13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests
Ford Amphitheatre Screenings
(USA, 1964, 75 mins)
Directed By: Andy Warhol
Producer: Andy Warhol
Music: Dean Wareham & Britta Phillips
Featuring: Richard Rheem, Ann Buchanan, Paul America, Edie Sedgwick, Billy Name, Susan Bottomly, Dennis Hopper, Mary Woronov, Freddy Herko, Nico, Ingrid Superstar, Lou Reed, Jane Holzer
Live Musical Accompaniment by Dean & Britta
Between 1964 and 1966, Andy Warhol made nearly 500 Screen Tests, each shot on black & white 16mm film in one uninterrupted take. Capturing both luminaries of the Factory scene and those now largely forgotten by time, the short films are mesmerizing for their intimacy and their deceptive simplicity.
Dean & Britta, purveyors of a distinctive musical blend of laconic wordplay and dreamy, swirling pop landscapes, have selected 13 Screen Tests to accompany live, performing a combination of original compositions and cover songs as the films screen behind them. From the plaintive and foreboding instrumental for dancer Freddy Herko, who would fall to his death a few weeks after shooting his film, to a barnburning version of a rare Velvet Underground song for a young Lou Reed, the songs are far more than a mere soundtrack. Throughout the performance, the music, the images, and the personalities on screen come together in beautiful, breathtaking ways, never more so than when the band sings, “They said you belonged on the silver screen,” to a luminous wide-eyed close-up of Edie Sedgwick.
-- Doug Jones
Host OUTFEST: The Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival