Women in Revolt

Women in Revolt emerged amid growing tensions between the Factory scene and the feminist and gay liberation movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a 1971 interview with David Bourdon for Art in America, director Paul Morrissey stated:

"Andy is despised by Gay Liberation and the Women's Revolt, whatever it is, because Andy just presents it and doesn't take a position. An artist's obligation is not to take a position ever, just to present. Andy's basic position on every subject, if he has any, is comical. … It's hard for Andy or any of the female impersonators to put down the movement... because it's a subject that neither Andy nor the female impersonators have the vaguest notion about. I don't know anything about it either. I hear a little bit about it on the talk shows-equal pay, etcetera blah blah. But the logical extension of what they obviously want is to be a man, so why not have men represent them?"^[1]

Bob Colacello, former editor of Andy Warhol's Interview magazine, later suggested the film was also shaped by the lingering aftermath of Valerie Solanas near-fatal shooting of Warhol in 1968.^[2] According to Colacello, "Although Paul didn't come out and say it, and Andy certainly would have denied it, Women in Revolt is essentially Andy's revenge on Valerie Solanis [sic]. PIGS was his answer to SCUM."^[2] Solanas was the author of the self-published SCUM Manifesto.^[3] Another layer of irony is that the film's central feminist trio is portrayed by two transgender women and a drag performer.^[4][5][6]

Set in New York City, Women in Revolt follows three disillusioned women—Candy, Jackie, and Holly—who form a radical feminist group called P.I.G. ("Politically Involved Girls").^[7] Candy Darling plays Candy, a wealthy but unhappy heiress trapped in an incestuous relationship with her brother. Jackie Curtis portrays Jackie, an intellectual and schoolteacher who believes women are oppressed by society, while Holly Woodlawn plays Holly, a volatile nymphomaniac and model who alternates between desiring and despising men. Together, the trio attempt to build P.I.G. into a revolutionary movement, hoping to challenge male dominance and reinvent their lives. As the story unfolds, their personal frustrations, unstable relationships, and internal conflicts undermine their political ambitions. Their efforts at liberation ultimately descend into melodrama, sexual chaos, and disillusionment.

• Candy Darling as Candy
• Jackie Curtis as Jackie
• Holly Woodlawn as Holly
• Paul Kilb as Jackie's First Boyfriend
• Jonathan Kramer as Journalist
• Michael Sklar as Max Morris
• Maurice Braddell as Candy's Father
• George Abagnalo as Photographer
• Johnny Kemper as Johnny Minute
• Martin Kove as Marty (credited as Marty Cove)
• Frank Cavestani as Construction Worker
• Jane Forth as Jane
• Penny Arcade as Penny

Working titles for the film included P.I.G.S. ("Politically Involved GirlS"), Sex—possibly a reference to actress Mae West's 1926 play Sex—and Blonde on a Bum Trip.^[8][9]

Warhol and his boyfriend Jed Johnson served as the cinematographers.^[10] Filming began in spring 1970 and was completed in 1971.^[10] Most of Candy Darling's scenes were shot at jewelry designer Kenneth Jay Lane's Murray Hill townhouse.^[2] Jackie Curtis later recalled: "My big scene was when I was painting my toenails, and Paul Morrissey wanted that scene out, but I wanted it, and Andy said, 'I want the scene in.'" Curtis added, “I told Andy that I'd be in it only if he'd be behind the camera … all the scenes that I'm in, Andy shot them."^[11]

Although Morrissey received screenwriting credit, Johnson stated in a 1970 interview with After Dark that the dialogue was largely improvised: "A lot of people ask if we have a working script on our movies because the dialogue is so clever … what happens, as usual, is that Paul Morrissey gives a sentence to the actors and has them improvising on a topic while the camera is rolling."^[12]

The film premiered as Sex at Grauman's Chinese Theatre as part of the first Los Angeles International Film Exposition (Filmex) in Hollywood on November 6, 1971.^[13][14]

The film was retitled Andy Warhol's Women when it opened at the Cinema Theater in Los Angeles on December 17, 1971.^[15] It was renamed Women in Revolt by the time it opened at the Cine Malibu in New York City on February 16, 1972.^[16] The film was selected for the inaugural International Film Festival Rotterdam in 1972.^[17]

The film received mostly favorable reviews.

Chuck Emerson wrote for the University of Redlands student publication, The Bulldog: "Sex is technically better than Warhol's previous epics … Everything is a joke, a put-on, there's no malice or cynicism in Warhol's intent. Sex, like most of Warhol's stuff, has a curious innocence in its blatant crudeness."^[18]

Kevin Thomas wrote for the Los Angeles Times that Warhol fans would find the film "uproarious" and likened it to a spoof of a "'Valley of the Dolls'-type plot."^[15]

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "'Women in Revolt' … is not as consistently funny (and awful) as 'Trash,' but a lot of it is as hilarious as it is dirty. The film carries no screenplay credit, so I have no idea who is responsible for the dialogue, which often is foolish and occasionally inspired in the way that good parodies must be."^[16]

Jeanne Miller of the San Francisco Examiner called it a "trashy little stag film," and added Warhol's "performers are so grotesque, his technical skills so non-existent and his sensibilities' so vulgar that not an iota of amusement merges from this sordid farce."^[19]

Writing for Vogue, Molly Haskell described Women in Revolt as a "lewd and funny commentary on Women’s Lib" and argued that it was "ultimately no more defamatory to Women's Lib than it is to the Hollywood myths of the 'forties and 'fifties."^[20] She viewed the film as both "parody and hommage," noting that it "re-creates the masochistic misery of the woman's picture while remaining faithful to its own spirit of funk."^[20]

• List of American films of 1971
• Andy Warhol filmography