The film comes with very specific projection instructions
detailing the order of reels and starting times (there is a five-minute delay
between the start of reels on the left and right side).The film uses the
technique of split screen and Nico appears in the first scene The Kitchen
on the right hand screen. She can be seen in a kitchen trimming her fringe with
scissors and a double-sided mirror with a chrome frame, talking with Eric
Emerson, Ari is playing around, she brushes her hair, has a drink, flips through
a magazine, plays around with Ari, Ari has a drink. [33:30] [Black & white].
Nico also appears in the scene The Trip [Room 416] (Reel 12, left hand
screen), where Nico is crying alone in a room. [33:04] [Colour]
Andy Warhol would often have dinner at the El Quixote
Restaurant downstairs from the Chelsea Hotel with other factory regulars and he
"got the idea to unify all the pieces of these people's lives by stringing them
together as if they lived in different rooms in the same hotel." Not all the
scenes were shot at the Chelsea Hotel, 222 West 23rd Street, -- some were filmed
at the Velvets' apartment on West 3rd St. and some in other friend's apartments
or at the Factory.
Mary Woronov: "Paul loaded the camera, Andy pointed it and
Gerard started the tape recorder -- there were always endless amounts of
waiting. Of course there were endless amounts of drugs too, which sort of made
up for it."
Twelve uncut reels, each about a half-hour in length, were
projected two at a time, side-by-side, in this experimental anthology lasting
between 190-210 minutes depending on when the projectionist started the reels.
It's Warhol's most famous self-signed film, and — with almost all the leading
Factory personalities and music by the Velvet Underground — it's easy to see
why. Some of the segments were shot at New York's famous Chelsea Hotel, and
include some really odd goings-on.
The 70-minute portion which includes the Velvet Underground
music is known as The Gerard Malanga Story. The Velvet Underground also
provides the music for Reel 12, Nico Crying (as well as Reel 8, Marie
Menken or The Gerard Malanga Story). Although the sound is off on
reel 12 until the last ten minutes (while you listen to Pope Ondine on Reel 11
on the other screen), the instructions say "After Reel #11 ends, turn light off
on Reel #12 but continue sound as exit and intermission music." If you rent the
16mm film, it comes with a full 33 minutes of music, but the projection
instructions tell you to turn the sound off during most of it.
In January 1967 Chelsea Girls moves to the York Cinema
on the East side. Andy has an arrangement with the Film-Makers' Distribution
Center (FDC), headed by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, and Luis Brigante, to split
the net profits fifty-fifty. In May 1967. Andy, Paul, Gerard, Lester Persky,
Rodney La Rod, David Croland, International Velvet And Eric Emerson take
Chelsea Girls to the Cannes Film Festival but never get to show it.
During the summer of 1966, Warhol filmed The Chelsea
Girls in which Susan Bottomly appeared in the Hanoi Hanna (Queen of
China) segment (Room 116), The Pope Ondine Story segment (Room 732)
and The John segment (Room 632). The Hanoi Hanna segment was
filmed in Velvet's room at the Chelsea. According to Mary Woronov, who played
the part of Hanoi, "Velvet was a slob." She "was a society girl from Boston
hoping to follow in Edie Sedgwick's footsteps." Mary was "stoned to the gills"
for the filming and, according to Mary, Velvet was drunk, slugging "out of her
vodka bottle, a little too greedily for a girl of good breeding", and "Ingrid
Superstar was on pills, but they had no effect, she was naturally nuts..." Mary
watched Velvet applying her make-up and whispered to her: "No matter how much
you put on your face, it won't make your butt any smaller."
Velvet was expecting a phone call from a modeling agency and
warned Andy that if the phone rings during the filming, she had to be able to
answer it. But when the phone does ring during the filming, Mary pulls it out of
her reach, not allowing her to answer it. Velvet asks Mary to let her answer the
phone, saying "you promised" and "that's my call" but Mary just replies: "You
don't have a call. You have a fat ass." The end result is that Velvet runs out
of the room in anger — although she does return to finish the scene. Ronald
Tavel who wrote the 'script' for the Hanoi Hanna segment was so pleased
with Mary's performance that he offered her a part in an Off-Off Broadway play
three days later.
Excerpts of The Chelsea Girls are included in Pie in
the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story, a 75 minutes US documentary about life of
Brigid Berlin [Brigid Polk], directed by Vincent Fremont and Shelly Dunn
Fremont, produced by Vincent Fremont Enterprises, released on 07 September
2000.
From smironne.free.fr