All of TVGuide.com Videos Only

Flesh

1968, Movie, 105 mins

Flesh: Review

As Andy Warhol recuperated from gunshot wounds inflicted by Valerie Solanis, his Factory associate Paul Morrisey directed this drowsy, picaresque tale of a henpecked Manhattan hustler, the first of several "Warhol" films that are actually part of Morrisey's equally interesting oeuvre. Joe (Joe Dallesandro), a virtually affectless but oddly charming creature of the East Village, drags himself out of bed to hustle tricks on 33rd Street; his girlfriend Gerry (Geraldine Smith) has demanded cash to pay for an abortion. During a long day of entrepreneurial improvisation, Joe encounters a variety of Warhol regulars, including legendary transvestites Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling (who, along with Dallesandro, were later immortalized in Lou Reed's "Walk On The Wild Side"). Although FLESH displays many of the hallmarks of Warhol's non-narrative house style (endless takes, speed-fueled improvisation, casually amateurish lighting and sound), Morrisey is already experimenting with the kind of traditional filmmaking techniques that Warhol pretended to disdain--at least until Morrisey's increasingly polished movies began turning handsome profits. leave a comment