Fantasia '19 Film Review - Letters to Paul Morrissey

An enduring struggle and writing to the same recipient are the links between five stories presented in monochrome in Armand Rovira & Sadia Benzal's Letters to Paul Morrissey. Morrissey a staple of Andy Warhol's The Factor and director of several films in the Velvet Underground era including Trash in '70, Heat in '72 and his most famous collaboration with his influencer Chelsea Girls in'65. The first in German follows Udo Straus (Xavi Saez) as he flees from commercialism in Berlin to a Monastery in Spain in an attempt to escape his inner monologue of anxiety. All the while he becomes increasingly frustrated that God will not speak to him. The next and briefest a hard-edged love letter to drug abuse recited by Factory Alum Joe Dallesandro remarking that being a junkie is a true commitment, a way of life and the feeling of euphoria it brings is worth the seedy places, sights, and smells one must endure to possess it.

Co-writer Sadia  Benzal directed and has a supporting role in the fourth Spanish language segment that is more improv dance than scripted prose. Here we find two heavily linked souls separated by a barrier but so close they can strongly sense each other's struggle to make physical contact. The third and closest related to Morrissey/Warhol features Olena Wood (Maria Fajula) an aging former It girl that starred in Chelsea Girls preparing to attend a re-release of the film after suffering the indignity of ordering up a male companion through Man-connections. Her looks fading with the passage of time no longer possessing the ability to turn a man's head. The segment drips with dark humor chronicling the male/female dynamic, pool aerobics, and the precise art of putting on eyeliner.

The last and clearly the most scientific in Japanese charts Hiroko Tanaka (Almar G. Sato) as she tries to find a cure for a constant frequency buzzing in her head that she has dubbed Hoissuru. The key might be a woman's voice she hears by chance in a comic book store (Agnes llobet) coupled with a song from her youth Viola by Francois Hardy song. The very different subject matter of each story flows together nicely fuelled by Rovira's eye for imagery as all tell their tales of pain in a form of confession to the New York based auteur.

***1/2 Out of 4.

Letters To Paul Morrissey | Armand Rovira /Saida Benzal | Spain | 2018 |

Tags: Berlin, Monastery, God, The Factory, Chelsea Girls, Tick Tock, Candles, Breathe, Frequency, Nose Bleed, Hypnotism, Francois Hardy.