Andy Warhol, Sleep (1963), featuring John Giorno. 5hrs21min. #RIP
From warholstars.org:
Sleep was shot in Giorno's apartment whom Warhol was having a sexual relationship at the time, according to Giorno. On Memorial Day weekend of 1963, Giorno woke up to find Warhol watching him sleep and Warhol asked him if he'd like to be a movie star.
John Giorno:
On Memorial Day weekend in 1963 we went away for a few days and I woke up in the night to find him staring at me -- he took a lot of speed in those days. That's where the idea for the movie came from -- he was looking for a visual image and it just happened to be me. He said to me on the way home: "Would you like to be a movie star?" "Of course," I said, "I want to be just like Marilyn Monroe."
He didn't really know what he was doing; it was his first movie. We made it with a 16mm Bolex in my apartment but had to reshoot it a month later. The film jumped every 20 seconds as Andy rewound it. The second shoot was more successful but he didn't know what to do with it for almost a year.
The news that Warhol had made a movie triggered massive amounts of publicity. It was absurd -- he was on the cover of Film Culture and Harper's Bazaar before the movie was finished! In the end, 99% of the footage didn't get used; he just looped together a few shots and it came out six hours long.
#RIP #JohnGiorno











