The UK Boxed Set
We'd like to thank Barry Wilson from London for providing a review of the UK boxed set and its special features.
Joe-Pourri Archive
I was just looking at the site and saw you wanted to get a review of the UK trilogy DVD. There are a few things that I think are worth mentioning.
Firstly, I was a bit disappointed that the set doesn't include the factory docs included on the French and Italian versions but at least everything else is there.
What is interesting about the discs are the audio commentaries. There are only two though - one for Flesh and one for Heat. The best is the one for Flesh, done by two women - friends, one of whom is a psychologist. I think there is some amazing insight into the male persona. My only reservation, and this is a big one, is that their information about one of the performers is completely incorrect.
During the scene where Joe is visiting his friends, Candy Darling is identified as Holly Woodlawn. This wouldn't be so big an issue if it was simply a passing comment but the commentator dwells on it, giving Holly's background and history, saying that she is still alive, which is sad seeing that Candy Darling isn't.
The commentary for Heat is not as interesting and sometimes gets tedious as the commentator is a filmmaker so the comments are about technique with no insight into the characters - but it has its merits.
As I said, it's still great to have the trilogy remastered in one package.
Andy Warhol presents
Joe Dallesandro
In three films written and directed by Paul Morrissey
3 –disc collectors edition
ENCLOSED BOOKLETS
Booklet 1 – 4 sides
Mini introduction
Press from the US
Michael Goodwin Rolling Stone – Dec 6 1970 (Trash)
Rex Reed New York Daily News – October 6 1970 (trash)
Rex Reed New York Daily News – May 19 1972 (Heat)
Greg Ford Rolling Stone – November 23 1972 (Heat)
Press from the UK
John Weightman Encounter – June 1970 (Flesh)
John Weightman Encounter – June 1971 (Trash)
David Robinson Financial Times – February 8 1973 (Trasjh)
Derek Malcolm Arts Guardian – February 8 1973 (Trash) – includes: “Note: trash was included as one of the Top 100 films in Derek Malcolm’s Personal Best: a Century of Films (London: Taurus Parke, 2000)
John Russell Taylor The Times – February 9 1973 (Heat via Flesh and Trash)
Derek Malcolm, The Guardian – September 6 1972 (Heat)
John Weightman Encounter – June 1973 (Heat)
Other writings:
George Cukor quoted in Gavin Lambert, On Cukor (New York: GP Putnam, 1972) (Flesh and Trash)
Joe quote from above: “Joe Dallesandro does some enormously difficult things – walking around in the nude in a completely unselfconscious way, that scene when he talks to the baby in Flesh, and when he gives himself an overdose of heroin in Trash…he really made me understand more than any other films, what a drug addict was. The way you see him shutting himself off form all interest in life, going limp, it’s chilling and it’s beautifully done”
John Russell Taylor, Directors & Directions: Cinema for the Seventies (New York: Hill and Wang, 1975) (Trash)
Maurice Yacowar, the Films of Paul Morrissey (London: Cambridge University Press, 1993)
Booklet 2 – All Fixed Up: The Story of ‘Trash’ and the BBFC
Craig Lapper
Chief Assistant (policy)
BBFC
18 pages interspersed with fill page black and white production and publicity shots from Trash. Chronicles the problems that Trash has had with the censors in Britain. The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classifications, which decide which films are appropriate for viewing in the UK and rating them. The major concern was the drug taking and whether it was glamorised. Here are the last two sentences:
“Therefore, Trash was finally passed ‘18’ uncut for DVD release in 2005, 35 years after the film was made. No doubt some people will find the full version, with its uncut injection scenes, difficult to watch in places but the BBFC does not regard the film as likely to harm an adult audience.”
DISC 1 - FLESH
Special Features:
Paul Morrissey Introduction
Deleted Scenes with Original Sound
Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary
(same scenes as special editions)
Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Penny Woolcock and psychologist Nicola Abel-Hirsch
Paul Morrissey Short Film: About Face (1964) – approx 5 minutes
Original silent version or with director commentary
DISC 2 - TRASH
Special Features:
Paul Morrissey Introduction
Deleted Scenes with Original Sound
Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary
(same scenes as special editions)
Paul Morrissey Short Film: All Aboard the Dreamland Choo-Choo (1964) – approx 6 minutes
Original silent version or with director commentary
DISC 3 – HEAT
Special Features:
Paul Morrissey Introduction
Deleted Scenes with Original Sound
Deleted Scenes with Director Commentary
(same scenes as special editions)
Audio Commentary by Filmmaker Don Boyd (who has some interesting anecdotes about his friend Sylvia Miles)
Paul Morrissey Short Film: Like Sleep (1965) – approx 10 minutes
Original silent version or with director commentary