Blow Job (film)
| Blow Job | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Directed by | Andy Warhol |
| Produced by | Andy Warhol |
| Starring | DeVeren Bookwalter |
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Release date
|
1964 |
|
Running time
|
35 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent |
Blow Job is a silent film, directed by Andy Warhol, that was filmed in January 1964. It depicts the face of an uncredited DeVeren Bookwalter as he apparently receives fellatio from an unseen partner. 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. It has also been speculated that the salaciousness is entirely in the title, and that no fellatio was actually being performed.
The identity of the person performing the act is disputed, though it is widely reported, by actor Gerard Malanga and others, to be avant-garde filmmaker Willard Maas. Warhol states in his book Popism: The Warhol Sixties (1980) that five different boys performed the fellatio. In this book, Warhol writes that he originally asked Charles Rydell, the 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", who was 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 (originally titled Blow Job #2) which runs 67 minutes with sound. It features art critic and writer Gregory Battcock as the recipient.
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