| Blue Movie | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Andy Warhol[1] |
| Written by | Andy Warhol |
| Produced by | Andy Warhol Paul Morrissey |
| Starring | Viva Louis Waldon |
| Cinematography | Andy Warhol |
Production company | Andy Warhol Films |
| Distributed by | Andy Warhol Films |
Release date |
|
Running time | 105 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3,000[3] |
Blue Movie (also known asFuck andF,k)[2][4][5] is a 1969 Americanerotic film written, produced and directed byAndy Warhol.[1][6] It is the firstadult erotic film depictingexplicit sex to receivewide theatrical release in the United States, and is regarded as a seminal film in theGolden Age of Porn (1969–1984).[1][4][6] The film starsWarhol superstarsViva andLouis Waldon.
Blue Movie was released at theElgin Theater in New York City on June 12, 1969, before thelegalization of pornography in Denmark on July 1, 1969.[7] The film helped inaugurate the "porno chic" phenomenon,[8][9] in which porn was publicly discussed by celebrities (likeJohnny Carson andBob Hope)[9] and taken seriously by film critics (likeRoger Ebert),[10][11] in modern American culture, and shortly thereafter, in many other countries throughout the world.[12][13] According to Warhol,Blue Movie was a major influence in the making ofLast Tango in Paris (1972), an internationally controversial erotic drama film starringMarlon Brando.[4]
In 2016,Blue Movie was shown at theWhitney Museum of American Art in New York City.[14]
The film includes dialogue about theVietnam War, various mundane tasks andsexual intercourse, during a blissful afternoon in a New York City apartment[1][6] (owned by art criticDavid Bourdon).[15] The film was presented in the press as, "a film about the Vietnam War and what we can do about it." Warhol added, "the movie is about ... love, not destruction."[16]
Andy Warhol described makingBlue Movie as follows: "I'd always wanted to do a movie that was pure fucking, nothing else, the wayEat had been just eating andSleep had been just sleeping. So in October '68 I shot a movie of Viva having sex with Louis Waldon. I called it justFuck."[4][5]
The film was supposedly filmed in a single three-hour session, with 30 minutes initially cut for the 140-minute version.[3] The climactic section was shot in a 35-minute take.[3] According toVariety, the film has only 10 minutes of actual sex.[2][17]
Warhol explained to Leticia Kent in an interview forVogue magazine that the lack of a plot in his films was intentional:
Scripts bore me. It's much more exciting not to know what's going to happen. I don't think that plot is important. If you see a movie of two people talking, you can watch it over and over again without being bored. You get involved – you miss things – you come back to it ... But you can't see the same movie over again if it has a plot because you already know the ending ... Everyone is rich. Everyone is interesting. Years ago, people used to sit looking out of their windows at the street. Or on a park bench. They would stay for hours without being bored although nothing much was going on.This is my favorite theme in movie making – just watching something happening for two hours or so.[18]
The film acquired a blue/green tint when Warhol utilized film stock that was meant for filming with tungsten lights, and the daylight coming through a large apartment window resulted in the film's middle reel turning blue.[19][20] According toWheeler Winston Dixon, a filmmaker and scholar who attended the first screening of the film atWarhol's Factory in the spring of 1969:
"When the film ended ... I heard Warhol asking someone plaintively "Why is the whole second reel all blue?" So I told him about 7242, 7241, and the need to use the proper filter to balance the color when you used indoor stock outdoors, or vice versa. "Ohhhhhhh," said Andy. Long pause. "Well, I guess we should call itBlue Movie."[21]
The film had a benefit screening on June 12, 1969, at theElgin Theater inNew York City.[2]
While it was initially shown atThe Factory,Blue Movie was not presented to a wider audience until it opened at theNew Andy Warhol Garrick Theater inNew York City[22][23] on July 21, 1969, with a running time of 105 minutes.[1][2][6][16][24] On its opening day in New York, the film grossed a house record $3,050, with a total of $16,200 for the week.[3] Warhol received 90% of the gross, which recovered the film's $3,000 cost quickly.[3]
The film was also screened at theBerkeley Repertory Theatre in California.[3]
Variety reported thatBlue Movie was the "first theatrical feature to actually depictintercourse".[3][17][24][25]
Journalist Dennis Cipnic praised the movie and Warhol's filming technique inInfinity, the magazine of theAmerican Society of Magazine Photographers. "The sex in 'Blue Movie' is, in fact, quite charming and a great deal more artistic than the embarrassingly phony gropings of panting actors which predominate in most commercial films," he said.[26] Critic John Huddy of theMiami Herald, who didn't like the movie, wrote "Cipnic should win aPulitzer Prize for comedy—the most elaborate, best sounding justification for utter slop I've ever read."
Viva, in Paris, finding thatBlue Movie was getting much attention, said, "Timothy Leary loved it.Gene Youngblood [an LA film critic] did too. He said I was better thanVanessa Redgrave and it was the first time a real movie star had made love on the screen. It was a real breakthrough."[27]
On July 31, 1969, the staff of theNew Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre inGreenwich Village were arrested, and the film confiscated.[4][6][28] In September 1969, a criminal court ruled that the film is "hardcore pornography" and the theater manager was fined $250.[6][29] Afterwards, the manager said, "I don't think anyone was harmed by this movie ... I saw other pictures around town and this was a kiddie matinee compared to them."[16] In reaction to the controversy, Warhol stated, "What's pornography anyway? ...The muscle magazines are called pornography, but they're really not. They teach you how to have good bodies ...Blue Movie wasreal. But it wasn't done as pornography—it was done as an exercise, an experiment. But I really do think moviesshould arouse you, should get you excited about people, should be prurient."[27][16]
In 1970, Warhol publishedBlue Movie in book form, with film dialogue and explicit stills, throughGrove Press.[24]
WhenLast Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film directed byBernardo Bertolucci and starringMarlon Brando, was released in 1972, Warhol consideredBlue Movie to be its inspiration.[4]
Mona the Virgin Nymph, an erotic film depicting explicit sex, also received a mainstream theatrical release in the United States in 1970. Shortly thereafter, other adult films, such asBoys in the Sand,Deep Throat,Behind the Green Door,The Devil in Miss Jones, andThe Opening of Misty Beethoven were released, continuing theGolden Age of Porn that began withBlue Movie. In 1973, the phenomenon of porn being publicly discussed by celebrities (likeJohnny Carson andBob Hope)[9] and taken seriously by film critics (likeRoger Ebert),[10][11] a development referred to by Ralph Blumenthal ofThe New York Times as "porno chic", began for the first time in modern American culture[8][9] and later throughout the world.[12][13]
In 2005,Blue Movie was publicly screened in New York City for the first time in over 30 years.[30] In 2016, the film was shown at theWhitney Museum of American Art inManhattan.[14]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) [Note – in "view all"/"page 327" – from the book text, "In a final defence of his methods, which were used inBlue Movie for the last time, Andy told Leticia Kent, [in aVogue interview] ..."]| Pornography |
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