MovieChat Forums > Chelsea Girls Discussion > Warhol DVD's

Warhol DVD's

posted 19 years ago by paulrs001
14 replies | jump to latest

RaroVideo in Italy has put out some Warhol DVD's (& VHS tapes) in the PAL format, so they will only play in North America if you have a DVD player that will convert PAL to NTSC. Some of these DVD's are distributed in the US by Xploited Cinema. Releases include "The Chelsea Girls", "Vinyl"/"Velvet Underground and Nico", "Kiss"/"Empire"/"Blow Job"/"Mario Banana", and "My Hustler"/"I, a Man".

The Warhol museum says that they are bootlegs. But RaroVideo says that they are not. I don't like bootlegs, but I'm glad these films are becoming available to be seen other than at the museum in Pittsburgh or at a rare film festival. I saw "Vinyl" and many other Warhol films in the late 60's, and loved them.

[–] Iwouldtakethebullet 19 years ago

Thankfully for me, I live in Pittsburgh.

*Love you Nicole*

[–] demangone 17 years ago

they are bootlegs, they were never authorized for reproduction or resale.

[–] gar-42 17 years ago

But does anyone know why Warhol's estate seemingly doesn't want to release any of the films on DVD? I live in London and there is currently a big 2-month long Warhol film retrospective at the British Film Institute (the biggest ever held in then UK) with films obviously on loan from the Warhol Institute in Pittsburgh. But it's really expensive to see films there and each film is only screened twice and I've missed some of the ones I really wanted to see (ie I, A Man and Bike Boy). In an ideal world I could pick these up on DVD. The Paul Morrissey films Trash, Heat and Flesh are available on DVD. I wonder if the earlier Warhol ones will ever come out and if not why not?

[–] siriustemplar 17 years ago

One of my college professors was working on a book about Warhol's films and his answer (back in 98-99) was that the Warhol Estate is "protecting" the image of the Warhol films and keeping them "high art" to be shown in museums and not "pop culture" for mass consumption.

You can cut the irony with a knife.

[–] viggerz 17 years ago

That's so stupid! I was lucky enough to see Chelsea Girls at the London festival gar-42 mentioned. It was amazing, and after that I'd obviously love to own it on DVD, but it doesn't look like this is going to happen.

[–] DKSalazarR 14 years ago

One of my college professors was working on a book about Warhol's films and his answer (back in 98-99) was that the Warhol Estate is "protecting" the image of the Warhol films and keeping them "high art" to be shown in museums and not "pop culture" for mass consumption.

What? Andy Warhol was all about pop culture for mass consumption.

[–] cjd-15 17 years ago

who gives a sh*t? the reason why bootlegs exist is because the films aren't available on vhs or dvd. if people want to see these movies, and bootlegs are the only way, then so be it.

[–] paulrs001 17 years ago

"Nude Restaurant" and "Lonesome Cowboys" are also releases on DVD by Raro Video in Italy. Their DVD of "The Chelsea Girls" looks great on my flat screen TV. The split screen made the images a bit too small on a smaller TV.

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[–] m-leschack 16 years ago

I went to the Warhol Museum yesterday and looked for what films are available. The answer is the same ones you can get at Amazon.

I have spoken to personnel there about why the films are not generally released and they have indicated that they want the films to be viewed only by museum goers in Pittsburgh or at different museums around the world that want to show them. The Warhol Museum lends them out, but not to private individuals.

There is a theatre inside the Warhol which screens movies usually twice a day. Most are just interviews with people who were in his Factory in Manhattan. Few have much merit but they are a part of our pop history. They are also wonderful reminiscences of Manhattan in the 1960s when I lived there.

The Warhol is really a little bit of New York surrounded by a much quieter city. Its just my guess but the reason these movies are not released is to keep Warhol as an icon. For example, I remember being thrown out of the Warhol hangout Max's Kansas City back in the 1960s because I was thought to be not one of the selected few. Warhol was much more of a snob than John Waters who wants his movies to be shown and reviewed, even though he like Warhol is an outsider. Waters movies have stood the test of time. I do not think Warhol's have.

The Museum is a must see for avant garde art.

[–] gomper-1 16 years ago

>Warhol was much more of a snob than John Waters who wants his movies to be shown and reviewed, even though he like Warhol is an outsider. Waters movies have stood the test of time. I do not think Warhol's have.

How can you make this judgement without having seen the Warhol films in question? If you weren't allowed admittance or stay at Max's btw, blame Mickey Ruskin (or door person Dorothy Dean); Warhol was merely a patron.

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