Factory Girl (2006)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I never believed that Sienna Miller was a "real" actress but she actually managed quite well in Factory Girl. I am not sure if it is because she can act or just because – having been an IT girl herself - she identified with Edie Sedgwick, the IT girl of the 60s. Whichever way, it worked out.Based on the real story of Sedgwick, we follow her from her art studies to the world of the Factory, where an exploitative Warhol is ready to take advantage of her beauty and connections to get a hold to the upper class of New York. It is not clear what Edie's talent was, as she was a mediocre actress and modelled very little, but talent was not a requirement for Warhol's superstars.Warhol was a complex figure, perhaps a great artist or just an able manipulator, but his unpleasant nature is no secret. He had an adoring gang of "superstars" and would be artists, working for him in the Factory (probably the most pretentious art lab of the time). In the movie we see how he liked to pick the next "superstar", to replace the previous one he grew bored with. The script suggests Sedgwick was replaced by Nico (who undoubtedly was a more complex and interesting woman).More controversy is added by the mystery love story with Dylan (which might or not have happened, but is denied by Dylan). According to the script, Edie interest (even love?) for Dylan was another reason why the jealous Warhol dropped her. Not being able to have her undivided attention, nor her money – since her father cut her of her inheritance – Edie was dropped by Warhol to deal alone with her addictions.Luckily the script does not even try to make the audience feel sorry for poor little rich girl Edie. Coming for old money, she had a difficult relationship with her father and tragedy struck early in her life with the suicide of her brother. However, her problems were compounded by her self-destructive nature and her Factory experience contributed only to send her down faster, where she probably would have ended anyway.

When I heard of this movie, I thought, "Oh good! Edie and Andy Warhol fans will be ecstatic, and kids who've never heard of either will be mesmerized by Edie's tragic beauty and story." Wrong. "Factory Girl" is the clever title for a shamefully Hollywood depiction of the life and times of Edith M. Sedgwick during her time as a Warhol superstar, narrated occasionally by post-drugs, post-Warhol Edie at a psychiatric hospital in 1971. As many other reviews have pointed out, Sienna Miller has been praised as looking like "a twin of Edie." Wrong, again. It is understandable that no one can exactly recreate Edie's quasi-androgynous, fluid, gamine and distinctly individual dark beauty, but Miller looks like a fast Halloween knockoff of Edie. Not even Edie, more like a cheap version of an American Twiggy. And the personality? Not even close. Edie is presented as an innocent, impressionable, unintelligent and unsophisticated child who is used and abused by Warhol, who is bizarrely cruel and childish, though Guy Pearce as Warhol is a pretty believable physical facsimile of the Pop artist. But back to Edie, who in reality, came from a very wealthy and high-society family, was an artist in her own right, and was received immensely well by the Factory crowd for her poise, intelligence, and actress/director versatility. She was not only a muse for Warhol, but a confidante and peer. The most confusing part of this already false depiction of Edie, though, is the Bob Dylan character/romance. Yes, it's true that Edie had something of a crush on Dylan for a period of time, ultimately leading to her break with the Warhol camp for Dylan's attention, claiming to be making a movie with him. But this was a very brief period in Edie's life, leaving him certainly not "the biggest mistake" of her life. She had a much more of a strong affair with Bob Neuwirth, Dylan's right hand man. It's plain to see why the film went in this direction; Edie's life was too messy and too realistically human for Hollywood, and a central romance was easy to portray. Hayden Christensen is pretty pathetic as "Billy Quinn," anyway.So, for all potential Edie/Warhol fans who are looking to find out more about either: don't watch this movie looking for truth. It's nothing but Hollywood debris based on early 60's New York. Watch "Ciao! Manhattan," the original Warhol films, look on Tumblr for the "Only Edie Sedgwick" account, and do your own otherwise research. Just don't rely on this movie.

Warhol's art was the antithesis of the notion of the artist--solitary, driven and passionate. instead Warhol--at least every film depiction of him--is a man in search of feeling, using group composition to find it through others, but still never finding true feeling. and his art shows this. when the genuine is missing in his works, he obviously has to resort to trickery and camouflage in order to attract an audience jaded and programmed by realistic photography.and so follows this movie. it is dull, flat and one dimensional. guy pierce couldn't save it, but unfortunately for him, he no doubt jumped at the chance to play Warhol, even for five minutes--and that is too bad. "i shot Andy Warhol"-- now that was a good film. lili taylor deserved at least an Oscar nomination for that role but never got it. if only it was a holocaust picture.

Directed by George Hickenlooper this 2006 film details the tragically short life of glamorous actress Edie Sedgwick.As well as looking at her involvement with the legendary Andy Warhol.It's the early 1960's and beautiful,stylish rich girl Edie Sedgwick(Sienna Miller)is introduced to pop art filmmaker Andy Warhol(Guy Pearce),the two become friends and she inspires him to make some of his best remembered underground films including Vinyl.Sienna plays Edie as a mix of Audrey Hepburn and Marylin Monroe.She's shy,natural and very stylish combing the hip quality of the sixties with the elegance of the past decade.We see her mutually dependent relationship with Andy become the most important thing in both their lives and see how Andy's jealousy eventually destroys it.Edie begins a passionate relationship with a singer who is bears quite a resemblance to Bob Dillon(Hayden Christensen)this distresses Andy who gradually shuts her out of his life.