The Eyes of Edie Sedgwick

Marie (not her real name) informs me that people taking speed adore silver linings; hence the Factory's -- and Edie's -- look. For me, caffeine and a Sagittarian disposition provide more than enough kick. But I like silver linings, too. Go figure.

What makes Edie so aesthetically beautiful? She highlights the effect with makeup, but still -- me likee. Judging from Ciao Manhattan! and snippets of Chelsea Girls (available digitally only in the black market so far), she brimmed over with charisma and charm.

The latest news on George Hickenlooper's Factory Girl is that it's set for release in September 2006. As for the Janis Joplin film The Gospel According to Janis directed by Penelope Spheeris, I think it was Wichita-Lineman who noted that it's tentatively set for release in 2008. Once more, I make my plea for someone to make a movie -- even a documentary would be great -- about Anne Sexton. Personally, I like her and her poetry a lot more than Sylvia Plath's, though like many others, I did enjoy Sylvia and agree that it was a well-balanced film. It would be cool to see a movie from the perspective of Assia Wevill, too. She was the other woman -- the one Hughes left Sylvia for. Talk about Gypsy Curses! Only five or six years after Plath killed herself, Wevill took her own life and that of their daughter, Alexandra Tatiana Eloise "Shura" Wevill. Ghastly! Sounds like the House of Usher. Evil Eye, indeed. As Marie once quipped, There's your movie. Plath's ghost apparently haunted Wevill, and she ended up copying Sylvia's way out, adding her daughter to the mix. Hughes went on to marry yet another woman; that one stuck until he died in 1998.

Finally, Hickenlooper also directed the original shorter version of Swing Blade called Some Folks Call it a Swing Blade (1994), available on DVD with documentary. I haven't seen it, but would like to. Billy Bob Thornton is cool, but Hickenlooper should be able to share some of the credit for his big breakout.

Cheers!