Trash: A Queer Film Classic (Queer Film Classics) - Softcover

Davies, Jon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551522616 ISBN 13: 9781551522616

Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009

Synopsis

“This series will be a significant, valuable contribution to the history and literature of gay cinema. Each of these works will be valuable additions for academic and popular students of film and gay culture.”—Library Journal

Trash, one of three inaugural titles in Arsenal Pulp Press' new film book series Queer Film Classics, delves into the legendary 1970 film that was arguably the greatest collaboration between director Paul Morrissey and producer Andy Warhol.

The film Trash is a down-and-out domestic melodrama about a decidedly eccentric couple: Joe, an impotent junkie (played by Warhol film regular Joe Dallesandro), and Holly, Joe's feisty and sexually frustrated girlfriend (played by trans Warhol superstar Holly Woodlawn). Joe is the hunky yet passive center around whom proud Holly orbits; while Morrissey intended to show that "there's no difference between a person using drugs and a piece of refuse," Woodlawn's incredible turn reverses his logic: she makes trash as precious as human beings.

The book examines the film in the context of Morrissey and Warhol's legendary partnership, with a special focus on Woodlawn's acclaimed performance: a glorious embodiment of "trash" and glamour that was so stunning, director George Cukor led a campaign (albeit unsuccessful) to win her an Oscar nomination.

Jon Davies is a curator and critic based in Toronto. He is the assistant curator of public programs at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

The Queer Film Classics series, starting this fall, consists of critical yet populist monographs on classic films of interest to LGBT audiences written by esteemed film scholars and critics.

About this title

About the Author:

Jon Davies is the Assistant Curator of Public Programs at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, and the guest curator of the major touring retrospective ?People Like Us: The Gossip of Colin Campbell.? His writing has been published in a variety of publications from C Magazine to GLQ, as well as in a few anthologies.

Review:

Davies delves behind the scenes, looking at the creative friction between Warhol and Morrissey---and Morrissey and the mise en scene in which he found himself working---and the full story of the film, from its weekend shooting schedule in Morriseey’s basement to the critical reviews it garnered, with plenty of pages devoted to a scene-by-scene synopsis and analysis.
—EDGE Publications (Boston, Chicago, etc.) (EDGE Publications 2009-11-10)

[Davies] delves into the title theme on material and personal levels, considering their symbolic interplay. He also offers observations on the film’s motif of redemption as seen through the lens of complex relationships.
—Library Journal (Library Journal 2009-12-02)

What it means to be trash---and indeed, what it means to be a man---are questioned in this thoughtful monograph, part of Arsenal Pulp's new Queer Film Classics series.... With crisp and expressive prose, he reflects upon the offbeat film and the times and culture that inspired it. In this book, he makes the same argument that he asserts is the film's premise: that the people and things society deems worthless often dazzle with unexpected beauty.
—Quill and Quire (Quill and Quire 2010-01-07)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1551522616
• ISBN 13: 9781551522616
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 120