Drunk aka Drink. 1965. USA. Directed by Andy Warhol. With Emile de Antonio. 66 min.
Unseen for more than 50 years, and making its New York debut in a new digital restoration made possible through a partnership initiated by The Andy Warhol Museum with The Museum of Modern Art and MPC, a Technicolor company, Drunk is every bit as fascinating as legendary accounts have suggested. In January 1965, over drinks at the Russian Tea Room, the documentary filmmaker Emile de Antonio (Point of Order, In the Year of the Pig) warily agreed to collaborate with Warhol on a movie. Believing their politics and art to be absurdly different, De Antonio instead gamely proposed to drink an entire quart of J&B scotch in 20 minutes under the unflinching, voyeuristic gaze of Warhol’s camera. Their Factory session, recorded in this film, instead lasted 66 minutes, its grand finale a reckless and grandiose De Antonio writhing on the floor, clawing the walls, and speaking in tongues. Warhol would later recall in Popism that “Rotten Rita, who was hanging around, said, ‘Marine Corps sergeants keel over dead from that. Your liver can't take it.’ But De didn't die, and I called the movie Drink so it could be a trilogy with my Eat and Sleep.” DCP.