Beautiful Darling
posted December 6, 2019 #
I recently watched Beautiful Darling, a documentary on Candy Darling - a star of many Warhol films that is considered a transsexual icon. The film contains a ton of footage from the Warhol Factory days, which is fascinating in and of itself but the story it documents is powerful. On the surface, Candy was obsessed with being a movie star and achieved a bit of her dream by working with both Warhol and Tennessee Williams but, ultimately, felt alone and isolated due to her gender identity.
As a society in 2019, we're still struggling with this so one can imagine the additional difficulty of traversing such a thing in the late 60's, early 70's. Excerpts from her diary are read along aloud during various transitions to give deeply personal insight on the juxtaposition of her success versus her inner conflict and it is just tragic.
That may not sound all too appealing of a review for an enticing viewing but I can't recommend it enough. There's a strength in Candy that is admirable and her insights can serve as a reminder of how difficult gender identity can be.
As a society in 2019, we're still struggling with this so one can imagine the additional difficulty of traversing such a thing in the late 60's, early 70's. Excerpts from her diary are read along aloud during various transitions to give deeply personal insight on the juxtaposition of her success versus her inner conflict and it is just tragic.
That may not sound all too appealing of a review for an enticing viewing but I can't recommend it enough. There's a strength in Candy that is admirable and her insights can serve as a reminder of how difficult gender identity can be.