Queens

I went to see Factory Girl last weekend and finally have a chance to sit down and report: it was okay.

Sienna Miller was amazing as Edie. I mean, spot ON. I've seen Edie in Ciao! Manhattan, so have a decent sense of how she spoke and moved about in space. Sienna Miller was not only stunningly beautiful, as was Edie, but lent a depth to Edie that I think was justified. That said, the story was patchy at best. Hayden Christiansen, though very pretty, was terrible (quel suprise). The sex scene that had the media in a stir? Boring. Guy Pearce as the formidable and shitty Andy? Not bad. I found it interesting, too, that many of the shots in the movie were straight out of the biography photos of Edie, so they served as signposts, of sorts. The most interesting part of the film were the end credits, where they showed many of the original photos (especially her photo shoots for Vogue) and interviews with the people who actually knew and wrote about Edie.

But here's my biggest critique: the film spends quite a bit of time showing how disposable Edie was in relation to the Factory. As long as she was shiny and pretty, she was in. The film demonstrates how cruelly she was dismissed when she no longer had a use value for Andy, for Vogue, for everyone (as soon as she got too messy, since "messy" isn't glamorous, and yet their expectations of her had, in many ways, made her messy). The film ends with an interview with Andy Warhol/Guy Pearce, where he's asked about her death and he responds that he's barely thought about it and barely knew her. We all know this is not true, and serves as a painful jab at Edie's life). So, the film clearly moralizes their relationship, the role women in the Factory, etc. But get this: as soon as the film reaches a point where she returns to Santa Barbara (where she grew up and eventually died), when she lets her brunette hair grow out, and doesn't wear makeup, and dons flowery dresses that are not in the least bit sexy--the movie ends. When she is no longer glamorous, the movie is done with her, which is the very thing the movie spends its length critiquing, but in relation to the Factory. Not to mention, they don't even go into Ciao! Manhattan, the only movie she's even remotely known for, and the only movie you can easily still get your hands on and watch. Weird.

I also saw The Queen last night, and it was interesting, but mostly because I (as many of you know) was totally enamoured of Diana, and the film is really a situated biography on Diana's death. Helen Mirren is fantastic, but the movie fails to garner sympathy for the queen, which it seems to want.