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Blue Movie

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This article is about the 1969 film by Andy Warhol. For other uses, see Blue movie (disambiguation).

Blue Movie
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAndy Warhol[1]
Written byAndy Warhol
Produced byAndy Warhol
Paul Morrissey
StarringViva
Louis Waldon
CinematographyAndy Warhol
Production
company
Andy Warhol Films
Distributed byAndy Warhol Films
Release date
  • June 12, 1969 (1969-06-12)[2]
Running time
105 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3,000[3]

Blue Movie (also known as Fuck and F,k)[2][4][5] is a 1969 American erotic film written, produced and directed by Andy Warhol.[1][6] It is the first adult erotic film depicting explicit sex to receive wide theatrical release in the United States, and is regarded as a seminal film in the Golden Age of Porn (1969–1984).[1][4][6] The film stars Warhol superstars Viva and Louis Waldon.

Blue Movie was released Elgin Theater in New York City on June 12, 1969, before the legalization 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 (like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope)[9] and taken seriously by film critics (like Roger 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 of Last Tango in Paris (1972), an internationally controversial erotic drama film starring Marlon Brando.[4]

In 2016, Blue Movie was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City.[14]

Synopsis

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The film includes dialogue about the Vietnam War, various mundane tasks and sexual intercourse, during a blissful afternoon in a New York City apartment[1][6] (owned by art critic David 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]

Cast

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Production

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Andy Warhol described making Blue Movie as follows: "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."[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 to Variety, the film has only 10 minutes of actual sex.[2][17]

Warhol explained to Leticia Kent in an interview for Vogue 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 to Wheeler Winston Dixon, a filmmaker and scholar who attended the first screening of the film at Warhol'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 it Blue Movie."[citation needed]

Release

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Cover of the 1970 book adaptation[21]

The film had a benefit screening on June 12, 1969, at the Elgin Theater in New York City.[2]

While it was initially shown at The Factory, Blue Movie was not presented to a wider audience until it opened at the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theater in New York City[22][23] on July 21, 1969, with a running time of 105 minutes.[1][2][6][16][21] 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 the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California.[3]

Reception

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Variety reported that Blue Movie was the "first theatrical feature to actually depict intercourse".[3][17][21][24]

Journalist Dennis Cipnic praised the movie and Warhol's filming technique in Infinity, the magazine of the American 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.[25] Critic John Huddy of the Miami Herald, who didn't like the movie, wrote "Cipnic should win a Pulitzer Prize for comedy—the most elaborate, best sounding justification for utter slop I've ever read."

Viva, in Paris, finding that Blue Movie was getting a lot of attention, said, "Timothy Leary loved it. Gene Youngblood [an LA film critic] did too. He said I was better than Vanessa Redgrave and it was the first time a real movie star had made love on the screen. It was a real breakthrough."[26]

Controversy

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On July 31, 1969, the staff of the New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre were arrested, and the film confiscated.[4][6][27] In September 1969, a criminal court ruled that the film is "hardcore pornography" and the theater manager was fined $250.[6][28] 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 was real. But it wasn't done as pornography—it was done as an exercise, an experiment. But I really do think movies should arouse you, should get you excited about people, should be prurient."[26][16]

Aftermath

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In 1970, Warhol published Blue Movie in book form, with film dialogue and explicit stills, through Grove Press.[21]

When Last Tango in Paris, an internationally controversial erotic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Marlon Brando, was released in 1972, Warhol considered Blue 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 as Boys in the Sand, Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, and The Devil in Miss Jones, were released, continuing the Golden Age of Porn that began with Blue Movie. In 1973, the phenomenon of porn being publicly discussed by celebrities (like Johnny Carson and Bob Hope)[9] and taken seriously by film critics (like Roger Ebert),[10][11] a development referred to by Ralph Blumenthal of The New York Times as "porno chic", began for the first time in modern American culture[8][9] and later throughout the world.[12][13]

Revival

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In 2005, Blue Movie was publicly screened in New York City for the first time in over 30 years.[29] In 2016, the film was shown at the Whitney Museum of American Art in Manhattan.[14]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Canby, Vincent (July 22, 1969). "Movie Review - Blue Movie (1968) Screen: Andy Warhol's 'Blue Movie'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Staff (July 21, 1969). "Blue Movie (1969)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Archived from the original on September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "Sex Act Film Cost 3G; Recoups Pronto; 'Times' Review Never Detailed It". Variety. July 30, 1969. p. 1.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Comenas, Gary (2005). "Blue Movie (1968)". WarholStars.org. Archived from the original on December 30, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  5. ^ a b Staff (April 27, 2013). "Andy Warhol – Blue Movie aka Fuck (1969)". WorldsCinema.org. Archived from the original on February 8, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Canby, Vincent (August 10, 1969). "Warhol's Red Hot and 'Blue' Movie". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 5, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  7. ^ Staff (May 31, 2019). "Denmark legalized pornography 50 years ago. Did the decision turn out as expected?". The Local. Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved August 22, 2021.
  8. ^ a b Blumenthal, Ralph (January 21, 1973). "Porno chic; 'Hard-core' grows fashionable-and very profitable". The New York Times Magazine. Archived from the original on March 13, 2014. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  9. ^ a b c d Corliss, Richard (March 29, 2005). "That Old Feeling: When Porno Was Chic". Time. Archived from the original on February 24, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  10. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (June 13, 1973). "The Devil In Miss Jones - Film Review". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 26, 2019. Retrieved February 7, 2015 – via RogerEbert.com.
  11. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (November 24, 1976). "Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 26, 2016 – via RogerEbert.com.
  12. ^ a b Paasonen, Susanna; Saarenmaa, Laura (July 19, 2007). The Golden Age of Porn: Nostalgia and History in Cinema (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  13. ^ a b DeLamater, John; Plante, Rebecca F., eds. (June 19, 2015). Handbook of the Sociology of Sexualities. Springer. p. 416. ISBN 9783319173412. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  14. ^ a b Staff (April 7, 2016). "Andy Warhol's Blue Movie (1968)". Whitney Museum of American Art. Archived from the original on May 7, 2020. Retrieved September 9, 2023.
  15. ^ Dixon, Wheeler Winston (April 22, 2012). "Andy Warhol, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Blue Movie". University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Archived from the original on September 14, 2017. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  16. ^ a b c d Watson, Steven (2003). Factory Made: Warhol and the Sixties. New York City. p. 394. ISBN 9780679423720. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2016.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  17. ^ a b "Warhol's 'Blue Movie' The Bluest of 'Em All, If and When Released". Variety. June 18, 1969. p. 2.
  18. ^ Bockris, Victor (April 29, 2009). Warhol: The Biography. Hachette Books. p. 327. ISBN 978-0-7867-3028-5.
  19. ^ Flatley, Guy (November 9, 1968). "How to Be Very Viva--A Bedroom Farce". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2015.
  20. ^ Goldsmith, Kenneth (April 1, 2009). I'll Be Your Mirror: The Selected Andy Warhol Interviews 1962-1987. New York City. ISBN 9780786740390. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved December 29, 2015.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  21. ^ a b c d Comenas, Gary (1969). "July 21, 1969: Andy Warhol's Blue Movie Opens". WarholStars.org. Archived from the original on January 19, 2016. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  22. ^ Staff (2013). "Garrick Cinema 152 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012 - Previous Names: New Andy Warhol Garrick Theatre, Andy Warhol's Garrick Cinema, Nickelodeon". CinemaTreasures.org. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  23. ^ Garcia, Alfredo (October 11, 2017). "Andy Warhol Films: Newspaper Adverts 1964-1974 – A comprehensive collection of Newspaper Ads and Film Related Articles". wordpress.com. Archived from the original on March 24, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  24. ^ Haggerty, George E. (2015). A Companion to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies. John Wiley & Sons. p. 339. ISBN 9781119000853. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved January 20, 2016.
  25. ^ Huddy, John (November 5, 1969). "Andy's New Sex Film Art? Baloney". The Miami Herald. pp. 7-C. Retrieved October 16, 2024.
  26. ^ a b Bockris, Victor (August 12, 2003). Warhol: the Biography. New York City. pp. 326, 327. ISBN 9780786730285. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2016.{{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 in Blue Movie for the last time, Andy told Leticia Kent, [in a Vogue interview] ..."]
  27. ^ Haberski, Raymond J. Jr. (March 16, 2007). Freedom to Offend: How New York Remade Movie Culture. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0813138411. Archived from the original on February 4, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  28. ^ Staff (September 18, 1969). "Judges Rule 'Blue Movie' Is Smut". The New Day. Archived from the original on November 7, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2016.
  29. ^ Staff (October 2005). "Blue Movie + Viva At NY Film Festival". WarholStars.org. Archived from the original on October 27, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2016.

Further reading

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