''Chelsea Girls'' is a 1966 American

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs when a ...

underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include: John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's '' Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's '' ...

directed by

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

art film An art film (or arthouse film) is typically an independent film, aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience. It is "intended to be a serious, artistic work, often experimental and not designed for mass appeal", "made primarily f ...

s (both feature-length and short). It was shot at the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of ...

and other locations in New York City, and follows the lives of several of the young women living there, and stars many of Warhol's superstars. The film is presented in a

split screen Split screen may refer to: * Split screen (computing) Split screen is a display technique in computer graphics that consists of dividing graphics and/or text into adjacent (and possibly overlapping) parts, typically as two or four rectangular ...

, 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 film was the inspiration for star

Nico Naftiran Intertrade Company limited (NICO) is a Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC buys the vast majority of Iran's gasoline imports. NICO is a key pl ...

's 1967 debut album, '' Chelsea Girl'', which featured a ballad-like track titled "

Chelsea Girls ''Chelsea Girls'' is a 1966 American 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 w ...

", which was written about the hotel and its inhabitants. The girl in the poster is Clare Shenstone, at the age of 16, an aspiring artist later influenced by

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...

. 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". The poster was used as the cover art for

Felt Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood ...

's 1984 album '' The Splendour of Fear''.

Production

According to scriptwriter

Ronald Tavel Ronald Tavel (May 17, 1936 – March 23, 2009) was an American screenwriter, director, novelist, poet and actor, best known for his work with Andy Warhol and The Factory. Early life and career Born in Brooklyn, New York, Tavel graduated fro ...

, Warhol first brought up the idea for the film in the back room of

Max's Kansas City Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South in New York City, which became a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s. It was opened by Mickey Ruskin (1933–1983) in Decembe ...

, 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 1996 in various rooms and locations inside the Hotel Chelsea, though contrary to the film's title, only poet

René Ricard Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) was an American poet, actor, art critic, and painter. Life and career Albert Napoleon Ricard was born in Boston and grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts near New Bedford. As a young teenager he r ...

actually lived there at the time.Leve, Ariel 'New York Storeys' ''The Sunday Times Magazine'', 25 March 2007, pp. 40–51. p. 49 Filming also took place at Warhol's studio

The Factory The Factory was Andy Warhol's studio in New York City, which had four locations between 1963 and 1987. The Factory became famed for its parties in the 1960s. It was the hip hangout spot for artists, musicians, celebrities and Warhol's superstar ...

. Appearing in the film were many of Warhol's regulars, including

Brigid Berlin Brigid Emmett Berlin (September 6, 1939 – July 17, 2020) was an American artist and Warhol superstar. Early years Berlin was born on September 6, 1939 in Manhattan in New York City. She was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parent ...

Gerard Malanga Gerard Joseph Malanga (born March 20, 1943) is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist. Early life Malanga was born in the Bronx in 1943, the only child of Italian immigrant parents. In 1959, at the beginning of ...

Mary Woronov Mary Woronov (born December 8, 1943) is an American actress, published author and figurative painter. She is primarily known as a " cult star" because of her work with Andy Warhol and her roles in Roger Corman's cult films. Woronov has appeared ...

as Hanoi Hannah, Ingrid Superstar, International Velvet and

Eric Emerson Eric Emerson (June 23, 1945 – May 28, 1975) 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 Growing ...

. 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 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 a

cult status A cult following refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

, 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

titled "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 Edith Minturn Sedgwick Post (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress and fashion model, known for being one of Andy Warhol's superstars.Watson, Steven (2003), "Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties" Pantheon Books, pp. 210& ...

which, according to Morrissey, Warhol excised from the final film at the insistence of Sedgwick, who claimed she was under contract to

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

's manager

Albert Grossman Albert Bernard Grossman (May 21, 1926 – January 25, 1986) was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk an ...

at the time the film was made. Sedgwick's footage was used in the Warhol film ''Afternoon''.

Cast

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

as herself (The Duchess) *

as herself * Ondine as himself (Pope) * Ingrid Superstar as herself * Randy Bourscheidt as himself * Angelina 'Pepper' Davis as herself * Christian Aaron Boulogne as himself *

as Hanoi Hannah * Ed Hood as himself * Ronna as herself * International Velvet as herself * Rona Page as herself *

Rene Ricard Rene Ricard (July 23, 1946 – February 1, 2014) was an American poet, actor, art critic, and painter. Life and career Albert Napoleon Ricard was born in Boston and grew up in Acushnet, Massachusetts near New Bedford. As a young teenager he ran ...

as himself *

Dorothy Dean Dorothy Dean (December 22, 1932 – February 13, 1987) was an African American socialite, connected to Andy Warhol's The Factory—for which she appeared in the films '' Batman Dracula'' (1964), ''Space'' (1965), ''My Hustler'' (1965), ''Aftern ...

as herself * Patrick Fleming as himself *

as himself * Donald Lyons as himself *

as Son *

Marie Menken Marie Menken (born Marie Menkevicius; May 25, 1909 – December 29, 1970) was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and socialite. She was noted for her unique filming style that incorporated collage. She was one of the first New York fil ...

as Mother * Arthur Loeb as himself *

Mario Montez René Rivera, (July 20, 1935 – September 26, 2013), known professionally as 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 ac ...

as Transvestite

Critical reception

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. In the UK, it was refused a theatrical certificate in 1967 by the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

. 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." ''Variety'' wrote that the film was "a pointless, excruciatingly dull three-and-a-half hours spent in the company of Andy Warhol's friends." 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." 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." ''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."

Availability

Home media

''Chelsea Girls'' is 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 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.

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 The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of th ...

(which owns a rare print of the film reels) as well as

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...

in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The film was screened in San Francisco for the first time in nearly 20 years at

Castro Theatre The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in San Francisco that became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street in the Castro District, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque fa� ...

in April 2002. Screenings were held in 2010 at the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on Cap ...

and at the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 2011 at the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

in Atlanta, Georgia, and the Block Museum of Art in Evanston, Illinois in 2016. The full 3 1/2 hour version of the film was screened at the Brooklyn Museum in a custom built theatre within their edition of the ''Andy Warhol: Revelation'' exhibit from November 19, 2021 to June 19, 2022.

References

External links

* *
Andy Warhol's Magic Trick: The Disappearing 16mm Projector
, 2014,

Chicago Film Society The Chicago Film Society (CFS) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving celluloid film and celluloid film culture. Widely known for historically informed screenings of 35mm, 70mm, 16mm and 8mm films, the CFS also mai ...

Nico Sings Chelsea Girls in the Chelsea Hotel
1970, YouTube {{Paul Morrissey 1966 films Films directed by Andy Warhol Films directed by Paul Morrissey American black-and-white films Films set in New York City Multi-screen film Women in New York City 1960s English-language films 1960s American films