1996 film directed by Mary Harron, starring Lili Taylor as Valerie Solanas, the woman who shot Andy Warhol and wrote the SCUM manifesto, among other things. To my mind, the film established Lili Taylor as a star, and since then Hollywood has made it clear that it agrees. It also stars Jared Harris as Andy Warhol and Stephen Dorff as Candy Darling.
The film's score was written and performed by John Cale, and the soundtrack is as follows:
- Season of the Witch: Luna
- Do You Believe in Magic: The Lovin' Spoonful
- Love Is All Around: R.E.M.
- Burned: Wilco
- Itchycoo Park: Ben Lee
- Sunshine Superman: Jewel
- Mais Que Nada: Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66
- Gimi A Little Break: Love
- Sensitive Euro Man: Pavement
- Kick Out the Jams: MC5
- I'll Keep It With Mine: Bettie Serveert
- Demons: Yo La Tengo
- I Shot Andy Warhol Suite: John Cale
As far as the
soundtrack goes, the
Luna and
Bettie Serveert tracks are damned near
modern classics, the former because it turns a piece of
pop trash by
Donovan into a truly listenable tune, the latter because of the sheer beauty of the
Bob Dylan song that is
revealed by a
guileless performance. Not that the rest of it is bad; it's all quite good, even the
Jewel song (another
Donovan cover).
According to Cale, Lou Reed was offered the opportunity to score the film, but turned it down because he believed that it would glorify Valerie Solanis. While the movie certainly makes her a sympathetic character, I don't believe that it endorses her attempted murder of Warhol, a distinction lost on Reed. For Reed's take on the situation, listen to Songs for Drella, which he did with Cale, but most of the credit for the lyrics is his.
For the record, the liner notes credit Burned to Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield, Love is All Around to The Troggs, and Itchycoo Park to The Small Faces, and I'll Keep It With Mine was also perfomed, notably, by Nico and Fairport Convention, presumably not at the same time!