'Beautiful Darling' at the NFT

This evening we went to see 'Beautiful Darling' at the National Film Theatre, a new documentary film about Candy Darling. If you haven't heard of her, she was one of Andy Warhol's film superstars and subject of one of the verses of Lou Reed's 'Walk On The Wild Side' - that should help you place her in context. But, to paraphrase Lou Reed, she was a he.

The film is clearly a labour of love from Jeremiah Newton who was Candy's friend back in the '60s and early '70s before she died of cancer at the age of 29 in 1974. The film is set around the rather odd premise of Jeremiah burying Candy's ashes along with those of his mother who recently died. The film looks back at Candy's short life, a boy in the suburbs of Long Island who reinvents himself as Candy Darling in New York in the mid-'60s and she goes on to become an actress of stage and screen.

It includes film clips and interviews with a wide range of people, from Jayne County (formerly Wayne County of Electric Chairs fame) and Penny Arcade to clips of interviews with Andy Warhol and even footage of a young Lou Reed. She was a staple of the early Factory films and a glamour-puss to boot. Her delicate bone structure only needed a hint of make-up to transform her, and blond hair completed the transformation.

The film included excerpts from her diary and letters which, if they're representative, indicate a very literate and thoughtful person, very self-aware that she is her own creation. I'll need to track down a copy of her diary, I think. The film ends with a quote from Candy: 'There is one thing I must tell you because I just found it to be truth...You must always be yourself no matter what the price. It is the highest form of morality.'

Jeremiah was on hand to do a Q&A after the film and he sounds like a nice guy with a whole history himself. The film was obviously a labour of love for him, keeping Candy's name and memory alive and supporting the hard choices of transgendered people. In the normal, run of the mill, lives most of us live it's nice to know there are some exotic creatures out there who we will probably never understand or meet, but who find another way to live. I don't want to find another way to live - I'm quite happy with what I have at the moment - but I admire those brave souls who live life on their own terms.

I don't know if there are any plans to release the film more widely but do go and see it if you get the chance. It's on in London for a couple of days, I think, and then plays in New York as part of a film festival. Hopefully you won't be subjected to an enhanced 12" remix of the Velvet's 'Venus In Furs' before and after the film.