A new documentary examining the tragic and influential life of Warhol
Factory star Candy Darling, entitled
Beautiful Darling: The Life and
Times of Candy Darling, Warhol Superstar had its US premiere at the New Directors/New Films Festival, last
Friday, April 2nd, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The writer
and director, James Rasin, was present with key members of his crew, most notably Jeremiah Newton,
who executive produced and whose shared life with Darling provided the
main focus
of this revelatory, intelligent documentary.
Framed by a present-day narrative involving close friend Jeremiah
Newton's efforts to give Candy's funeral urn a final resting place (in
tiny Cherry Valley, New York -- the significance of which is never explained), the documentary recounts in vivid detail
the fast-burning life of Warhol's most legendary Superstar. (The only
one of Warhol's Superstars, by the way, paid tribute by two Lou
Reed-penned songs for The Velvet Underground.) The filmmaker and his
crew weave together early video clips, film footage, recordings,
photographs, period music and and original score to create a dense narrative fabric,
making it one the most thorough and authoritative biopics of the Warhol
clan.
Born James Slattery in Massapequa Park, Long Island in 1944, Candy
escaped the constraints and abuse of growing up a feminine, lonely boy
in post-war suburbia by running away to Manhattan and reinventing -- perhaps more
accurately,
reincarnating -- himself as a glamourous,
platinum-blonde screen "star" inspired
by his idol, Kim Novak and other iconic actresses of her period. That
she was forced to live a desperate life of couch-crashing, hand-to-mouth
poverty as a result was of no consequence; she was living her dream of stardom and that was all that
mattered. (Actress and friend Helen Hanft: "She always had this
glamorous aura, but she was always sleeping on somebody's couch.")
As is made clear by glimpses of his doodles and sketches in childhood
notebooks, Darling in adolescence was already drawing himself, his true
self, in the future. The willful re-imagining-and-recreation-of-self was
the alternative "American Dream" for many pre-Stonewall gay men who
sought the communion of others like themselves in the gritty,
refuge-Mecca of Manhattan of the early 1960s. This subject, and of
course, the influence of Andy Warhol and his star-making-and-discarding
machine of The Factory, is treated with fascinating interviews by former
friends and acquaintances of Darling -- themselves budding celebrities
of the period. Among them are: filmmakers John Waters and Paul
Morrissey;writers and playwrights
Fran Lebowitz, Glenn O'Brien, Bob Colacello, Robert Heide and (via tape
recording) Tennessee Williams (who cast her in his play
Small Craft
Warnings); and fellow actors such as Helen Hanft, Holly Woodlawn,
Agosto Machado, Penny Arcade and Paul Ambrose.
The most perceptive and insightful commentaries of the documentary
belong to Lebowitz, who cuts through the prevailing characterization of
Darling as an actual woman; to Lebowitz he was never more nor less than a man (indeed he always
resisted having a sex change) and one who deliberately paid a dear price
for daring to break the rigid social conventions of his day. She pays
homage to Darling for his sacrifice and bravery, but she urges a more
honest discussion of the emotional and often protected discussion
surrounding Darling and other transgender performers. Lebowitz also
reminds viewers that New York was not a "career destination" in that
time as it is now; in fact it was a refuge for the unemployed and unemployable, for people who had no choice but to escape
and reinvent themselves as they alone saw fit. This phenomenon has of
course now completely vanished, a point that is made implicitly by most of the interviewees.
Performance artist legend Jayne County, herself a trans-pioneer and
survivor of the period, takes the opposing view that merely questioning
the gender "self-definition" of a transsexual is "trans-phobic" and if anyone is caught doing so, "you
just shut your mouth." Giving voice to the boyhood diary entries of James Slattery and later as
Candy Darling is the actress Chloe Sevigny, who was present at the
screening along with such Warhol associates Pat Hackett (Warhol's secretary), Penny Arcade, Taylor Meade,
and Geraldine Smith (
Flesh).
In the Q&A session after the screening, an audience member asked
Newton what Warhol's reaction was to Candy Darling's death. Jeremiah
Newton responded that Andy was typically Andy: indifferent and vague. By 1974, when Darling had died of
cancer (thought by many to be the result of carcinogenic hormone
pills), Warhol had focused his attention on other stars of his making.
Look for this excellent documentary to be broadcast on the Sundance
Channel or in theatrical screenings in 2010. For more information on the
film, go to:
www.beautifuldarling.com/
-David Savage