POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL
Production: USA, 1965
Director: Andy Warhol
Category: Underground
The definitive Edie Sedgewick vehicle. Sedgewick was a socialite and heiress from one of the oldet families in America; she first started hanging out at Warhol’s Factory early in 1965, and made brief, non-speaking appearances in the films Vinyl and Horse. Struck by her charismatic screen aura, Warhol decided to create a new film especially for her. Poor Little Rich Girl, shot in March and April of that year, instantly defined the Sedgewick persona: waking up, ordering breakfast, smoking, putting on make-up, trying on clothes, and idly chatting on the telephone (a revealing sequence where she speaks of “spending her entire inheritance in six months”). Warhol began referring to Edie as his “superstar” and, as they were increasingly seen out together at social events, so she became a media star in her own right. Poor Little Rich Girl was actually the first in a series of films, running for a total 24 hours, to be titled The Poor Little Rich Girl Saga; other films included Face, Afternoon, and Restaurant. Face, also shot in April 1965, is perhaps the apogee of Warhol’s deification of Sedgewick, consisting of a 70-minute close-up of her facial features; but their relationship was to prove short-lived. He continued making films with her throughout 1965 (such as Beauty #1 and Beauty #2), but by the end of the year they were barely on speaking terms, and Sedgewick demanded the removal of her section (Afternoon) from Warhol’s formative Chelsea Girls (she was replaced by Nico). After making her last ever Warhol film, Lupe, in December, Sedgewick moved on to the Chelsea Hotel in 1966, where she entered into a relationship with Bob Dylan which reportedly ended when he secretly married another woman. In 1967 she began filming her terminal project, Ciao! Manhattan, and also appeared in a George Kuchar underground movie, Color Me Shameless.
Posted by Captain Nightshade