Xmas on Earth/Chelsea Girls Response

Barbara Rubin's Christmas on Earth was quite beautiful. From the article description, I was kind of wary--I expected it to be very very amateur porno with artsy accoutrements slapped over it. But instead, my mind was boggled by the whole experience of it. The interactive aspect was the most thrilling part; knowing that OUR showing of it will never be the exact same as other showings, made it a unique film-watching experience. The painted woman who stares out of the frame throughout the first several minutes was haunting, especially with the overlay of differently coloured filters. Creating a film that is so candid yet so intriguingly composed, Rubin left her mark on film history.

Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls is frankly not a film I could ever see myself watching all the way through [this coming from someone that LOVES Satantango!] I think I just feel slightly disgusted or annoyed by how histrionic most of the Factory crowd is, and the fact that they aren't particularly riveting people [besides Pope Ondine] makes such a long run-time a feat, to me. The first scene with the boy's stripping created a kind of awkward tension with the lack of great lighting and muffled sound, and the fact that he is trying to be sexy and frankly not pulling it off. The second scene was much more involving, as the dear Pope Ondine was a riot for the majority of his episode, even when he was flipping out and getting violent. Though I would listen intently to him, my visual attention was drawn to Nico on the left, simply because of the beauty of the shot of her. The light and colour and masks creating shadows over her face was too pretty to look away from.