Tagline

You only get one shot at fame.

Plot Summary

Mary Harron (AMERICAN PSYCHO) transports New York to a pre-feminist, late 1960s, Andy Warhol art scene in this stylistically inflammatory flick that harkens back to such films as BORN IN FLAMES. Lili Taylor plays the angry Valerie Solanas with a vengeance that just won't quit. Solanas is mad. She's a manic spitfire, has hell to raise, and is armed with the SCUM MANIFESTO. Encouraged by Warhol's queerly noncommittal attitude, Solanas is convinced he will produce her play UP YOUR ASS. Between writing and turning tricks at the Chelsea Hotel, she meets Maurice Girodias, famous publisher of writers like William S. Burroughs, Jean Genet and Pauline Reage. Intrigued by her subversive quality, he signs a contract with her for the completion of two novels. When Solanas realizes she's signed the rights over to Girodias, she begins to unravel and sets out on a paranoid mission to stop him and Warhol from controlling her life. Harron's film is a manifesto. Stylistically adventurous, this indie romp is a smart and sassy feminist critique of Andy Warhol's Factory scene. Unlike other films that glamorize it (THE DOORS, BASQUIAT), I SHOT ANDY WARHOL exposes the subtle misogyny that is just barely veiled under all the glamor.Shown in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 1996. Lili Taylor won the only award for acting given there. Shown at the "New Directors/New Films" series at The Museum of Modern Art, New York on April 6 & 7, 1996. Released theatrically in New York City May 1, 1996. Color by Technicolor. Additional song performers: Jewel, Wilco, Luna, Bettie Serveert, Ben Lee. Feature film debuts for writer/director Mary Harron and co-writer Daniel Minahan. Mary Harron described the film as "95% real" in its depiction of events. She and Minahan had originally planned to make a television docudrama on this subject, but decided to do a feature film instead. Two months after he was shot, Andy Warhol said, "When you hurt another person, you never know how much it pains. I'm afraid to take a shower. It's sort of awful, looking in the mirror and seeing all the scars. It's scary. I close my eyes. I wasn't afraid before. But I am afraid now." Writer/director Paul Morrissey explained how the shooting influenced their decision to make `Andy Warhol's Frankenstein' in 1974: "Andy once told me that he felt as if he would pop open someday. When I filmed `Frankenstein,' I thought it might be a kind of exorcism for Andy and all the people who are crippled and haunted by some nut-case. And then I added laughter, because that's the only way we survive." Valerie Solanas wrote "The SCUM Manifesto;" SCUM is used as an acronym for the Society for Cutting Up Men. She also wrote the play "Up Your Ass" which she asked Andy Warhol to produce. Warhol cast her as a bit-player in his film "I, a Man."

FEATURES:

Region 1
Keep Case
Widescreen -
1.78
Single Side - Single Layer
Audio:
Dolby Digital - English
Additional Release Material:
Theatrical Trailer