Blow Job (1964 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Blow Job is a silent film, directed by Andy Warhol. Filmed in January 1964, the 35-minute film was shot with a 16-millimetre Bolex silent camera on black-and-white film. It depicts the face of an uncredited DeVeren Bookwalter as he receives fellatio from an unseen partner, widely reported to be avant-garde filmmaker Willard Maas. While shot at 24 frame/s, Warhol specified that it should be projected at 16 frame/s, slowing it down by a third.
Despite the salacious title, the film shows only the expression on the young man's face; the implied sexual act itself is not seen. It is not stated whether it is a male or a female performing the act, and the viewer must assume that fellatio is occurring.
The identity of the person performing the act is disputed. Warhol states in his book POPism (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1980) that five different boys performed the fellatio. This can be found on page 64 and 65 of the book. In this book, Warhol writes that he originally asked Charles Rydell, boyfriend of filmmaker Jerome Hill, to star in the film, promising that there would be "five beautiful boys" to perform the act.
However, when Warhol set up the film shoot at The Factory on a Sunday, Rydell failed to show up. Warhol phoned Rydell at Hill's suite at the Algonquin Hotel and asked where Rydell was. Rydell replied that he thought Warhol was kidding, and had no intention of appearing in such a film. When he declined Andy used "a good looking kid that happened to be hanging around the Factory that day", later identified as Bookwalter. By that time, the five boys had departed, and Maas was pressed into service (Warhol's notoriously poor memory kept the five boys in place for the version given in the much later book POPism).
In 1966, Warhol filmed a sequel, Eating Too Fast, running 67 minutes and with sound, and featuring art critic and writer Gregory Battcock as the recipient.
See also
See also
