1n 1996, Mary Harron made a film called
''I Shot Andy Warhol'' about radical feminist Valerie Solanas’s attempted assassination of the famous artist in 1968. Eleven years later, George Hickenlooper made a film called ''Factory Girl'', set mostly in 1965, which essentially explains why Andy Warhol deserved to get shot. The film stars Sienna Miller as Edie Sedgwick, the legendary New York socialite, model and actress, who had her Warholian 15-minutes of fame before dying of barbiturate overdose in 1971. She was 28 years old. The film doesn’t exactly accuse Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan of indirectly causing her death, but it comes fairly close. While Edie Sedgwick had other problems as well (among other things, she was sexually abused by her father since she was 8), according to the film, those two 60’s legends certainly didn’t help her at all to get over her demons. And while Bob Dylan isn't even identified by name, he has actually threatened a lawsuit against the movie. Stylistically, it's an impressive, if a bit conventional, effort. But what really makes this film great is Sienna Miller's courageous, fabulous and nuanced performance. Watch Edie Sedgwick's films like the brilliant
''Poor Little Rich Girl'' (1965) and the wretched
''Beauty #2'' (1965) to see just how accurate Sienna Miller's portrayal is.
