Paul Morrissey
Paul Morrissey | |
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Paul Morrissey (born February 23, 1938) is an American
From 1965 - 1973, Morrissey ran the publicity and filmmaking activity for Warhol at
In 1971, Warhol and Morrissey purchased Eothen in
In 1998, Morrissey was given the Jack Smith Lifetime Achievement Award at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.[9]
Early life and career
Born to Irish Catholic parents Joseph and Eleanor Morrissey, Paul Joseph Morrissey grew up in
Introduced by poet and filmmaker Gerard Malanga, he first met Andy Warhol in June 1965 at the Astor Place Playhouse where Morrissey was having a retrospective of his work. Warhol, taken by Morrissey's resourcefulness and filmmaking expertise, invited him to the Factory to assist him with his next project Space (1965 film), filmed at the E. 47th St. Factory in July 1965 and featuring Edie Sedgwick, Danny Fields, Donald Lyons (a friend of Morrissey's from his Fordham University days) and folk-singer Eric Andersen. Several more Warhol-Morrissey collaborations followed including My Hustler (1965), The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound (1966), More Milk, Yvette (1966), Chelsea Girls (1966), Imitation of Christ (film) (1967), Tub Girls (1967), Bike Boy (1967), I, a Man (1967), San Diego Surf (film) (1968) and Lonesome Cowboys (1968).[14][15]
While filming a scene in the Manhattan apartment of John Wilcock for Andy Warhol's 25 hour movie Four Stars (1967 film), Morrissey first met Joe Dallesandro who happened to have friends living in the same building.[16] Morrissey immediately cast him in a scene that would later appear in Loves of Ondine (1967), Dallesandro's first appearance in a Factory film.[17]
After the attempt on Warhol's life in June 1968 by Valerie Solanas, Morrissey directed his first solo feature Flesh (1968 film). Produced for $4,000 by Andy Warhol and starring Joe Dallesandro alongside Maurice Braddell, Geri Miller, Geraldine Smith, Patti D'Arbanville, Louis Waldon, Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling the film became a box office hit in West Germany with over 3 million tickets sold.[18][19]
The commercial and popular success of Flesh continued into the 1970s with two more films directed by Morrissey, produced by Warhol and starring Dallesandro: Trash (1970 film), featuring Jane Forth and Holly Woodlawn, the first transgender actress ever cast as the girlfriend of a lead character,[20] and Heat (1972 film), a satire about Hollywood based on Sunset Boulevard (film) starring Dallesandro alongside Sylvia Miles.
In 1971, Morrissey would executive produce and direct
Reflecting on this period in an interview with Lucy Hughes-Hallett for British Vogue in 1978, Morrissey said: "To me, moviemaking is dealing with personalities, people who are always the way they are in every film, like John Wayne or Clint Eastwood, that kind of film-star personality which is not very fashionable now. It doesn’t really matter what the camera’s doing as long as the people are worth watching.”[23]
Post-Factory years
In March 1973, Morrissey went to Rome and directed two back-to-back features
Returning to New York City in the early 1980s, Morrissey began a collaboration with playwright and screenwriter
When film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum asked Morrissey in a 1975 interview for Oui (magazine) why he portrayed drug addicts and street hustlers with such sympathy despite his personal convictions as a lifelong conservative Catholic, Morrissey responded:
"A human being is a sympathetic entity. No matter how terrible a person might be, someone with an artist’s point of view will try to render his individuality without condescension or contempt. That’s the natural function of a dramatist. The movies I’ve made have no connection to my personal beliefs. They don’t say, "Do this", or "Don't do that". They portray a kind of emptiness in people who are living through a transitional cultural period when they don’t know who they are or what to do."[29][30]
Morrissey's most recent feature News From Nowhere (2010) made its U.S. debut at Film at Lincoln Center in fall 2010.[31]
Speaking to screenwriter and biographer Gavin Lambert, filmmaker George Cukor said of Morrissey's work:
"He makes a marvelous kind of world, and a marvelous kind of mischief, holding nothing back and just watching it happen. 'Personal expression' is a much abused expression, but these films are real expression. . .Nobody has done anything like it. The selection of people, the casting, is absolutely brilliant and impertinent. The life they see, the gutter they see, or the world they see is so funny and agonizing, and they see it so vividly, with such original humor.”[32]
Filmography
- Ancient History (short) 1961
- Dream and Day Dream (short) 1961
- Mary Martin Does It (short) 1962
- Civilization and Its Discontents (short) 1962
- Taylor Mead Dances (short) (1963)
- Peaches and Cream (short) (1964)
- Merely Children (short) (1964)
- About Face (short) (1964)
- The Origin of Captain America (short) (1964)
- Like Sleep (short) (1964)
- All Aboard the Dreamland Choo-Choo (short) (1965)
- My Hustler (1965)
- Paul Swan (1965)
- More Milk, Yvette (1966)
- Hedy (1966)
- Chelsea Girls (1966)
- The Velvet Underground and Nico: A Symphony of Sound (1966)
- Imitation of Christ (film) (1967)
- Tub Girls (1967)
- I, a Man (1967)
- Bike Boy (1967)
- Loves of Ondine (1967)
- The Nude Restaurant (1967)
- Four Stars (1967 film)
- San Diego Surf(1968)
- Flesh (1968)
- Lonesome Cowboys (1968)
- Trash (1970)
- I Miss Sonia Henie (short) (1971)
- Women in Revolt (1971)
- Heat (1972)
- L'Amour (1973)
- Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)
- Blood for Dracula (1974)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1978)
- Madame Wang's (1981)
- Forty Deuce (1982)
- Mixed Blood(1985)
- Beethoven's Nephew (1985)
- Spike of Bensonhurst (1988)
- Changing Fashions (short) (1993)
- Veruschka: A Life for the Camera (documentary) (2005)
- News From Nowhere (2010)
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-12-02.
- ^ King-Clements, Eloise (2024-02-22). "Brontez Purnell on Paul Morrissey, the OG Edgelord". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ "Paul Morrissey Day – DC's". 3 April 2021.
- ^ Bockris, Victor and Gerard Malanga. Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story. Omnibus Press. 1983. pp 30
- ^ "Velvet Underground, Expanded Cinema and Cafe Bizarre".
- ^ "Andy Warhol's Interview magazine".
- ^ https://www.anothermanmag.com/life-culture/10203/the-humble-fishing-town-that-became-a-hideaway-for-warhols-gang
- ^ https://www.corcoran.com/nyc/press-mention/display/4847
- ^ "UNDERGROUND FILM FEST A MIX OF THE TASTELESS AND THE ARTFUL". Chicago Tribune. August 7, 1998. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ Yacowar, Maurice. The Films of Paul Morrissey. Cambridge University Press, 1993. pp 13
- ISBN 978-0-521-38993-8.
- ^ "The Wild, Wild East". 10 December 2005.
- ISBN 978-0-521-38993-8.
- ^ "Paul Morrissey meets Andy Warhol". warholstars.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ https://warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/paul12.html
- ^ https://warholstars.org/warhol/warhol1/andy/warhol/can/joe13.html
- ^ Sandstrom, Emily (2024-02-05). "Joe Dallesandro Tells Bruce LaBruce About Life as a Warhol Superstar". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ "Flesh". warholstars.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ ""The Bitchy Humor Feels Fresh": Interview Presents, "The Gospel According to Paul Morrissey"". April 2024.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ "Women in Revolt".
- ^ "Who are the Smiths' album and single cover stars?". 18 September 2019.
- ^ "The Gospel According to Paul Morrissey".
- ^ "Superstars to Movie Stars: Paul Morrissey and 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' (1978)". 12 October 2021.
- ^ "Madame Wang's".
- ^ "Madame Wang's". January 2013.
- ^ ""Forty Deuce," directed and adapted by Paul Morrissey from the play by Alan Bowne". 9 February 1985.
- ^ "'Spike of Bensonhurst' A Comedy Streaked with Despair". Chicago Tribune. 11 November 1988.
- ^ "Conversation with Paul Morrissey (Part I) | Jonathan Rosenbaum". jonathanrosenbaum.net. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ "Conversation with Paul Morrissey (Part II) | Jonathan Rosenbaum".
- ^ "An Evening with Paul Morrissey featuring News From Nowhere". Film at Lincoln Center. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
- ^ Lambert, Gavin. On Cukor. Putnam. 1972. ISBN: 0339109250 pp 153-4
Further reading
- For an analysis of each of Morrissey's feature films, see Maurice Yacowar, The Films of Paul Morrissey (Cambridge University Press, 1993).
- For an indepth interview with Morrissey on his early years as an independent filmmaker, see "Captured: A Film/Video History of the Lower East Side" Clayton Patterson, ed. (New York: Seven Stories, 2005)
- An indepth interview with Morrissey about his years working with Warhol appears in "The Autobiography and Sex Life of Andy Warhol" by John Wilcock. Edited by Christopher Trela; photographs by Harry Shunk.(New York, Trela Media, 2010.)
External links
- Paul Morrissey at IMDb
- Film Reference extensive analysis of Morrissey's career
- https://www.criterion.com/current/top-10-lists/62-paul-morrisseys-top-10
- https://aes-nihil.bandcamp.com/album/paul-morrissey-interview-1997