Factory Girl, directed by George Hickenlooper, is based on the real-life friendship between Edie Sedgwick (Sienna Miller) and Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce) in the mid-sixties. Edie is an aspiring model that enchants Andy Warhol, an eclectic artist who is famous for being a painter, commercial illustrator, avant-garde filmmaker, music producer and writer. She visits “The Factory”, Warhol’s studio where he surrounds himself with other budding artists and produces his artworks. It is a match made in heaven: they feed on one another’s creativity and set the world ablaze with the films she stars in and he makes. Edie becomes a superstar, but struggles to keep afloat when her childhood demons and her superstar lifestyle eggs on a drug addiction which spirals out of control. Once a fire catches some wind, it is hard to keep under control.
There has been much controversy over this film and it is easy to comprehend why that is. The film is told solely from Edie Sedgwick’s perspective and a lot of blame is put on Andy Warhol for her demise. According to the Wikipedia, Lou Reed who was both a friend of Edie and a member of the Velvet Underground founded by Warhol, condemned the script: “I read that script. It’s one of the most disgusting, foul things I’ve seen—by any illiterate retard—in a long time. There’s no limit to how low some people will go to write something to make money”, as well as “They’re all a bunch of whores.” Bob Dylan is also allegedly infuriated by the character Billy Quinn in the film, clearly based on him, and feels that it portrays him as having attributed to Sedgwick’s drug addiction and downfall. But Edie’s brother, Jonathan, contends that the then-married Dylan and Edie indeed had an affair and that she had to abort their child due to her drug dependency and anorexia. This is not, however, included in the film.
I am not a sightseer and I do not know enough of Andy Warhol’s life or character, to choose a side or state what really occurred between Edie and Andy. Andy is not here to accuse the portrayal of what actually happened, and Edie is not here to defend it. But what I do know is that there is no absolute reality – only perception. And that no matter how flat one makes a pancake, there are always two sides. Edie definitely has some ownership in her choices and I do not deny that. But it does seem that Andy Warhol ruffled quite a few feathers on his ladder to ever greater success. There must be a good reason why Valerie Solanas tried to assassinate Warhol in 1968. It could not just be because she was a fanatic feminist who hated men and the patriarchy they represented. When asked about her motive, she replied that Warhol “had too much control over my life”.
So, for the sake of this review, let us assume that the film’s representation is trustworthy. Then the title of the film is quite self-explanatory. The Factory was the studio where many ideas and artworks were born. Warhol’s pop art celebrated the mass production of popular culture icons, and it seems he aided to manufacture Edie Sedgwick into a fashion icon that was copied and mimicked by countless ordinary girls, like soup cans on a conveyor belt. But it is all just for show and Edie is actually a hollow shell that loses herself in the appropriation of the identity of a superstar and the torment of parents devoid of love, support or affection. It might just be that Warhol was jealous of Edie’s relationship with “Billy Quinn”, or that he grew tired of her and her drug addiction and craved something new, fresh and exciting. And that she could not handle being rejected by Andy, the father figure that once adored her.
Technically, I feel that the film is very well constructed, filmed and edited. The black and white grainy camera shots and the unsteady camera give a real documentary feel. The mise en scène successfully transports one back to the sixties era. And the out-of-focus camera shots imitate the helplessness, chaos and stupor of drug addiction. Even though Sienna Miller’s portrayal has been criticised by some anti-Sienna fanatics, I believe she played the role very convincingly. The jury is still out on whether the handsome Guy Pearce was miscast as Andy. At least the make-up did well to hide Guy’s good looks and added to the authenticity of Andy’s blotched and pigmented skin due to the St. Vitus’ disease he contracted as a child. And Hayden Christensen might just be too much of a light-weight as the Dylan-type rock star. You be the judge…
INFO
Genre: Drama / Biography
Running time: 90 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: George Hickenlooper
Writing credits: Aaron Richard Golub (story)
Captain Mauzner (story and screenplay)
Simon Monjack (screenplay)
Producers: Aaron Richard Golub
Holly Wiersma
Cinematographer: Michael Grady
Editor: Dana E. Glauberman
Michael Levine
Distributed by: The Weinstein
Company/MGM (USA)
Paramount Pictures (UK)
Main Cast:
Edie Sedgwick – Sienna Miller
Andy Warhol – Guy Pearce
Billy Quinn – Hayden Christensen
Richie Berlin – Mena Suvari
Syd Pepperman – Shawn Hatosy
Chuck Weinn – Jimmy Fallon
Julia Warhol – Beth Grant
