10/22/08
Text: Nik Mercer
Along with the Andy Warhol Museum, Plexifilm is putting out the first totally legitimate and authorized DVD of Warhol's filmic work on January 17, 2009. 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests compiles a baker's dozen of the man's silent film portraits.
Subjects include Nico, Lou Reed, Edie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, and all were shot between 1964 and 1966 at The Factory (duh).
Running with the thirteen motif, 1300 limited edition gate-fold Screen Tests DVDs will be released on January 17; the full release comes on February 17.
Unlike the cruddy bootleg copies of the notorious screen tests we've been subjected to since forever, the Plexifilm DVD comes loaded with plenty of bonus features and extras. There's a "behind-the-scenes documentary on the production of 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, and a video interview with Dean Britta about Warhol, the music, and the project. The accompanying booklet includes brief biographies of the Screen Test subjects, liner notes from the Warhol Museum's Thomas Sokolowski, Geralyn Huxley, and Ben Harrison, and notes on the music from Dean Wareham."
But hold on. Warhol filmed over five-hundred screen tests, so why does this thing only feature thirteen? And why is "songs" in the title? Well, songwriters Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips, formerly of the band Luna and currently recording as Dean Britta, actually scored the carefully selected shorts, fleshing out (and making more bearable) the experience of taking in loads of Warhol in one sitting.
13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests official page
