Paul Morrissey

Directing

Paul Morrissey

Born 1938-02-23 · New York City, New York, USA

Paul Morrissey (February 23, 1938 - October 28, 2024) was an American film director, best-known for his association with Andy Warhol. Morrissey attended Ampleforth College, a private Roman Catholic boarding school and Fordham University, both Roman Catholic schools, and later served in the United States Army. A political conservative and self-described "right-winger", who has publicly protested against what he perceives as immorality and "anti-Catholicism", Morrissey's long-term collaboration with the low-keyed, apparently apolitical Warhol was viewed by many as "a successful mismatch", although both men did share some traits, i.e. both were practising Catholics from "ethnic" backgrounds (Warhol was of Rusyn descent and Morrissey is of Irish descent). Morrissey's bold, avant-garde direction in filmmaking is often attributed to his relationship with Warhol and The Factory, although Morrissey claimed in his memoir, Factory Days, that this is not the case.

Acting credits

Midnight Cowboy poster
7.5

Joe Buck is a wide-eyed hustler from Texas hoping to score big with wealthy New York City women; he finds a companion in Enrico "Ratso" Rizzo, an ailing swindler with a bum leg and a quixotic fantasy of escaping to Florida.

Midnight Cowboy

1969

Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis poster
4.1

Andy Warhol described Jackie Curtis as “A pioneer without a frontier.” In this biographical documentary, Curtis’s co-workers and friends speak of her work and her influence, along with clips from Curtis’s Warhol films as well as never-before-seen footage from her stage shows.

Superstar in a Housedress: The Life and Legend of Jackie Curtis

2004

Rich and Famous poster
5.4

Two literary women compete for 20 years: one writes for the critics; the other one, to get rich.

Rich and Famous

1981

Room 666 poster
6.6

During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders asked a number of global film directors to, one at a time, go into a hotel room, turn on the camera, and answer a simple question: "What is the future of cinema?"

Room 666

1985

Divine Trash poster
7.2

The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters.

Divine Trash

2000

Paranoia poster
NR

On the evening of November 8th, 1966, following the afternoon filming of The George Hamilton Story, a movie in which Warhol cast his mother Julia as an “aging peroxide movie star with a lot of husbands”, – “ We’re trying to bring back old people.” – he took his crew and a much larger cast to Kaleidoscope, fashion designer Tiger Morse’s boutique shop on Madison Avenue in New York City, to shoot his second unreleased film of the day. A nocturnal tale of downtown bulls in an uptown China shop, Paranoia is a portrait of the always captivating, always hilarious Morse as she converses with everyone in front of and behind the camera while genuinely attempting to keep the Superstars in the room from wreaking havoc on her uniquely curated curios.

Paranoia

1966

Andy Warhol, Fluorescent poster
5.0

A documentary on the legendary creator and victim of pop art. Warhol, revolutionary and controversial, was never afraid to break the mold and reshape the reals of art, advertising, and directing. But who was the real man being behind the colors in which he hid?

Andy Warhol, Fluorescent

2016

Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol poster
7.3

Iconic American artist and filmmaker Andy Warhol is the subject of this documentary, which looks at both his life and his influence on pop culture. The film provides details about Warhol's upbringing in Pittsburgh and follows his move to New York City, where he found massive success turning pop imagery into art and eventually founded "The Factory," his famed studio and party venue. Among the many notables interviewed are Dennis Hopper, David Hockney, and Roy Lichtenstein.

Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol

1990

Beautiful Darling poster
6.3

James Rasin's documentary “Beautiful Darling” honors American Transgender actress and best-known Warhol Superstar, Candy Darling, and her all-too-brief life and career, with a combination of current and vintage interview material, rarely seen archival photos and footage, and extracts from Darling's movies.

Beautiful Darling

2010

Danny Says poster
7.0

DANNY SAYS is a documentary unveiling the amazing journey of Danny Fields. Fields has played a pivotal role in music and culture with seminal acts including: the Doors, the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, MC5, Nico, the Ramones and beyond.

Danny Says

2015

Warhol poster
8.0

David Bailey, self-taught photographer and one of the prime architects of the Swinging Sixties, broadened his horizons in the early 1970s by making high-profile documentaries for ATV. With his standing among the artistic community, Bailey was given unprecedented access to Pop Art legend Andy Warhol and his followers, in an attempt to penetrate behind the expressionless exterior of a man who was one of the most controversial figures of his generation.

Warhol

1973

Chelsea Girls poster
5.5

Follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City.

Chelsea Girls

1966

Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground poster
NR

The 29-minute experimental film Christmas on Earth caused a sensation when it first screened in New York City in 1964. Its orgy scenes, double projections and overlapping images shattered artistic conventions and announced a powerful new voice in the city's underground film scene. All the more remarkable, that vision belonged to a teenager, 18-year-old Barbara Rubin. A Zelig of the '60s, she introduced Andy Warhol to the Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan to Kabbalah and bewitched Allen Ginsberg. The same unbridled creativity that inspired her to make films when women simply didn't, saw her breach yet another male domain, Orthodox Judaism, before her mysterious death at 35. Lifelong friend Jonas Mekas saved all her letters, creating a rich archive that filmmaker Chuck Smith carefully sculpts into this fascinating portrait of a nearly forgotten artist. An avante-garde maverick, a rebel in a man's world, Barbara Rubin regains her rightful place in film history.

Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground

2018

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film poster
8.2

Ric Burns unearths rarely seen footage and offers keen observations on the life and artistic influence of Andy Warhol. [Made for and aired on PBS's American Masters series.]

Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

2006

Excavating Taylor Mead poster
7.0

The film icon/Andy Warhol darling is interviewed is his legendary cluttered apartment.

Excavating Taylor Mead

2005

Andy Warhol Screen Tests poster
8.0

The films were made between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol's Factory studio in New York City. Subjects were captured in stark relief by a strong key light, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film at 24 frames per second. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in 'slow motion' at 16 frames per second.

Andy Warhol Screen Tests

1965

Jonas in the Desert poster
6.4

Not a documentary in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, it is a journey through the world of the artist Jonas Mekas - one of the exponents of independent U.S. movies; founder and director of the New York Anthology Film Archive.

Jonas in the Desert

1994

Viaggio nel cinema in 3D: Una storia vintage poster
NR

Sergio Castellitto's narration traces the history of 3D cinema, which began with cinema itself, through films from the early 1900s such as "L'Arrivée d'un train en gare de La Ciotat" by the Lumière brothers, to the great titles of the 1950s such as Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder" and "The Creature from the Black Lagoon."

Viaggio nel cinema in 3D: Una storia vintage

2016

No artwork available
8.0

Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century (who also coined the immortal catchphrase "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes"), gets the definitive treatment. This film includes a look into his inner circle and examines both his artistic and personal impact on society. From day-glo Marilyns and Elvises to Campbell's Soup cans to the groovy 1960s and '70s, step into the limelight of the Warhol world.

Andy Warhol: The Complete Picture

2001

Nico Icon poster
8.1

A look into the many lives of Christa Päffgen, otherwise known as Nico; from cutie German mädchen to the first of the supermodels, to glamorous diva of the Velvet Underground, to cult item, junkie and hag. Many faces for the same woman, whom, you realize, just couldn't bring herself to care enough to live.

Nico Icon

1995

Andy Warhol poster
6.8

The first major profile of the American Pop Art cult leader after his death in 1987 covers the whole of his life and work through interviews, clips from his films, and conversations with his family and superstar friends. Andy Warhol, the son of poor Czech immigrants, grew up in the industrial slums of Pittsburgh while dreaming of Hollywood stars. He went on to become a star himself.

Andy Warhol

1987

Home Movies: NYC to San Diego poster
NR

“The film flickers through a millennium of culture as it would appear to a tourist. It is an intense film, yet there is an incredible wealth of information surprisingly accessible. Aside from the exciting experience itself, the breakneck history lesson is a reminder that the mind can move in lightning steps: The plodding way information is typically presented is an insult to mental capability.” - Bartlett Naylor

Home Movies: NYC to San Diego

1968

Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story poster
6.8

Documentary about American artist and former Warhol superstar, Brigid Berlin.

Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story

2000

Helmut Berger, My Mother and Me poster
6.0

My mother googles the film hero of her youth: Helmut Berger. She is shocked: only an addicted shadow of the former icon seems to be left. She decides to halt the obvious catastrophic decline of the once “most handsome man in the world”. As a consequence, this one-time god of the screen is suddenly sitting on my mother’s sofa in Nordsehl in Lower Saxony. And he stays put - for several months. While he trustingly rolls out his whole life before us, the dividing lines between film team, world star and family intermingle. This is a film about ageing, rising and falling - and about the fact that it is sometimes possible to regain an element of dignity in life.

Helmut Berger, My Mother and Me

2019

Behind the camera

Flesh for Frankenstein poster
5.8

Within the decadent walls of the Frankenstein mansion, the Baron and his depraved assistant Otto have discovered the means of creating new life. As the Baron's laboratory begins to fill up with stitched body parts, the Baroness dallies with the randy new manservant and soon the decadent, permissive household is consumed by an outrageous, bizarre and hilarious combination of death and dismemberment.

Flesh for Frankenstein

1973

Flesh for Frankenstein poster
5.8

Within the decadent walls of the Frankenstein mansion, the Baron and his depraved assistant Otto have discovered the means of creating new life. As the Baron's laboratory begins to fill up with stitched body parts, the Baroness dallies with the randy new manservant and soon the decadent, permissive household is consumed by an outrageous, bizarre and hilarious combination of death and dismemberment.

Flesh for Frankenstein

1973

Blood for Dracula poster
5.7

Deathly ill Count Dracula and his slimy underling, Anton, travel to Italy in search of a virgin's blood. They're welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore, who's desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters incestuous lesbians with vile blood and Marxist manservant Mario, who's suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.

Blood for Dracula

1974

Blood for Dracula poster
5.7

Deathly ill Count Dracula and his slimy underling, Anton, travel to Italy in search of a virgin's blood. They're welcomed at the crumbling estate of indebted Marchese Di Fiore, who's desperate to marry off his daughters to rich suitors. But there, instead of pure women, the count encounters incestuous lesbians with vile blood and Marxist manservant Mario, who's suspicious of the aristocratic Dracula.

Blood for Dracula

1974

I Miss Sonia Henie poster
5.4

One camera in one setting, one attic and eight young directors – the result is a unique Dadaistic collage of seven short sketches. The original task for each filmmaker was to keep each short under three minutes, to set it in one hotel room, and to include the sentence “I miss Sonja Henie." This experimental film was shot over a single night at the international film festival FEST in Beograd in 1971.

I Miss Sonia Henie

1971

Mixed Blood poster
5.7

On the mean streets of New York City, a dog-eat-dog mentality reigns among the destitute citizens. In one of the many abandoned buildings in the neighborhood of Alphabet City lives the Brazilian Rita La Punta, along with her delinquent son, Thiago, and a gang of Hispanic teens charged with selling heroin and cocaine. When Rita and her young gang members get involved in a minor turf war, the violence escalates out of control, touching everyone and sparing no one.

Mixed Blood

1985

Mixed Blood poster
5.7

On the mean streets of New York City, a dog-eat-dog mentality reigns among the destitute citizens. In one of the many abandoned buildings in the neighborhood of Alphabet City lives the Brazilian Rita La Punta, along with her delinquent son, Thiago, and a gang of Hispanic teens charged with selling heroin and cocaine. When Rita and her young gang members get involved in a minor turf war, the violence escalates out of control, touching everyone and sparing no one.

Mixed Blood

1985

News from Nowhere poster
NR

After Eduardo, an Argentine loner on the lam, arrives in the U.S. illegally, he forms a relationship with a woman and her teenage daughter.

News from Nowhere

2010

Trash poster
5.7

The movie follows Joe, a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers on Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend. During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.

Trash

1970

Trash poster
5.7

The movie follows Joe, a heroin addict, throughout his quest to score more drugs. The episodic plot occurs over a single day and centers on Joe's problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend. During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool Welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.

Trash

1970

Changing Fashions poster
NR

Anthony Kiedis and Sofia Coppola try to escape the fashion influence of Debbie Harry.

Changing Fashions

1993

Bike Boy poster
5.0

Joe Spencer, a member of a motorcycle gang, is taking a shower. After his bout with personal hygiene, Joe encounters Andy Warhol's "superstars," who engage him in conversation. The superstars crack jokes he doesn't understand and continually correct his poor pronunciation in an attempt to deflate his machismo. In response to these provocations, Joe becomes more obscene and more boasting, but ultimately, he cannot compete with the put-downs that are part of the put-on performances of the Warhol superstars, who prevail over him in the end.

Bike Boy

1967

Heat poster
5.8

Former child star Joe Davis, reduced to living in a cheap Hollywood motel while struggling for acting jobs, is lusted after by nearly every woman he meets, including Jessica Todd, a tightly wound feminist who has recently come out as a lesbian. When Jessica's mother, Sally, an emotionally needy has-been actress, meets Joe, she moves him into her enormous, tacky mansion as her new boy toy and attempts to get him acting work.

Heat

1972

L'Amour poster
4.0

Donna and Jane are two American hippies, searching for sex and romance in Paris but, mainly, rich husbands. Eventually, Donna finds a perfume industrialist, Michael, who wishes to marry her, providing she will accept sharing his special friendship with local gigolo Max. Drama ensues as Michael changes his mind when meeting Jane, but all is well that ends well.

L'Amour

1973

L'Amour poster
4.0

Donna and Jane are two American hippies, searching for sex and romance in Paris but, mainly, rich husbands. Eventually, Donna finds a perfume industrialist, Michael, who wishes to marry her, providing she will accept sharing his special friendship with local gigolo Max. Drama ensues as Michael changes his mind when meeting Jane, but all is well that ends well.

L'Amour

1973

L'Amour poster
4.0

Donna and Jane are two American hippies, searching for sex and romance in Paris but, mainly, rich husbands. Eventually, Donna finds a perfume industrialist, Michael, who wishes to marry her, providing she will accept sharing his special friendship with local gigolo Max. Drama ensues as Michael changes his mind when meeting Jane, but all is well that ends well.

L'Amour

1973

Flesh poster
5.6

A heroin junkie works as a prostitute to support his habit and fund an abortion needed by the girlfriend of his lesbian wife. His seedy encounters with delusional and damaged clients, and dates with drag queens and hustlers are heavy on sex, drugs and decadence.

Flesh

1968

The Hound of the Baskervilles poster
4.4

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1978

The Hound of the Baskervilles poster
4.4

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1978

Madame Wang's poster
5.3

A KGB agent comes to California to meet Jane Fonda and prepare for a Russian takeover of the US. After losing his papers, he connects with a band of homeless, overweight, and over-the-hill transvestites and becomes a punker in a Chinese restaurant owned by an elderly transexual, Madame Wang.

Madame Wang's

1996

Madame Wang's poster
5.3

A KGB agent comes to California to meet Jane Fonda and prepare for a Russian takeover of the US. After losing his papers, he connects with a band of homeless, overweight, and over-the-hill transvestites and becomes a punker in a Chinese restaurant owned by an elderly transexual, Madame Wang.

Madame Wang's

1996

Imitation of Christ poster
8.7

Warhol's Factory visits Los Angeles.

Imitation of Christ

1967

Chelsea Girls poster
5.5

Follows various residents of the Chelsea Hotel in 1966 New York City.

Chelsea Girls

1966

San Diego Surf poster
9.0

Viva and Taylor Mead are a married couple renting an extra beach-house to a group of surfers sent to them by a Mr. Morrissey of La Jolla Realty. Their daughter, Ingrid Superstar, is pregnant and on the hunt for a husband. Mr. Mead, who is gay, tries to pawn her off to one of the surfers. Meanwhile, Viva wants a divorce from her boy-crazy hubby, who wants a surfer of his own. Tom, a surfer, is inveigled by Mr. Mead to urinate on him. In a close-up, Mr. Mead receives Tom's offering ecstatically, after which he comments, "I'm a real surfer now."

San Diego Surf

1968