“Factory Girl”
Director George Hickenlooper
The Weinstein Company
She was the epitome of an “It Girl” ““ cool and
careless. In the mid-1960s, Edie Sedgwick, the trust-fund baby
turned style icon turned drug addict was inseparable from artist
Andy Warhol.
In Director George Hickenlooper’s “Factory
Girl,” when Warhol (Guy Pearce, “Memento”) first
spots Sedgwick (Sienna Miller, “Alfie”) dancing and
flirting at one of his art shows, he immediately invites her to be
in one of his movies.
Though Warhol is best known for his Campbell’s Soup cans
and prints of Marilyn Monroe, he also made over 60 black-and-white
films in his New York studio, called the “Factory.”
“Factory Girl” recreates clips from the films starring
Sedgwick and recreates interviews in which Warhol explains his
directing style ““ a style “Factory Girl”
imitates.
Like Warhol’s films, characters drive “Factory
Girl,” not plot. Against giving too many directions, Warhol
just sets the camera down in front of Edie or other actors and
watches the characters tell the story, occasionally provoking them
toward responses. But when Warhol sits back, so do the characters.
One scene in “Factory Girl” shows Sedgwick in one of
Warhol’s films literally just sitting and smoking in the
corner the whole time.
Like Sedgwick needs to be prompted out of sedation in
Warhol’s films, she also relies on Warhol to give shape to
her own life. She makes whatever movies Warhol asks for whatever
salary he decides (i.e. none), she breaks up with her boyfriend
because Warhol doesn’t like him, and she wants his opinion
before buying clothes.
It is difficult for so passive a character to sustain a film. In
the whole movie, Sedgwick does not seem to want anything; even her
quasi-dream for stardom does not motivate her enough to take
action. And because she will not attempt to change the course of
her life, her story becomes predictable: after brief stardom comes
drugs, after drugs comes addiction, then cue the downward spiral.
Without the Warhol twist, “Factory Girl” would be just
another cautionary tale.
Miller may look beautiful playing Sedgwick, but only in a
wide-eyed, waiflike way that has been seen before. Warhol on the
other hand ““ pale, blond, with bad skin and a sunken face
““ may not be beautiful, but he is intriguing. He says odd
things. He’s the film’s comic character, but he can be
the villain. Where Sedgwick lets the world happen to her, Warhol is
proactive throughout the film and, through his art at least,
attempts to change the world.
As a biography of Edie Sedgwick, “Factory Girl” is
poignant. As a behind the scenes peek into the 1960s art world,
“Factory Girl” is interesting. But as a movie,
“Factory Boy” would have been much more exciting.