projector) runs 210 minutes, but I was surprised how quickly it flew by once I settled in the Warhol groove. Having an editor on hand probably wouldn't have hurt. Some of the sequences are a bit too long, and I love long films, so my criticism isn't over the length of the film, which by Warhol's standards, is quite short (when you compare this film to Sleep, which is nearly 5 hours, and Empire, which is 8 hours), but I was nevertheless fascinated by what I saw. Warhol just filmed his friends/colleagues/stars of his circle at the time, and luckily for him, he had a talent for spotting really interesting, fascinating people, so it's not a boring film at all. Some of the sequences are quite startling (especially the ones in color), and the man/character who plays the "pope" is one of the best "characterizations" in the film. There is no real editing in the film. The takes are long, and there are some silly camera movements at times (pointless zooms, which look like mistakes at times), but overall it's worth seeing, especially if you're interested in the counterculture of the 1960's. If Andy and Paul Morrissey (who also directed, but isn't always credited) had cut it down to 2 hours or so, and played around a bit with the editing, they could have had an absolute masterpiece on their hands. Still, it's really quite a unique experience. I thought it was going to be a chore to sit through, but the opposite was the case. Thank you, Andy and Paul...

This is just a review for the film itself, not the imported DVD....

A previous reviewer has said that the film needed editing & was puzzled by the two projectors running at once. OK the film is an experimental format. It was intended to be different every time so two projectors were running reels in random order on each showing. Warhol wasn't into editing. The show has a lot in common with the psychedelic light shows of the rock concerts of the time. I worked on those a bit. They were moving collages of fluid projectors, old cartoons & slides. Chelsea Girls was supposed to be a less chaotic version adapted to provide a more conventional story line. Actually the point of the show IS the charismatic people he attracted. Conventional movies use the same type of charismatic people but placed into tableau based on the written novel & staged theatre. Warhol's approach was to discard the stories & concentrate on the people. He called his people superstars. Very few ever understood the concept & of course it's not very well suited to making money then is it.

Chelsea girls a classic film of any sorts, avante garde or now, main sream. To clarify, the film was made/directed, edited/ filmed by Paul Morrisey part of Andy Warhol's factory. The Andy Warhol name got it distroibuted and seen. It was widely regarded in it's day and won some awards. You enter into a private/loopy world of these Chelsea girls yet it's greater than all that. If you watch, you'll be almost hypmotized by it's humor, chaos, honesty and originality. Still influential in it's scope. I met Paul Morrisey earlier this year. At that time I informed him, much to his humility that I thought the film was a "masterpiece". I hold this to be the case. If you get the chance, see it, you won't regret it.