LUPE (1965)

Colour/Sound/72 1/2 mins/
Double Screen version 36 mins
(filmed December 1965)

Billy Name/Edie Sedgwick
(Note: Some filmographies list Ronald Tavel as the scriptwriter, but he had nothing to do with the film.)

Lupe was shot in December 1965 using Andy's sync-sound Auricon camera which resulted in a very poor quality soundtrack. The Auricon recorded an optical soundtrack directly on the film during shooting but optical tracks required black and white processing to avoid distortion and Lupe was shot and processed in color. (FAW25) It was shot in Panna Grady's apartment in the old Dakota building:

Andy Warhol:

"Panna was a hostess of the sixties who put uptown intellectuals together with Lower East side types - she seemed to adore the drug-related writers in particular." (POP127)

Lupe was based on the story of of Lupe Velez who planned to commit the most beautiful suicide but ended up dying with her head in the toilet vomiting. Playwright Robert Heide conferred with Warhol about the screenplay for the film:

Robert Heide:

"During this period I conferred with Andy about writing The Death of Lupe Velez for Edie who was anxious to play the role of the Mexican Spitfire, found dead in her Hollywood hacienda with her head in a toilet bowl. I met Edie at the Kettle of Fish on MacDougal Street to talk over the project. When I got there Edie was at a table with a fuzzy-haired blond Bob Dylan whose shiny black limousine was parked outside. I mentioned the script I was working on and Edie said innocently, 'Oh, we already filmed that this afternoon. It's in the can... in Technicolor.' Nothing was said when Andy arrived, although he did astonish me that evening by asking, 'When do you think Edie will commit suicide? I hope she lets me know so I can film it'." (VVR)

An Edie Sedgwick retrospective was planned to take place at the Cinematheque two months after the filming of Lupe but was canceled partially due to strained relations with Edie. It was replaced with Andy Warhol - Uptight, "Warhol's first multimedia production of the Velvet Underground in performance." (FAW25) Lupe was shown in multiscreen (along with More Milk Yvette) on February 8 with Edie dancing on stage with the Velvets as part of the production.

Lupe was one of the last films that Warhol made with Edie, although she did appear in reels 38 (Edith Sedgwick) and 41 (Edith and Ondine) of ****(aka Four Stars or The Twenty Five Hour Movie). The Edie footage in **** was "probably filmed around the end of 1966." (FAW25). She was also reputedly in The Andy Warhol Story (or Rene as Andy), which is described by the Andy Warhol Film Project (Whitney Museum of American Art) as "an unreleased and reportedly vicious two-reel feature made in 1966, in which both Rene Ricard and Edie pretend to be Andy Warhol." (Ibid)

Gary Comenas
Warholstars