Sylvia Miles - Sally
Joe Dallesandro - Joe
Andy Warhol
Ray Vestal
Andrea Feldman
Pat Ast
The 1971 Heat was an early entry in filmmaker Paul Morrissey's
tenure as the official director of movies coming out of Andy Warhol's
so-called Factory. (Morrissey took the reins from Warhol himself,
after the artist had made a number of celebrated underground films.)
Factory star Joe Dallesandro plays the William Holden part in what
is essentially an unofficial remake of Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard.
As a former child star named Little Joe, Dallesandro's on-the-skids
actor is bedding anyone who he thinks can help his career. Going
nowhere, he becomes involved with an aging former star (Sylvia Miles),
and while their relationship doesn't do much for his aspirations
it contributes to Morrissey's unvarnished portrait of Hollywood
hustling that certainly falls below the radar of Wilder's classic.
Not a great film but a distinctive and memorable one, Heat extends
Morrissey's fascination with the tawdry and humiliating fate of
most big dreams, and is more poignant than most of the director's
later work. |