La Trilogia
Italian DVD Collection

"Flesh-Trash-Heat"
The Trilogy - Italian Style

The Italian DVD special boxed collection of Paul Morrissey’s Trilogy, titled "Flesh Trash Heat: The Wild Side of the Movies," is available through Rarovideo. As with the French DVD-collection, the Italians have done a superior job with the print transfers, evidencing none of the muddy auras that plague the Image Entertainment disks here in the United States.

Disk 2: Trash (1970), in both original English and the Italian-dubbed version directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Optional Italian subtitles.

Disk 3: Heat (1972), in both original English and Italian-dubbed audio versions. Optional Italian subtitles.

Disk 4: Extras
A Look on the Wild Side (2002) 52:56
Directed by Mario Zonta and Walter Martyn Cabell
Mario Zonta’s documentary opens with footage of Paul Morrissey, Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, where the Trilogy was receiving a special anniversary screening as part of a tribute to Morrissey, in May of 2002. Thereafter, the film is composed of Zonta’s informal, off-the-cuff interviews with the three principals, interspersed with clips from the films. Morrissey is characteristically sour, but sincere, dispensing with the media “morons” who write headlines and have continually credited Andy Warhol for the films which Morrissey is solely responsible for making. He also repeatedly reaffirms the pessimistic worldview his films portray, harping on the “emptiness” of his characters’ lives, the stupidity of drugs and the silliness of sex, while admitting empathy for his cast of  humorous and “interesting” people. Holly recounts how she ended up getting the role in Trash, as well as why she was sitting in jail when the film premiered.

Joe, fawned over by Zonta, his good friend of many years, displays a mix of moods in footage from interviews shot over several months both here in the states and in Italy. His initial encounter, with Zonta rambling on trying to cue a response from him, is quintessential Joe Dallesandro. After an uncomfortable pause, Joe finally says to his interviewer: “Nope, I’ve got nothin’ to say. No. I’m all talked out.” Fortunately, he’s more receptive on other occasions, whether honestly assessing Morrissey’s claim that the films were written by the director, or assessing his own early career nudity: “I was once very attractive.” He then adds, “Now I don’t take off my clothes at all...only in the dark.” There's also a classically odd moment during Morrissey's discussion of The Awful Truth when we hear Joe say (off-camera), "Holly, you're snoring!" and Morrissey bristles. There's even talk of the director finally realizing a sequel to Trash, with Joe and Holly as grandparents raising dreadful grandchildren. Morrissey says he would shoot it on digital video with just himself and a sound man as crew, but would only be interested if he was assured payment and distribution.

Dacia Maraini – Silvia Baraldini: Comparing Opinions (2002) 37:41
A filmed conversation, ostensibly about The Trilogy, between Silvia Baraldini and Dacia Maraini, the latter whom worked with Pasolini on the Italian dub of Trash. The only insights to be had come by way of contextualizing the dubbing process in Italy and how Pasolini differed in his approach to the project. Otherwise, the two touch upon, but hardly explore, a variety of general themes, including the Trilogy’s connection to experimental cinema, the role of female characters (Heat being described as misogynistic), and assorted other dull tangents, leading to a curiously uninformed conclusion that because Morrissey is perceived as “non-judgmental” of his pansexual characters, he wasn’t interested in making either social commentary or political statements, only in observing. I’m unclear what audience this DVD extra’s segment is intended for, or whom it hopes to benefit. It’s much too generic for fans of the specific films or even film buffs as a whole, and it would fail to inform or intrigue a first-time viewer. As is, it plays like an overheard conversation between an intelligent woman and an avowed “expert,” just begging for interruption and lively argument to challenge the presumed erudition and enrich the dialogue.

Out-Takes
A half-dozen examples of unused scenes, alternate takes, or longer ones from the Trilogy. (The descriptions below are pulled from my discussion of these scenes on the French DVD-collection.)

1. Heat: An interesting variation on Sylvia Miles’ visit to daughter Andrea Feldman at the motel from early in the film. There are some very good exchanges here…and the word “lesbian” is employed no fewer than 24 times. Touches on issues of money, personal responsibility, and mental illness. A bizarre story related by Andrea about a shock therapy experience in a mental hospital puts the weird, truncated, seemingly out-of-nowhere reference to stolen baby pictures and another mother (other than Sylvia’s character) in the released version of the film into context. There are other unusual tales from Andrea, too, including a helicopter landing followed by “someone shot me in the head with a BB gun.” In addition, there’s a brief exchange with Andrea’s girlfriend Bonnie, as Sylvia discovers the baby is on a strict vegetarian diet. We also learn that the father of the child was an unknown white band member who was on tour. 8:20

2. Heat: A brief scene with Joe on the telephone trying to make his industry connections appears to be a cut scene and not an alternate of what we see in the final film. 2:27

3. Heat: An alternate take of Pat Ast giving Joe a back rub on her bed, though still no explanation as to why Joe is wearing a jockstrap for the scene. There’s less interesting dialogue here at the outset, and plenty of bed squeaking picked up on the soundtrack, but the scene improves marvelously when Joe talks about how warm the pool was for his swim and Ast says “a lot of people have been pissing in it.” Very funny stuff. Even Joe seems slightly, almost imperceptibly, taken aback by the direction of the conversation. When Andrea comes into the scene, as she does in the final film, this time it’s because she claims one of Ast’s deck chairs broke and she hurt herself. When Andrea begins her sob routine, Ast asks sharply: “What’s wrong with you?”

Andrea (through her sobs): Somebody told me to go to hell out there. The hell I will. I’m not going to hell. I’m gonna eat a red apple. You think that I’m evil? Oh, fiddlesticks. I’m not evil.

Ast (off-camera): You’re crazy.

The only way to properly gauge how funny this exchange sounds is to hear these two ladies deliver those lines in their unique and irreplaceable vocal styles. 7:24

4. Flesh: The longest of any of the rediscovered footage cut from The Trilogy, this scene between Joe and Geraldine Smith, as his wife, was to take place before Joe hits the streets at the beginning of the film. It opens with Geri cutting Joe’s hair. He’s shirtless. He tells her he wants a steak for supper and for her to iron him a clean shirt. He’s got all sorts of things he wants her to do. “I’ll make a list for ya.” He talks about wanting a new job, something “easy money,” where “I don’t have to work hard.” Geri ignores him. When she does speak, it’s to tell a story about being felt up by a dirty old man. She and Joe then have a weird and somehow funny exchange about rape. Joe says he saw an ad in the paper about making $100 as a nude model. Geri gets excited and orders him to hop up on a marble counter and pose for her while she takes pictures. She has him out of his clothes in no time, having all sorts of fun arranging him. Joe smiles a lot. After the session, Joe talks about her awful friends. When she rails back about his, he answers, “I don’t have any friends.” The scene ends after an exchange in which Joe asks her where the baby is and why she doesn’t watch it.

Though beautifully played by both actors and with lots of good lines and thematic ties to Joe’s flesh in the rest of the film, the discovery of this material is challenging. We’ve known Joe and Geri and their relationship for over three decades, so there’s an uncomfortable, even while absolutely fascinating, intrusion going on here. The scene definitely alters our perception of Joe’s character in the original film, even something as trivial as how often he smiles. Still, what an absolute joy to see this material, to see more of Joe talking to and relating to Geraldine, working pretty much all by himself the whole first half of the scene to keep it alive and interesting. A treasure unto itself.

The inclusion of this scene would bring the running time closer to the original 105 minutes listed for Flesh in many 1968 sources, though Paul Morrissey told me that the running times reported back then were simply guesses on his part. 11:40

5. Trash: Additional footage from an existing scene, not an alternate take. It’s more dialogue between Joe and Johnny as they wait for Holly to come back with the drugs. Joe asks Johnny about his family and they talk about getting high. Joe says he’s “always high. I’m never straight,” and that he only takes one thing: “good dope.” 2:15

6. Trash: An alternate take of the finale interview between Michael Sklar’s Welfare investigator and Joe and Holly. Holly talks about once being a drugstore salesperson, selling “cosmetics,” while Joe concedes his last job was a 2-day stint as a pizza trainee when he was fifteen. Joe reinforces his desire to clean up his act, but is humorously forthcoming about his career as a burglar and a cattle rustler. Cattle rustling? “That’s when junkies steal meat from supermarkets and sell it to women in beauty parlors,” Joe explains matter-of-factly. When Sklar is fascinated by this because he admittedly doesn’t think about stealing, Holly answers, “I think about it all the time.” 6:00

Photogallery
Twenty black-and-white photos, primarily of Paul Morrissey, during the late 60s and early 70s.

Credits for DVD - (The Zonta documentary's end credits, by the way, mistakenly give 1967 as the copyright for the Lou Reed song “Walk on the Wild Side.”)