I a Man

Currently reading a biography on Jim Morrison it sparked my interest on Tom Baker, his drinking buddy and one of the more interesting cult figures in American cinema. Actor, writer, director and producer, Baker cut quite an interesting path in the film underground. With "I, a Man", perhaps his best known film, Baker is at his peak in all his becoming and wasted glory.

Inspired to make their own version and response to the influential Scandinavian flick, "I, a Woman", Pop artist Andy Warhol and underground filmmaker Paul Morrissey fleshed out "I, a Man", a slice of life depiction on a male prostitute and his experiences on the job. Baker plays himself as the hustler for hire and the film is all about him blabbing and romancing a number of women. What makes the film fascinating is the mundane discussions that mirror any discussion that goes on around the world between men and women in the confines of the bedroom. The fly on the wall, voyeuristic gaze on these real life intimacies is art as life and the documentary approach Warhol and Morrissey are known for created some of the more watchable amateur flicks in cinema history. A number of the "Warhol Superstars" appear and it's good to see the likes of Ingrid Superstar and Ultra Violet in their prime. Seeing Valerie Solanas is intriguing and quite unsettling. The highlight of the film may be seeing Nico and Tom Baker in their memorable scene, their striking good looks adorning the film as one of the most aesthetic couples to grace the silver screen. The very definition of an acquired taste, this crude and talky lo-fi exercise on erotic amateurism will be risible or trying or both to most but to those who want their art to show life as it is then this is one to view.

An interesting look at a fascinating time and vibrant artistic scene, "I, a Man" is an enduring artifact of an age of innovation and change that profoundly altered and shaped the modern era. One of the notable culties, this is one for those who appreciate something different.

I' a Man's title is taken to be a spoof on the previously released Sweedish film called I' a Women. Warhol wanted to do something similar but with a man in the main role.

I' a Man belongs to WARHOL'S third stage as a movie maker, (the first being the silent static shots of inane objects and people, the second being sound with camera movements, minimal narrative). This film shows more narrative structure and character then the one's prior to it. Morrissey's Influence is obvious with the in the camera edits.

I' a Man is about a man's various interactions with different women in and around New York. In one scene there is Nico from Velvet Underground fame staving off Tom Baker's advances. The most famous scene is with the notorious Valerie Solanis, (She was the deranged lesbian who tried killing Warhol shortly after this film). Tom Baker tries picking up Valerie (who looks rather boyish) in the stairwell of her apartment. This particular scene was wonderfully re-created for the film 'I shot Andy Warhol'

Although I' a Man is not boring to watch, such as Warhol's earlier stuff, it does have a tendency to make your mind wander when watching it. The film really is pretty disjointed, and does lack a story. But what makes this film interesting is the Characters assembled for the film. Like with all of Warhol's films, it's never the story that people look for, but the real infamous and famous characters that were part of the 60's counter-culture. And believe me there are plenty in this film.

How great is Valerie Solanas? In her vignette in this highly Paul

Morrissey-accented porno spoof, she stands in a poorly lit hallway

and rebuffs the star, Tom Baker's, attempts to bed her. Her

rapidfire delivery suggests a long-term study of 1930s third and

fourth bananas--gum-chewing wisecrackers handed a scene's

one good and last line. If only Andy had given her the Ingrid

Superstar treatment instead of shutting her out in the cold, things

would've been so different--Warhol would've gone on making good

movies, and Morrissey would have had no career.

There is also a spicy and almost mesmeric sequence with the

extraordinary Nico, who, in addition to all her other qualities, is

infinitely more able to act improvisationally than the cloddish

nonactors assembled here. Baker, the straightest, most earnest

and dullest figure ever put at the center of a Warhol movie, has no

gift for impromptu dialogue; the women opposite him generally

don't either. The film is long and draggy; it resembles the

"recitative" sections between sex scenes in an early-seventies

porn movie. It seems not particularly Warholian but quite

Morrisseyan--it recalls the worst of Morrissey. (One big laugh line

comes when Baker interrupts the beginnings of sex with a

stoned-seeming woman to spray a passing cockroach.)

The film is also, in the worst Morrissey fashion, obsessed with a

microscopic study of physical uglinesses. It often induces

gagging.