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Factory Girl [2007]
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As interesting for its portrayal of Warhol as well as Sedgwick, the film charts the latter’s involvement in the former’s life, following her descent into drug addiction and how her days took a downward turn. Still, it’s hard to describe Factory Girl’s take on all of this as the most objective of biopics, and it’s frustrating in some ways, yet does continually retain your interest for the duration of your running time. Sienna Miller’s portrayal of Sedgwick is fine, and certainly a career best, although Guy Pearce as Andy Warhol is perhaps the most impressive among the talented cast (which also features American Beauty’s Mena Suvari and Star Wars’ Hayden Christensen). The film around this cast is a little muddled, though, and does ask a fair amount of its audience in caring for characters who are put across with little compassion. But if you are willing to put some effort in, Factory Girl nonetheless does deliver a real glimpse into some very unconventional lives. It’ll be interesting now to see how Sienna Miller builds on the performance; she certainly helps lift this film into one that’s at least worth a viewing. --Jon Foster
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Charting the story of Edie Sedgwick, the infamous muse of Andy Warhol, Factory Girl is a diverting biopic, not one without some sizeable flaws, but one with reasons to commend it.
Beautifully Sad
Review date: 2008-11-03 Rating: 10 out of 10
I watched this film not really knowing what to expect and what I found was a story told with such beauty and sadness it made me want to watch it all over again.
The story of Edie Sedgwick is one of glamour,adventure,excitement,sorrow and eventually demise.
Edie (Sienna Miller) is truly a joy to watch on screen, not only is she beautiful but she is captivating and after watching the documentay of Edie Sedgiwck, the similarities in terms of looks, are uncanny.
This film made me smile and cry within minutes of each other, Edie's story is one of such sadness the film makes you want to reach out and help her but knowing that its too late as the credits roll.
I would defnitely recommend this film, it gives a fantastic insight into an iconic young woman who simply wanted to love and be loved in return.
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Reviews
Amazing
Review date: 2008-08-19 Rating: 10 out of 10
I really don't understand how people can be so malicious about this movie. I was hesitant about watching it as I thought it looked good, but I really wasn't a Miller fan. But having watched it, I honestly loved it. I'm not saying it couldnt be improved, because couldn't everything? But I thought Sienna, Hayden and Guy were really good, I loved the used of music in the film which helped put it in the era it belonged, costumes were great and I generally really liked it, people criticise that it blames Warhol for Edie's demise, but honestly, they weren't there and neither was I, so we can't judge, although Andy was known to be kind of manipulative, and the same people also say Guy Pearce acted him brilliantly. I'd also like to say that my two best friends were sceptical, both telling me that they hated Sienna Miller, but one night I made them watch it, as it's definately in my top 5 favourites. So we all sat and watched it and they admitted afterwards that they loved it. All in all, a great paced film, which will probably make you want to live in the sixties and be part of the it group. Watch it with an open mind.
Disappointing
Review date: 2008-02-28 Rating: 4 out of 10
I found this film rather slow and a bit tedious. The best part was the last half hour where you see Edie's descent into drug abuse. However the acting was excellent especially Guy Pierce as Andy Warhol.
Well I loved it!
Review date: 2008-02-23 Rating: 10 out of 10
Having read about Andy Warhol and his infamous factory as a student, I had some bare bones of knowledge about Edie Sedgwick's life. I had very much looked forward to seeing this film, despite its mixed reviews and I wasn't disappointed. It has authentic period touches, from an external shot of sixties NYC yellow cabs lined up outside a building, to Edie's clothes, many of which were original vintage rather than wardrobe department copies. The story is an old, old story of idealism, fame and disillusionment and ruin. Its happening right now to cetain celebrities and certainly serves as no advert for drug use. However, I will say that the story is strictly Edie-centric, so if her story doesn't interest you, then avoid, since she is in almost every frame. Sienna Miller's performance as Edie is outstanding, right down to the cultured East coast accent. She goes from stunning ingenue to haunted ghoul, without flaw. Warhol's embarrassed nonchalence makes him see only too heartless next to her histrionics, especially in the pivotel scene in the restaurant where she accuses him of ruining her. His response is to refuse to help her, and leave with his entourage. Much credit must go to Guy Pearce too, as Warhol- a superb actor who quietly gets on with his job, with little fanfare.
There are of course, instances of poetic licence plotwise, and who but Edie will ever know her true story? But its does pay graphic homage to a poor little rich girl who was a product of a unique era in time.
Beyond God & Edie
Review date: 2007-12-07 Rating: 6 out of 10
Embroiled, as we are, in the era of reality T.V, new bio-pic Factory Girl is a timely release charting, possibly, the genesis of our fascination with meaningless activities and the meaningless people who do them. Factory Girl is the truncated story of `Warhol Superstar' Edie Sedgwick, whose fleeting moment in the reflected glare of Andy Warhol's media glory became the prototype of today's production line celebrity machine; where nobodies are marketed as stars then immediately consigned to the out-tray as soon as the new batch arrives.
Warhol, a prime exponent of the American angle on 60's Pop Art, created screen-prints that looked like strips of film and made films that looked like paintings; 8 hour epics of junkies sleeping off amphetamine comedowns or overnight zero-mentaries of the Empire State Building. But Warhol is, perhaps, best known for his Campbell's Soup tins and his apocalyptic prediction that "in the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." Casting his frosty lens on the lunatics and hangers-on who adorned his upper East-Side studio known as The Factory, Warhol set about creating the world's first stable of manufactured stars. It was from this parade of crashed fabulousness that socialite and would be actress Edie Sedgwick's legend emerged.
The clichés of Edie's poor little rich girl background is almost textbook. The Sedgwick's were an American institution from `old money' with all the sociopathic pyrotechnics which that implies. Her father was a manic depressive psychotic who abused her and her siblings to the point of insanity, and in one case suicide. Edie high tailed it to New York with a siege on the Manhattan art scene where she was introduced to Warhol, quickly and spectacularly becoming his first superstar. For a year she was the `face of her generation' and the world revolved around her until her `walk on the wild side' took its inevitable route into a cul-de-sac of rehab, relapse and death at 28.
Filmed in a freewheeling collision of primary-coloured flash and hi-contrast monochrome, Factory Girl sets a tone reminiscent of the recent Brian Jones Bio-pic Stoned; creating an authentic evocation of N.Y '65. Sienna Miller finally emerges from her own Edie-esque tabloidia© and give us a performance worthy of the `near genius' turns of Naomi Watts, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman at their best. Only time will tell if she shares their versatility.
On less steady footing however is Edie's love affair with the Dylan-esque figure of Billy Quinn, played by post-Vader boy Hayden Christensen, who, as the film has it, precipitated her demise having rejected her to marry a bunny girl. This is based on an unsubstantiated relationship which may or may not have resulted in any number of rock classics, such as `Just Like a Woman', `Leopard-skin Pill Box hat' and the ground breaking `Like a Rolling Stone' inadvertently establishing Edie's place in the pantheon of pop mythology. But the primary element of any myth or legend is the circumstances of their death. Factory Girl's fast forwarding with a title card announcing her exit via overdose in 1971 renders the rest of the film a waste of time. Why not have a title card right at the beginning telling you everything that happens thus saving two hours which could be spent watching something else? Hell, why make films at all? - Just put up title cards describing them.
It's somewhat telling that there has never been a film about Warhol directly despite having been portrayed time and time again as a secondary character in anything from Bowie's turn in `Basquiat', Jared Leto in `I Shot Andy Warhol' and Crispin Glover's cartoon-a-like in `The Doors' and here we have Guy Pierce playing the role as a detached phone-a-holic; his `Loner at the Ball' persona perfectly at home as a wan shadow haunting brighter stars. I think Warhol would have relished the concept of being a cameo in his own life story.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Peter Bogdanovich
Jimmy Fallon
Hayden Christensen
Guy Pearce
Sienna Miller
Creators:
Guy Pearce (Primary Contributor)
Sienna Miller (Primary Contributor)
Director(s):
Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
EAN: 5014437935335
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-09-10
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 90 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2007
Language: English (Original Language)