“13 Most Beautiful”, Songs For Andy Warhol's Screen TestsDean Wareham and Britta Phillips.Wellington Town HallMarch 4thComing up on Thursday for one night only is “13 Most Beautiful” which combines some of the Andy Warhol screen te
“13 Most Beautiful”, Songs For Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests
Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips.
Wellington Town Hall
March 4th
Coming up on Thursday for one night only is “13 Most Beautiful” which combines some of the Andy Warhol screen test films accompanied by a small band playing music composed by Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips.
Dean Wareham was born in Wellington, but has lived most of his life in the USA where he was a member of the band Galaxie 500 and founded the band Luna with his wife Britta Phillips.
Wareham has chosen thirteen of the more than five hundred screen tests which Warhol filmed in the mid 1960’s.
The screen tests were of Warhol’s friends and acquaintances, some of them notable others obscure. They were given no instruction apart from looking at the camera for around four minutes.
Sometimes Warhol would set up lights for dramatic effect but most of the time it was just the natural light of the studio.
These portraits tied into Warhol’s dictum that everyone should be famous for fifteen minutes and also links in with the portrait paintings which he produced of friends and famous people.
These are not so much screen tests for a movie but visual records of Warhol’s encounters with people. However, like his real life relationships they have an enigmatic intimacy but only on the artist’s terms.
Among the subjects are Edie Sedgwick, one of the stars of Warhol’s films who died tragically after a turbulent life of sex drugs and other things. Knowing her fate makes her look incredibly vulnerable.
Dennis Hopper is there trying to look cool but occasionally breaks into a smile, one of the few who doesn’t take the exercise too seriously.
Most of the characters merely look at the camera but occasionally they “act” with Lou Reed swigging from a Coke bottle and there is Baby Jane Holzer, all made up, staring at the camera while vigorously brushing her teeth.
Ann Buchanan seems to stare at the camera, immobile, like a black and white photograph but then we see a tear welling up in her eye and its rolls down her cheek. It is one of the few takes where a genuine emotion appears to be displayed.
The screen tests start off being accompanied by straight soundscape but after a couple of them there are some which have lyrics.
The songs are all written by all Wareham and Phillips apart from one by Dylan and one from the Velvet Underground. The music and the lyrics create a mood for each of the characters which can range from the whimsical to the sinister.
“13 Most Beautiful” is a little time capsule capturing the mood of exhilaration experimentation and revolution of the 1960’s.
