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By: Martyn Pedler
Date: 24th Oct 07
Medium: Mixed
Drink: Anything, as long as you look good holding it
What:
Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
Where:
ACMI's First Look "Art Stars" program
When:
Limited season Oct 25-28
Read more and watch a preview:
here
Win:
We have 5 double passes to the opening night screening (tomorrow) to give away. Just email win@threethousand.com.au with the subject line ‘bursting with soup flavour'
Lou Reed sang that Andy Warhol's diaries "were not a worthy epitaph" for his life's work. Warhol was constantly claiming his own blank simplicity, but many disagree with this self-diagnosis. In this new documentary - helpfully entitled Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film - we hear Andy's 32 soup cans described in one word: "Complicated".
This old-fashioned doco is filled with rare footage and smart commentary but, most importantly, remembers to focus closely on the art itself. It's narrated by Laurie Anderson, the only performance artist to ever have a breakaway pop single, here keeping her sing-song elocution in check.
Being two episodes of the PBS American Masters series strung together, there's admittedly no real reason to see thisin a cinema, except to lock yourself in a dark room with Warhol's work like you won't with your loungeroom TV. Be warned: though it's always interesting, it turns Andy's fifteen minutes into just shy of four hours.
Warhol became a celebrity through sheer force of talent and will, wanting to be famous so badly that he changed the very rules of fame. Was he a genius? Anyone could paint one Campbell's soup can. A genius paints all 32 different flavours.