L'Amour (film)

Last updated
L'Amour
Directed by
Written by
  • Paul Morrissey
  • Andy Warhol
Produced by
Cinematography Jed Johnson
Edited by
  • Jed Johnson
  • Lana Jokel
Music by Ben Weisman
Release dates
  • March 20, 1972 (1972-03-20)(US Film Festival)
  • May 10, 1973 (1973-05-10)(United States)

L'Amour, also known as Andy Warhol's L'Amour, is a 1972 underground film written by Paul Morrissey and Andy Warhol and directed by Morrissey and Warhol. The film stars Donna Jordan, Michael Sklar, and Max Delys.

Contents

A farcical comedy meant to be campy and raunchy, it was The Factory's version of the 1953 film How To Marry A Millionaire . The film was panned by critics and was accused of being too subdued to stand on its own alongside more over-the-top films like John Waters’ Pink Flamingos (1972), which was released within the same year. [1]

The lyrics to the opening theme were written by Skylar, with vocals being provided by Cass Elliot from The Mamas and the Papas. [1] The complete film is considered lost.

Plot

American hippies Donna and Jane’s friend Patti comes to visit, having clearly done very financially well for herself. She recommends if the two girls want to be wealthy and glamorous as well they should find rich husbands, and a plan is concocted for them to move to Paris to become models and seduce suitably wealthy men. [2]

Jane and Donna are introduced to housemates Michael and Max, the millionaire son of a urinal cake tycoon and a sex worker respectively. These two have their own agendas: Michael, a gay man, wants to get a wife to placate his family, and to have someone to adopt the true object of his affections, Max, with. Max, while happy to have a luxurious home to live in, feels lonely under Michael’s overbearing control and finds himself enamored with the ditzy Jane.

Michael and Donna come to an agreement: if he can get her on the cover of Vogue, she’ll marry him. The quartet get up to fun all over Paris, taking product photographs of urinal cakes next to pissiors and roller skating around the park. [2]

The relationships between the four are starting to change, though rarely in the ways any of them intended. Max becomes more frustrated with Michael’s jealous, controlling nature, and Michael puts Max down for being an impoverished sex worker whenever Max stands up for himself, saying if Michael hadn’t taken pity on him Max would have nothing. Max is enjoying a fling with Jane, who enjoys listing her favorite genres of American cable television during sex. Donna eventually realizes after an extremely unsuccessful attempt to sleep with Michael that he’s obviously avoiding being physical with her, and so gives up the act and joins him in eating snacks in bed.

Things come to a boiling point when, after a falling out, Michael overhears Max saying to Jane that he hates Michael and now only wants to be adopted so he and Jane can inherit his fortune when he dies. Michael confronts him and Max leaves his house for good.

Max and Jane say their goodbyes in front of the Eiffel Tower, Max vowing to make his own living on the Parisian streets and Jane announcing that she’s returning to New York City. The final scene reveals Michael and Donna eating in a Parisian cafe, Donna holding a copy of Vogue that shows she is indeed on the cover. Outside Max converses with a client. As the two men run off together, Michael sees them and tries regretfully to follow, ultimately left to walk the Paris streets with only Donna for companionship. [2]

Cast

Production

L'Amour was filmed in one month in Paris in September 1970. [3] Warhol financed the film and it was directed by Paul Morrissey, but Warhol was given credit as a co-director by the designers of the film's advertising. [4] Warhol turned over his cameraman duties to his boyfriend Jed Johnson, who had primarily been an editor. [4] Warhol spent most of his time during the production antique shopping with fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent who would regularly visit the set. [5]

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, who appears in the film, lent Warhol and his entourage his apartment as a set and another apartment was borrowed from a friend of Brigid Berlin's. [6] [7] "I guess we went over there because we had a lot of apartments," said director Paul Morrissey. [7] "That's the most important ingredient. We had run out of New York apartments," he added. [7]

One of several working titles for the film was Les Pissoirs de Paris. [3]

Release

L'Amour was shown at the USA Film Festival at Southern Methodist University in Dallas on March 20 1972. [8] The film opened at the Eastside Cinema in New York City on May 10, 1973. [9]

It was the first Warhol and Morrissey film to qualify for an R rating. [10]

Reception

Stanley Eichelbaum of the San Francisco Examiner noted that although this was the first Warhol production shot abroad, "Paris is almost completely ignored. Morrissey might just as well have made the film in the East Village for all the use he's made of the Parisian setting. The action is kept mainly indoors and the mostly American casts shows no reaction to being in France but boredom." [10]

John Crittenden of The Record said, "It's supposed to be a comedy, but the jokes just aren't there. The elements of perversity don't shock or titillate. The inane chatter does not even parody it's self." [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Morrissey</span> American film director (born 1938)

Paul Morrissey is an American film director, best known for his association with Andy Warhol. He was also director of Trash (1970), the first film in which a transgender actress, Holly Woodlawn, starred as a girlfriend of a main character.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edie Sedgwick</span> American model and actress (1943–1971)

Edith Minturn Sedgwick Post was an American actress and fashion model who was one of Andy Warhol's superstars, starring in several of his short films during the 1960s. Her prominence led to her being dubbed an "It Girl", while Vogue magazine named her a "Youthquaker".

Warhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by the pop artist Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life, epitomizing his dictum, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes". Warhol would simply film them, and declare them "superstars".

<i>Trash</i> (1970 film) 1970 film by Paul Morrissey

Trash is a 1970 American drama film directed and written by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlawn and Jane Forth. Dallesandro had previously starred in several other Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey films such as The Loves of Ondine, Lonesome Cowboys, San Diego Surf, and Flesh.

<i>Flesh</i> (1968 film) 1968 film by Paul Morrissey

Flesh is a 1968 American film directed by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro as a hustler working on the streets of New York City. It highlights various Warhol superstars, in addition to being the film debuts of both Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling. Also appearing are Geraldine Smith as Joe's wife and Patti D'Arbanville as her lover.

<i>Women in Revolt</i> 1971 American film

Women in Revolt is a 1971 American satirical film produced by Andy Warhol and directed by Paul Morrissey. It was initially released as Andy Warhol's Women. The film stars Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, and Holly Woodlawn, three trans women and superstars of Warhol's Factory scene. It also features soundtrack music by John Cale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patti D'Arbanville</span> American actress

Patricia D'Arbanville is an American actress known for her appearance in Andy Warhol projects.

<i>Andy Warhols Bad</i> 1977 film by Jed Johnson

Bad, also known as Andy Warhol's Bad, is a 1977 comedy film directed by Jed Johnson and starring Carroll Baker, Perry King, and Susan Tyrrell. It was written by Pat Hackett and George Abagnalo, and was the last film produced by Andy Warhol before his death in 1987.

<i>Blue Movie</i> 1969 film by Andy Warhol

Blue Movie is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol. It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States, and is regarded as a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984), which, before the legalization of pornography in Denmark on July 1, 1969, started on June 12, 1969 with the release of Blue Movie at the Elgin Theater, and later, the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre, in New York City. Blue Movie helped inaugurate the "porno chic" phenomenon, in which porn was publicly discussed by celebrities and taken seriously by film critics, in modern American culture, and shortly thereafter, in many other countries throughout the world. According to Warhol, Blue Movie was a major influence in the making of Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film starring Marlon Brando and released a few years after Blue Movie was made. Viva and Louis Waldon, playing themselves, starred in Blue Movie.

<i>Flesh for Frankenstein</i> 1973 film

Flesh for Frankenstein is a 1973 horror film written and directed by Paul Morrissey. It stars Udo Kier, Joe Dallesandro, Monique van Vooren and Arno Juerging. Interiors were filmed at Cinecittà in Rome by a crew of Italian filmmakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Bockris</span>

Victor Bockris is an English-born, U.S.-based author, primarily of biographies of artists, writers, and musicians.

<i>a, A Novel</i> 1968 book by Andy Warhol

a, A Novel is a 1968 book by the American artist Andy Warhol published by Grove Press. It is a nearly word-for-word transcription of tapes recorded by Warhol and Ondine over a two-year period in 1965–1967.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susan Blond</span> American publicist and businesswoman

Susan Blond, is a New York publicist and the owner of entertainment and lifestyle publicity agency Susan Blond, Inc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jed Johnson (designer)</span> American designer and film director

Jed Johnson was an American interior designer and film director. TheNew York Times hailed Johnson as "one of the most celebrated interior designers of our time."

Antonio Lopez was a Puerto Rican fashion illustrator whose work appeared in such publications as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Interview and The New York Times. Several books collecting his illustrations have been published. In his obituary, the New York Times called him a "major fashion illustrator." He generally signed his works as "Antonio."

Jane Forth is an American actress and model, best known for having been one of the Warhol superstars, starring in films such as Trash, and being one of “Antonio’s Girls”, models and muses of fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez.

Michael Joel Sklar was an American actor, writer, songwriter, and fashion retailer. He was best known as a Warhol superstar, starring in several films by Warhol and Paul Morrissey.

Donna Jordan is an American actress and model. She is most well-known as a Warhol superstar and for being one of “Antonio’s Girls”, models and muses of fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez.

<i>My Hustler</i> 1965 American film

My Hustler is a 1965 American film by Andy Warhol, and Paul Morrissey. The film is propelled by the sonorous, magnetic acting of 30-year-old Ed Hood interacting with the blonde Hustler, Paul America.

Pat Hackett is an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. Hackett was a close friend and collaborator of pop artist Andy Warhol. They co-authored the books POPism: The Warhol Sixties (1980) and Andy Warhol's Party Book (1988). She also edited TheAndy Warhol Diaries (1989). Hackett was an editor for Interview magazine and she co-wrote the screenplay for the film Andy Warhol's Bad (1977).

References

  1. 1 2 L’Amour, ongoing exhibit. The Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh.
  2. 1 2 3 Morrissey, Paul; Warhol, Andy. L’amour. Film, 1973.
  3. 1 2 Gopnik, Blake (2020). Warhol. New York, NY: Ecco. pp. 721–722. ISBN   978-0-06-229839-3.
  4. 1 2 Yacowar, Maurice (1993-05-28). The Films of Paul Morrissey. Cambridge University Press. p. 3. ISBN   978-0-521-38993-8.
  5. ↑ Rawsthorn, Alice (1996). Yves Saint Laurent: A Biography. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday. p. 110. ISBN   978-0-385-47645-4.
  6. ↑ Bockris, Victor (1989). The Life and Death of Andy Warhol. New York: Bantam Books. p. 257. ISBN   978-0-553-05708-9.
  7. 1 2 3 Bockris, Victor (2003). Warhol: The biography. New York: Da Capo Press. p. 339. ISBN   978-0-306-81272-9.
  8. ↑ Kemp, Jimmy F. (1972-03-21). "Dallas Festival Previews A New Film Super Star". The Shreveport Journal. pp. B Five. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  9. 1 2 Crittenden, John (1973-05-11). "It's love, amateur style". The Record. pp. B-11. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  10. 1 2 Eichelbaum, Stanley (1973-10-11). "A Soap Opera from the Warhol Factory". The San Francisco Examiner. p. 33. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.