So full of rage she could hardly speak," was John Cale's description of Valerie Solanas, the subject of Mary Harron's directorial debut I Shot Andy Warhol.
Harron's examination of Solanas' fascinating yet tragic life is an acute study in fanaticism: she was the scourge of the male sex and the founder (and sole member) of SCUM, aka the Society for Cutting Up Men. Before her assassination attempt on Andy Warhol, her fame stretched no further than Warhol's group of kooks and fringe artists.
Filmed entirely in New York City and wrapped mid-1995, the low-budget film attempts to recreate in detail the atmosphere and characters of the Factory, Warhol's experimental art and film studio. The cast not only had to resemble the characters, but sound like them too. It is not surprising then, given the demanding roles, that the cast list is impressive: Lili Taylor (Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle) plays Solanas; Jared Harris (Smoke) stars as the 'man' himself; Stephen Dorff (Backbeat) sparkles as the transvestite Candy Darling and acclaimed French actor Lothaire Bluteau is Girodias, the publisher of Solanas' notorious SCUM Manifesto.
Harron's background as a journalist and award-winning documentary filmmaker (mainly for the BBC and Channel 4) shows through in her painstakingly researched screenplay and on screen.
Samuel Goldwyn's president and CEO Meyer Gottlieb believes the film will strike gold. "This is a big one and I'm hoping for some Academy Awards for the performances," he says. "Valerie Solanas has left a fast, exciting story to tell, and the beauty of the film is that it portrays the events at a realist level: it makes you feel like you're there. Solanas obviously had a disturbed and obsessive mind…but a compelling one, and Harron explores it with the use of voice-over."
Destined for the art-house circuit, I Shot Andy Warhol opened in New York at the end of March where it enjoyed a good reception and has already been sold on to three territories outside the USA, including Japan.
Geoff Smith
Prod Co: Samuel Goldwyn
Company Prod: Tom Kalin, Christine Vachon
Dir/Scr: Mary Harron
Ph: Ellen Kuras
Art dir: John Bruce
Prod des: Therese Deprez
Cos: David Robinson
Mus: John Cale Ed: Keith Reamer
Cast: Lili Taylor, Jared Harris, Stephen Dorff, Martha Plimpton, Lothaire Bluteau
Running time: 103 mins
Int sales: Samuel Goldwyn Company
