Andy Warhol's 1970s/80s Journal Entries about Movies and Celebrities

Before the pandemic hit, I attended an exhibit of Andy Warhol's paintings at Chicago's art museum and it was really impressive; his paintings are often very simple but there was usually some deep meaning behind them. I followed up my trip by reading some of his books and one was a collection of his journal entries from the late 1970s and 1980s. I really dig collections like this because they are essentially autobiographies, and usually more personal and candid than a traditional autobiography which can be more formal and structured. 

The entries by Warhol gave me sense of his mind like I never knew.  He would write about going to church every Sunday. Or seeing mundane things like "saw a squirrel eating a nut" (8/20/79). Or who or what he saw at a party or a restaurant in New York. Or reminisces and brushes with movie star friends like Paulette Goddard. In some of the 1985 entries he wrote about his experience on the "Love Boat" tv show. And he even talked about meeting with Donald Trump and his wife who wanted him to do some art to be on display in one of his buildings. 

My favorite parts of the collection were any time he would reference or comment on a recent movie he had seen. 

I've included a few excepts/quotes as well as some of my own thoughts. It's funny - Andy Warhold would write in his diary in a very similar way that I blog....basically commenting on a few random things that stood out to him about a film or something. And I love how he philosophizes as well, such as "Life really does repeat itself. The old songs come back in a new way and the kids think they're new and the old people remember and it's a way of keeping people together I guess, a way of living". (8/2/78) I think he would have really used Twitter alot if were around back then. 

The following excepts come from the book The Andy Warhol Diaries, which is a printed collection of the artist's journal entries. The book is edited by Pat Hackett. 

Note: anything in red is written by me and not a quote from the book.

Jan 29, 1978 - There was a dinner for the New York Film Critics and celebrities were there. "Maximilian Schell was there and he'd gotten a supporting role award for Julia. I had  never met him before and I was disappointed that he was fat, but he was really sweet. He said that I did great things for him in Germany, that he'd seen Flesh and hated it and then gone back to see it again and again and loved it, and that he though, 'if this is a movie, then I can make a movie too.'

April 4, 1978 - a screening of Louis Malle's movie "Pretty Baby". "Interesting...strange....It was a cute idea for a movie, but nothing comes of it - like they had pickets picketing against the sin in New Orleans but nothing happened because of it."

May 30, 1978 - "I began watching The Valachi Papers on TV with Charles Bronson, and then I fell asleep, and then I woke up and ran to the window when I heard a voice say "Open Up, it's the narcotics squad" and then I realized it was on the TV".  

July 27, 1978 - Watched 20/20 and instead of saying, "In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" it was so funny to hear Hugh Downs say "As Andy Warhol once said, in fifteen minutes everyody will be famous". People on TV always get some part wrong. Like "In the future fifteen people will be famous"

Oct 12, 1978 - "I watched TV.... All Fall Down. When Brandon DeWilde kicks the picture of Warren Beatty and Angela Lansbury grabs it and holds it close - it's so good, you know? Who wrote the movie? Was it the one who committed suicide who was like Tennessee Williams? The one who wrote Picnic? Inge.

Nov 19, 1978 - "Went to the Coronet to a screening - The Deer Hunter was the new kind of movie - three hours of watching torture. It took place in Clairton, Pennsylvania, where all my cousins afe from, and in the movie they said was Russian-Polish, but that was just to make it more something, because it was really Czechoslovakian. It had John Savage, and lots of good looking kids".

"It starts off, it's three buddies drinking. For a whole hour it's the Polish Wedding, and they could have cut it, but it was fun. So real and so beautiful. It shows a new kind of people in the movies that haven't been shown before, so it's really good. Then they go shooting some deer, so you know that from there it's going to cut to Vietnam. In the end Chris Walken puts a gun to his head and shoots himself dead and Bobby DeNiro says "Oh Darling, I love you I love you" holding his bleeding head, something like that.  

Aug 2, 1979 - I started watching Brief Encounter and at first I thought it was really good but then I started thinking what a stupid story about a lady who would give herself a problem when she had a happy marriage, and it was just dumb and I hated it". 

Aug 17, 1979 - Went to Gulf  & Western building for a meeting with Paramount Pictures to do the poster artwork for their new movie Serial. I didn't realize it was such a big meeting. I was 15 minutes late and there were 20 people there.....the guy - his name was Cohen with a "K" - Kohen, he pointed out the window, he kept saying, "You've got to do a good job so I can keep the office". He saying, "I'll know it when I see it." He was so old fashioned.

Note: Warhol did not do the poster art for the movie.

Sept 16, 1979 - went to a party for the opening of Yanks movie. Met Richard Gere "(He) said ten years ago he came in on a bus from new Jersey and went to see our movie Bike Boy at the Village and he said from then on, he's been trying to be an actor". 

Jan 7, 1980 - went to see American Gigolo - "at the end of the movie there's a scene where a pimp is being thrown out off a balcony by Richard Gere and you see my three posters in the background - the Torsos. The scene is played against them"

May 26, 1980 - wrote about seeing The Empire Strikes Back. 

Aug 12, 1980 - wrote about meeting Sean Young..."she's in some James Ivory movie that's about to come out" (Jane Austen in Manhattan starring Anne Baxter in her last film). 

Oct 16, 1980 - he wrote that it was in the news that Mary Tyler Moore's son committed suicide. I didn't know that, that's sad. Andy mentioned the suicide in "Ordinary People" and wrote "everyone's going to hate her now because they will think that that's really her".

(I haven't seen that movie in long time so I'll need to check that out again.). A few months later, he met Mary for lunch and wrote about that too.

Oct 26, 1980. Andy wrote "I watched Sabrina on TV and William Holden and Audrey Hepburn looked so old. It seemed so old-fashioned talking about Long Island and the North Shore.....I watched Hooper on TV and my God, it was great. Just Burt Reynolds and his usual lines. He played a stunt man."

Nov 16 1980 - "watched Saturday Night Fever on TV and it was great"

January 13, 1981 - "watched Giant on TV from 1 - 5:30. It's so long. I even went to church in between and when I came back it was still on. James Dean's acting when he gets old is the worst thing. But they did a good thing - when he's drunk and talking into the microphone it's like a rock star...he's right on top of the microphone and it's just noises coming out and so it's abstract"...

Feb 22, 1981 - "Jerry Hall called...said that poor Mick (Jagger) has been down in Peru with the Herzog movie and it rains all day and he has to sleep on a wet mattress and Jason Robards was taken away with pneumonia to a hospital in NY" 

- Note: the movie they were talking about was Fitzcarraldo which came out in 1982 ....I haven't seen it. Both Jagger and Robards were re-cast.  

Later that day, Andy Warhol wrote that he went to a black-tie birthday affair (for lawyer Roy Cohn) with about 200 people. "Lots of heavies" he wrote, and noted that Donald Trump was there. That was interesting. Others he saw there were Gloria Swanson, Rupert Murdoch (TV mogul), Mark Goodson (TV mogul), and others.  Interesting how Trump has had TV connections going back 40 years; I think people forget all the media ties he has.  (in later journal entries, Andy writes about his meetings with Trump, but there was nothing too remarkable or unsurprising).

March 13, 1981 - Andy saw Jack Nicholson at a party...wrote..."I told Jack how great he was in Postman and that everybody thinks Jessica Lange is great".

April 14, 1981 - Worked until 5:30. Jon Gould invited me to a screening of Atlantic City that he was giving for his crowd. 

June 12, 1981 - "I watched Urban Cowboy and John Travolta just dances so beautifully. It was a really good movie

July 12, 1981 - "Saw a wonderful movie on TV - Coal Miner's Daughter, and I wish I taped it. Oh I wish I was married to a husband like that."

Aug 28, 1981 - "Paramount was having a screening of Mommie Dearest (cab $6).....it was absolutely great. Faye was really good. Really. Oh this movie affected me so much. Movies are really affecting me lately. What's happening to me?"

In January 1982, Andy wrote about meeting with Robert Towne, the screenwriter of Chinatown who was working on a new movie Personal Best, about to be released. Andy also wrote about going to see the play in NY Torch Song Trilogy (later would be a movie) and meeting with Harvey Firestein who created the play (and also acted in one of Warhol's plays years earlier).  

Jan 15, 1982 - he went to see the "new" Coppolla movie "One from the Heart" starring Frederic Forrest (who was in Apocalypse Now). I never saw One from the Heart. Andy wrote "was boring...stinkerroo..and Forrest is one of my favorite actors and he'd gained about 20 pounds for the role. It was pretty but looks aren't enough, it's not going to make it"

June 5, 1982 - "went to see My Dinner with Andre....I feel asleep....it was so boring. Hippie talk. I guess the kids are thinking this is intellectual because it tells about feelings". 

June 16, 1982 - He wrote about seeing "Grease 2" for the third time. He really liked that movie!

June 17, 1982. He wrote about seeing Blade Runner and wasn't sure what to make of it..."It's like Dick Powell playing Philip Marlowe. And if I ever saw this as a script, I wouldn't know what to think. And they say these lines seriously, it's all done like it's real problems". 

Sep 1982 - watched "Looking for Mr Goodbar....(Richard Gere) was so good in it....couldn't watch the ending because it was too crazy"

March 25, 1983 - "Decided to see The Outsiders which was just opening, and I loved it. It was like watching Lonesome Cowboys. You can't believe it - young boys with dyed hair reading poetry in the sunset. The Sal Mineo type. And then they're in this old church hiding and the boy says, "All I really want you to do is read Gone with the Wind out loud to me". And all the boys are so cute. And this schmaltzy music playing as if the boys are going to kiss. Things were all cut up so they didn't make sense. It was like seeing Bruce Weber photographs. Every boy was a raving beauty". 

May 15, 1983 - Went over to the Criterion to see Beathless (tickets $10). It's strange to see Richard Gere doing this. It\f it'd been somebody like Matt Dillon it would have been like a James Dean movie. It's that Satre way, the nothingness thing. You would think existentialism would be still modern, but it isn't. ....it's strange to see someone that age doing that, but maybe that'll bring back that kind of person...."

April 1, 1984 - "Decided to see The Ten Commandments (playing in a local theater)...And let me go on record: Cecil B DeMille is the worst director ever. We'd missed an hour but was still three hours to go and a half hour intermission. And all those actors were terrible. I mean Edward G Robinson, forget it. And forget Yvonne DeCarlo and Anne Baxter, too. Charlton Heston was okay, he was good-looking. The orgy scene was (laughs) people dropping grapes on each other - it sounds like an old Andy Warhol movie, right? And then they would lift their skirt two inches off the floor. That was it. That was the orgy. Edward G Robinson - you couldn't believe it."

Nov 12, 1984 - went to see Stranger Than Paradise...it's good"

Feb 1, 1985 - Andy went to see a film with his friend Tab Hunter - Lust in the Dust, a b-movie. "The movie was awful but I had to lie to Tab and say I loved it. He was literally trying to act. He tried to be Clint Eastwood when all he should have done was be Tab Hunter"

March 19, 1985 - he went to see Desperately Seeking Susan. "It's like those sixties movies but the opposite - the sixties movies had too much sixties and not enough story - and this has too much story and not enough eighties. It's boring"

July 22, 1985 - Went up to see Kiss of the Spider Woman...I liked the movie. And I guess people are wanting artsy movies now, or something. It's the right time. 

Aug 13, 1986 - went to see Stand By Me at the Coronet. These four little kids and there's the fat kid, and the brilliant kid, and the crazy kid."

Sep 29 1986 - saw Blue Velvet - "what a good movie, so weird and creepy. Alot of couples walked out. And Dennis Hopper was finally good."

Oct 8, 1986 - saw Color of Money "I slept through most of it. I just wasn't interested in pool, and nothing was explained". 

 

 

Little Big Man (1970) and Midnight Cowboy (1969)

I've been wanting to see this movie forever, and finally did and really liked it! It reminded me of Dances with Wolves from 1990, primarily because it's about a white man raised by an indigenous tribe. Dustin Hoffman was an interesting choice to play this part. He was a big box office star from this time period, and he brings alot of that everyman essence to this part which I think is important for this role.

At the start of the film we meet Hoffman's character - a 120 year old man being interviewed by a reporter (William Hickey) interested in his long life and his supposed acquaintanceship with Civil War General Custer in the 1800s.

The old man lives in a nursing home; I have a relative who just moved into such a place, and they can be lonely places. I could understand why this old man would want to talk and tell his life story to someone who will listen. And he's had a long life, a really long life. He talks about being raised by a Cheyenne tribe, and later befriends historical figures Bill Hickock and General Custer. These sequences are episodic, but I really seeing him brush with historical figures. This was an idea that was used somewhat similarly later in the movie Forrest Gump, but I think works really good in this film.

I like how the old man narrates the movie throughout; this gave me the feeling that I was always being told the old man's story and not someone else's. He talks about the various "stages" of his life.... "My Indian Years", "My religious years", "My Outlaw Days", etc.  Faye Dunaway has a small supporting part where she plays a religious man's wife who becomes a prostitute later on.

I couldn't believe that it was Richard Mulligan playing a dramatic role as General Custer; I only knew him for his comedy roles on TV but he is really good in this.

There is also great standout performance by a Native American actor in the film - Chief Dan George. His part is significant as Hoffman's father figure and wise mentor who has some interesting (and racy) dialogue. I imagine that the audience of 1970 would like his line where he says, "Does she show enthusiasm when you mount her?" (referring to Hoffman's spouse).

It's unfortunate that the movie's marketing posters (as shown above) make this movie to look like a comedy, with Dustin Hoffman made to look like Don Knotts in The Shakiest Gun in the West. This is a really profound drama (with occasional comic relief), that was ahead of its time showing the perspectives of both indigenous and white peoples. Equally unfortunate is the lack of accolades that year - no Oscars...not even a Best Picture nomination. In 1970, the big winner was "Patton", which was a more traditional war film with a hero that audiences could probably relate to more. Little Big Man was unfortunately overshadowed by it, and I don't think audiences were quite ready to embrace such a film yet. Not until Dances with Wolves 20 years later.

I also re-watched Midnight Cowboy which I haven't seen in more than 20 years but remember liking it overall, especially the chemistry of the two leads (Voight and Hoffman). I forgot that there was a sequence where they go to a hippy artists' party in New York, and there are some real cameos by Andy Warhol protégés. After attending a Warhol art exhibit recently, I've been reading some of his biographies and a book of his journal entries; interestingly in one entry he wrote that he wanted to do a cameo in Midnight Cowboy but couldn't do it because he was in the hospital recovering from a gunshot wound (in the summer of '68).

I loved seeing all the on-location scenes of New York; I kept my eye peeled for any interesting posters that would have been of the times. I saw one poster/billboard with Jonathan Winters on it. And another poster was a movie ad for "Doctor Doolittle" starring Rex Harrison, which was interesting. Flash forward 50 years and we have yet another remake of "Doolittle" in theaters starring Robert Downey Jr (I'm planning to skip since it doesn't look all that appealing to me).

Another scene in Midnight Cowboy that I had forgotten about happens at the end where Joe Buck beats the old man in his hotel room, almost killing him (his actual death isn't shown but it's implied he might have killed him). This makes me feel less sympathetic toward the character, and even reminded me of what Brad Pitt does at the end of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (my least-favorite sequence in that movie); now I'm wondering if Tarantino intended that scene to be an homage to Midnight Cowboy.

Read a blog post about this movie by Avvaganda.com here

Judy (2019) and Factory Girl (2004)

I'm not sure how I feel about the movie "Judy". I read somewhere that Judy's family did not approve/endorse the film, and that Liza Minnelli never met Renee Zellweger and never gave her approval on the project.

Something about that seems unsettling to me...here we have the filmmakers devoting time and effort on a biographical film about a much-beloved celebrity, yet not even getting the approval of the family? Is it a movie critical of Judy -- or is it a celebration her life? What is the director aiming to do?

For example, the new movie "It's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" - which features the character of Mr. Rogers - did get the approval of Rogers's family, and the director was upfront by aiming to make this a celebration of Rogers.

But with Judy, I wasn't sure what to expect. There are some darker moments depicted in the film - such as her dependency on drugs and personal difficulties with people - but I don't think the movie introduces anything new that hasn't been written about before.

Having seen the film, I see it as a celebration of her life, and a tribute to Judy, even though it only focuses on the last year of her life. A few flashbacks go back to the late 1930s when she was filming Wizard of Oz and some other MGM films, and the beginnings of her drug addiction.

But it's not really an all-encompassing life story. It would be interesting to see more of 1940s Judy during the MGM years, or 1950s Judy. Bobby Rivers recently wrote on his blog that the 2001 TV biopic was far superior, and was endorsed by the family.

Renee has been getting rave reviews for her performance  in "Judy"; her acting is good but it is obvious to me that she is doing an impression of the Judy from interviews she gave on tv in the 1960s. Renee gives the character grandiosity, no question about that; I did get a sense that she was the most popular person in the world, and also got the sense that she was a very troubled person, insecure. But overall it is a rather average film. I think it should have been called "Judy in London", because the entire film is set there during Judy's tour during 1968 and 69, and also focuses on her relationship with her third husband Mickey Deans.

The best parts of the movie in my opinion are these scenes with Mickey and the scenes where she befriends a gay couple and spends time with them in their home. It's interesting to watch because you never expect a mega-superstar to mingle with fans like that.

There's one scene where Judy visits her twenty-something daughter Liza at a party; it's interesting but totally unnecessary. There's really no need for it because we never see Liza again in the film and it feels thrown in there. There is a character who is an assistant to Judy in London (played by Jessie Buckley), and I wish her character was explored a bit more.  There are several scenes of singing and they are ok but I wish the film were a bit more compelling.

A much better film in my opinion is Factory Girl, which came out in 2006 but I only recently saw. Sienna Miller plays the artist Edie Sedwick who becomes famous simply by being associated with Andy Warhol in the 1960s. It's an great movie because both characters are explored while the focus remains on Edie's character. Like Judy Garland, Edie was troubled and addicted, but her fame was a different kind of fame, and the movie explores that. Afterwards, I wanted to find out more about the director and writer; the writer doesn't have too many other credits but the director was co-director on the Hearts of Darkness/Coppola documentary from 1991, which is really impressive. I read somewhere that he initially set out to do a Edie/Andy documentary but ended up doing a feature instead. Interestingly, in the end credits (and in the DVD's Special Features) are clips of interviews from people who knew Andy and Edie so this really give the movie an extra punch.

Bob Dylan is depicted as a character that is obviously based on him - but only the name is changed. (I read he was not a fan of this depiction).

Some of these personal details are dark and seemingly trashy or sleazy, however they are real-life details about celebrities that we can relate to and try to understand.  The director does an amazing job of recreating Andy's art studio in New York. The costumes, makeup, and camera work / cinematography are really good; each shot looks really well-positioned and carefully crafted.

The movie only focuses on Edie's years in New York, and not her last years when she was institutionalized, although that might make for an interesting film or story as well, because she eventually marries someone she meets there (per the epilogue).

I suppose perhaps that Edie's last year was not unlike Judy's in some ways.

Additional articles:

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/12/andy-warhol-and-edie-sedgwick-a-brief-white-hot-and-totally-doomed-romance

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/edie-sedgwick-the-life-and-death-of-the-sixties-star-431412.html

https://www.npr.org/2014/02/02/251651304/a-suburban-teen-saw-the-sparkle-of-edie-but-not-the-pain

Games (1967) starring Simone Signoret, James Caan, and Katherine Ross

Interesting trio of actors

It's a psychological thriller starring Simone Signoret, James Caan, and Katherine Ross. Any movie featuring those three actors really piques my interest. It's one of Caan's early roles. Prior to this movie he terrorized Olivia de Havilland in Lady in a Cage. 

Went to see a screening of this last week at the Music Box Theater, which showed it in 35 MM. The film opens with a neat credit sequence featuring an animated deck of cards. Caan and Ross play a wealthy married couple living in a 2-story New York townhome. The interior of the home is decorated with all kinds of art and arcade-type amusement games such as pinball machines. The couple play host to the kinds of parties that Andy Warhol might attend, and they amuse their guests with bizarre stunts and tricks.

I love this poster.
It seems to exclaim "SHOCKER!"

Character actor George Furth plays a hipster party guest with a 60's perm. He seems to be having a ball, while their housekeeper gleefully announces that she's leaving town on a three-week vacation. Whether or not she'll be back is anyone's guess. Then there is the grocery errand boy who has a crush on the lovely Katherine Ross. He pops in and out of the house at the most inconvenient of times.

Outshining every other performer is none other than the great Simone Signoret (Diabolique), who enters the young couple's lives one day, and soon, the "games" begin - mind games if you will. The kind that put those in Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf to shame. Real guns are used, and there's real danger. To her, pinball games are mere child's play.

There are some plot twists that are better left unsaid so as to not spoil anything. I was really surprised at the outcome of everything, and wasn't expecting what was going to happen. A few of my theater companions found the movie predictable, as did Roger Ebert in his review of the film.  But for the most part, the film had me in suspense. One scene involves a cat who had me thinking it might do something that may or may not happen. You'll have to see the movie to find out.

A mind-bending thriller that you will not soon forget. Directed by Curtis Harrington.