“Chelsea Girls” is the 1966 Andy Warhol film featuring multiple split-screen projections and scenes connected with New York’s Chelsea Hotel. It was directed by Warhol and Paul Morrissey and centres on loosely connected vignettes involving Warhol’s “Superstars.”
The film alternates colour and black-and-white footage, with two reels projected side by side and the sound from one selected at a time. This unusual structure gives viewers competing images and creates the voyeuristic, improvised atmosphere for which the film is known.
Many sequences were filmed in rooms and locations inside the Hotel Chelsea, whose residents and visitors included figures from Warhol’s artistic circle. The cast included Nico, Brigid Berlin, Ondine, Gerard Malanga and Mary Woronov, while The Velvet Underground contributed music.
“Chelsea Girls” premiered at the Film-Makers’ Cinémathèque on September 15, 1966. Its approximate running time is 210 minutes. It is often confused with “Sleep” or “Empire,” but those are separate Warhol films built around extended observation rather than this multi-vignette split-screen format.