MASTERPIECE THEATER: ANDY WARHOL DOUBLE FEATURE

THIS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22ND AT 10 P.M., AFTER CREATE!!!

MSU FILM CLUB PRESENTS:

MASTERPIECE THEATER!!!

This week Film Club President Josef Luciano and First Lady Lindsay Nichols

presents


FACTORY GIRL

and

ANDY WARHOL'S FLESH


Come, we will be having FREE PIZZA! Among other things!

We look forward to seeing you!



ABOUT THIS SCREENING:

In honor of Montclair State University’s George Segal Gallery receiving a generous donation of 103 Polaroids and 50 black-and-white gelatin silver prints (which feature many famous celebrities of the day, such as Debbie Harry, Jamie Wyeth, Willie Shoemaker, John Travolta, Liza Minnelli, Bianca Jagger, Barry Diller, and Catherine Oxenberg) by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts through the Andy Warhol Photographic Legacy Program


The exhibition “Andy Warhol: Through a Glass Starkly,” is free to MSU students and runs through December 12, 2009.
I strongly recommend anyone to see it with this mindset, echoed by the exhibit's curator William V. Ganis, PhD.


“Though Warhol is known as a painter and printmaker, nearly all of his efforts have a photographic base,” says Ganis. “This exhibition shows Warhol’s ‘photographic thinking’ whether through the diaristic snapshots he made every day for a decade, or the Polaroids of celebrities used to make their silk-screened portraits. The works at the Segal Gallery, most of which will be shown publicly for the first time, offer a fascinating cross-section of Warhol’s abiding photographic endeavors."


Much can be said about the man, but never is much ever really understood. Many people tend to either view him in the hyperbolic "last breath" of creativity in art, others associate him with everything derogatory about "modern art" and it's many perceived flaws. All this aside, how much do we really known about one of the most polarized, most controversial, and most commercially successful artists of the 20th century?

Which brings me to the screenings themselves. Is it better to judge a man by how he is remembered, or by the art he produces?
Or perhaps, to question even further, by how is art is perceived? Or by what it is perceived to be?



FIRST SCREENING:

FACTORY GIRL:

A film based on the life of 1960s underground film star, socialite, and Andy Warhol's Superstar Edie Sedgwick.

STARRING
Sienna Miller, Guy Pearce, Hayden Christensen, Jimmy Fallon

RUNTIME: 1 hr 39 mins.

Like most biopics, people will always quibble over the historical accuracy of the cultural icons represented. Personally, I feel that Guy Pearce's rendition of Andy Warhol is the most accurate I have ever seen, although I am sure David Bowie would more than likely disagree having been very close with the former haha. Either way, this film provides a pretty accurate view of the Factory and who these people really were, albeit with a slightly stylized view of how history and culture would like to remember them.



SECOND SCREENING

ANDY WARHOL'S FLESH

FLESH is an EXPERIMENTAL FILM directed by one of Andy's closest partners, Paul Morrissey. The film was inspired by the aesthetic of much of Warhol's earlier work.

The movie is the first of the "Paul Morrissey Trilogy"; the other films include TRASH and HEAT, all three of which Warhol produced.

The film stars Joe Dallesandro, male sex symbol of the underground cinema featured on The Smiths self-titled debut album, as a hustler working on the streets of New York City. The movie highlights various Warhol superstars (many of whom also appear in FACTORY GIRL), 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 lesbian lover.

The movies have something of a cult following and reflect noted examples of the ideals and ideology of the time period. The films are also known to have broken boundaries and paved the way for future filmmakers.

RUNTIME: 1 hr. 45 mins.



FINAL THOUGHTS:

What we hope to raise with these screenings is to open up a forum to discuss what makes art? The myth of what it meant then, or the affect of what it means now? Does art truly hold it's "meaning" overtime, or is it something which can disappear with time? Does his art stand the test of time, or was it merely nothing to begin with?

In short, we hope to paint a cultural portrait of the artist, and then to showcase the reality of the time he lived in. We hope that everyone comes and enjoys the screening and can engage in a historical art discourse, as well as to examine the man who continues to inspire a nation of artists- seasoned, contemporary, and emerging.

We hope to see you there!

-Josef & Lindsay

This screening is great, and will surely piss Ken off.