Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story

Brigid Berlin frequented Andy Warhol's Factory at a time when art, like sex and drugs, was in the air. Although she was one of the gang, co-starring in Chelsea Girls among other blockbusters, Berlin was definitely not a Warhol superstar in the Edie Sedgwick or Joe Dallesandro vein--though she was one of the few who could match Warhol's wit. Vincent and Sally Dunn Freemont's engaging documentary Pie in the Sky chronicles Berlin's beginnings as a spoiled rich kid (family home movies show a pudgy little girl, nearly always eating and being cranky), who would grow into a rather eccentric adult. In fact, her telephonic dialogues with her mother (which Berlin taped and exhibited as art) would be painful if they weren't so funny (mom was a fulltime socialite who thought she gave Brigid everything; dad was a media mogul who became head of the Hearst empire and got to know Dick Nixon; Brigid's interests lay elsewhere). John Waters observes "she would be nude at all times, which I think is great confidence for a fat girl," and the vintage film footage on display here from the Warhol scene reveals a fair amount of naked cavorting. One particularly rich segment documents Berlin's development of "tit printing," a method of painting--as its name suggests--involving applying paint with one's breasts. Perhaps the most surprising things about Berlin today are that she's still alive, and she's no longer overweight. Did I mention her huge store of polaroids (which Warhol called her product) or her "trip books?" Combining archival footage, feature film clips, and interviews with Berlin herself and a number of her contemporaries, this engaging portrait is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Tribby)