It is a sad day in the queer and indie film world because filmmaker Paul Morrissey has passed away. Morrissey is best known for his work with artist Andy Warhol, but how did he get started there? Let's talk about his life and work.
The native New Yorker was born in 1938. After college, he briefly served in the military before moving to the East Village in 1960 to become a film curator. He opened an arthouse theater called Exit Gallery where he showed Brian De Palma's first film, Icarus. He was initially a publicist at Warhold's infamous art complex The Factory in New York City. He worked there from 1965 to 1973. In 1969, he and Warhol also launched the print magazine Interview.
He also managed Velvet Underground and Nico, but we want to talk about his career as a filmmaker. Paul Morrissey began his career in 1961 with a series of short films until he made his first ever feature My Hustler in 1965.
His films were notable for queer themes, a lot of sex and nudity, and characters who were junkies, addicts, sex workers, and everything in between. He and Warhol made several films together throughout the 60s and very early 70s. Their most well-known movies include Chelsea Girls, Tub Girls,Flesh, I, A Man, Lonesome Cowboys, and more.
One of his finest films was Women in Revolt which was meant to comment on the women's liberation movement at the time. While it is a bit of a thematic miss - he was, after all, satirizing and making fun of the movement - it was filled with nudity from men and women. Now that's liberation, baby! Equal opportunity nudity for all.
Paul became disillusioned with working with Warhol and wanted to break out on his own. He was tired of Warhol getting all of the credit when he felt that Warhol 'barely did anything'. In the 70s he would say that Warhol operated cameras while he did everything else, but later on, he took all the credit and would decry people asking him about "Warhol's films". Warhol or not, these films are art!
After he left The Factory in 1973, he briefly moved to Rome where he had a few productive film years. He made the movie Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula. The success of these two films launched his career outside of The Factory. He even attempted to direct his first Hollywood studio film with Dudley Moore called The Hound of the Baskervilles.
He continued to make feature films and began getting praise from filmmakers and critics around the world. He was even given an honorary award in 1988 by the Chicago International Film Festival.
Lauded director George Cukor even said of him: "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."
He has an immense filmography with his final film being made in 2010. He made so many monumental contributions to indie, arthouse, and cult films. We simply have to honor this man and his many amazing contributions to film - most notably to nudity and homosexuality on film. Thank you, Paul, for showcasing these things during turbulent times.
Paul Morrissey passed away from pneumonia today in a Manhattan hospital. He was 86 years old.
Martin Kove in Women in Revolt
00:03:45 Martin Kove wakes up naked on the couch and argues with a lady extensively—all while showing off his shaft. (2 mins 16 secs)
