Ahead of the London premiere of Face Addict, LWLies caught up with ex-Interview snapper, Edo Bertoglio.
LWLies: Face Addict is a movie about what-happened-when, with Debbie Harry, John Lurie, Jean-Michel Basquiat et al. Why make it now?
EB: Face Addict is a project that I really wanted to do after Downtown 81 came out in 2000. The community of artists and the dynamic of people in 1980 was really incredible, but by 1983, there was heavy drugs, overdoses. Ronald Regan and money came in – everything just disappeared and the community got destroyed.
For many years Downtown 81 stayed in a drawer, but when it went to Cannes somebody said: “So this movie finally came out, what’s your next project?” I instinctively said: “I want to go back to New York and see what is left of this community.” And little by little the thought became Face Addict.
LWLies; Despite all the press about the big names, Face Addict centres on the musician and artist, Walter Steding, would you agree?
EB: Journalists talk about Andy Warhol and The Factory but it is really just tangential to the movie, because Warhol was there before, during and, will be there long after, our community exploded.
Walter is a lovely, extremely honest character. He knew that this was his last opportunity to clean up so really invested himself in Face Addict.
When I went to shoot in 2002, he was still stoned on heroin which made me very afraid. I thought there was no way I could handle his drug addiction. But in June 2003, he said to me, “Edo, I’m clean”. He’d even got his first ever apartment, which he still has.
His next project is his teeth. He doesn’t have any real ones and made his own many years ago. He’s getting abbesses so we bought another painting from him to help him on his way!
LWLies: What was Debbie Harry like?
EB: In 2001, Debbie Harry was making music in small jazz clubs. I told her about the film and that I really want to talk honestly about drug addiction. She okayed it and we agreed to spend a couple of days with her filming how she lived.
By the time we were ready to do shoot her in 2004, Blondie had gotten back together. She reunited with the agent, the band, the manager and so when I called the agent – I no longer had her direct contact – he said: “Okay you can have 30 minutes with her.”
The funny thing is she was not like she was. She was not ready to talk about everything, she was formatted. I didn’t have much I could put in Face Addict – she was not personal enough, not like the rest of the interviewees.
LWLies: In the film it is said that artists in 1980 didn’t care about pleasing anyone but their own community. Is that true of artists today?
EB: What’s inside an artist is the same as 1,000 years ago and will not change, but what you have to do to promote yourself these days is another matter.
Because while I would like to be proved wrong, it is my impression that things have changed very much. If you’re a young artist in New York it is too expensive to live in Manhattan or even in Brooklyn, particularly Williamsburg.
Back then you could have a studio for $100 and work three days a week as a waiter. Now that same studio costs $25,00 and has a doorman.
And these days, gallery agents go to art school to pick who they think will be successful, they give them money as security and then they push their careers. Back then, we worked only for the respect of our peers.
LWLies: How important were drugs?
EB: When we were shooting Face Addict, I interviewed five very talented young artists in New York. There was nothing that resembled what was happening 25 years ago. They said: “Why should I waste time doing drugs, I want to be successful.”
For us, drugs weren’t really a waste of time – it was communal, we stayed up late, and took pictures. There was no difference between free time and work. But after a while we would wake up individually, and think it was not so important to make pictures but to get drugs just so we could paint pictures again. That was the beginning of the end for many of us.
LWLies: What are you doing next?
EB: I am working on a documentary about a ‘caretaker’ for the Swiss police. He is on call 24/7 and whenever there is a tragedy, like a death or an accident, the police call him to deal with it. But the thing is he’s 40, and he can longer deal with the pressure.
We haven’t started filming yet. We have to be there when there is a tragedy so we can film it – and I really want to be – but I’m scared to see all that horror. My excuse [for delaying it] it is that we have a lot of permission to get before filming.
I’ve been preparing it with the caretaker, his wife and the priest that he goes to for advice. He’s a very interesting character in how he helps him handle the tragedies that he sees.
I also have an exhibition in a gallery in Milan – it’s an installation about toys I have had made, but it’s hard to explain without you seeing it. I’ll have to send you an invite!
