Blue Movie
"I'd always wanted to do a movie that was pure fucking, nothing else, the
way 'Eat' had been just eating and 'Sleep' had been just sleeping. So in
October '68 I shot a movie of Viva having sex with Louis Waldon. I called it
just 'Fuck'." Andy Warhol:
'Fuck' was shot in October 1968
at David Bourden's apartment in Greenwich Village. (FAW36) The film is
bathed in a blue tint that came from being shot with tungsten (indoor) film
that was "ill-suited to the sunlight streaming into Bourden's apartment."
It was shown only at the Factory until the following year when all four
reels that were shot were shown at a benefit for 'Film Culture' magazine at
the Elgin Cinema on June 12, 1969. (Ibid) Then on July 21 Warhol put it into
the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre where 'Lonesome Cowboys' had been
playing but was dying "pretty quickly." It was a shortened version
(only the last three reels lasting 100 mins) and renamed 'Blue Movie' to
avoid the censors. |
According to Variety, the film made
three times what it cost in the first week of being shown. It was seized by the
New York City police on July 31, and the theatre's staff arrested. On September
18, the New York Criminal Court ruled that it was obscene and fined the
theatre's manager $250.00. Andy "retaliated by immediately publishing the film
as a book through Grove Press, with a complete transcription of the dialogue and
lots of stills." "Despite
the fact that 'Blue Movie' contains an act of intercourse... the film seems to
be more a documentary about life in the sixties than a porno film; Viva and
Louis tell each other stories, talk about the war in Vietnam, cook some food,
and fool around in the shower."
When the film "Last Tango in
Paris" was released, Andy Warhol thought it was based on 'Blue Movie'.
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