The Loves of Ondine

Ondine centers on a charismatic, openly gay man who tries to change how he presents his sexuality through a series of staged encounters with women. The film strings together loose, improvised scenes rather than a traditional narrative, moving from intimate conversations and flirtations to more chaotic set pieces. At one point Ondine fades into the background as a boisterous group calling themselves The Bananas stage a messy food fight, and later he spars in an informal wrestling match with Joe Dallesandro while others look on. The mood is raw, often shocking, and the scenes feel like snapshots from the Warhol Factory lifestyle without a neat resolution.

The film was made in 1968 by Andy Warhol with Paul Morrissey credited as co-director, and it features Factory regulars including Ondine, Brigid Berlin, Joe Dallesandro, Angelina "Pepper" Davis, and Juan Downey. It’s part of Warhol’s string of underground films from that era.

The Loves of Ondine didn’t earn major industry awards or mainstream festival prizes, and it wasn’t honored by the Oscars, Golden Globes, or comparable institutions. Its recognition stayed mostly within avant garde and underground cinema circles rather than the awards circuit.

As a piece from Warhol’s output, the movie contributed to the period’s experimental film scene and the iconography of the Factory crowd. Specific moments, like the chaotic banquet and the improvised wrestling, have been cited in histories of 1960s counterculture, though the film never reached wide popular fame outside art film aficionados.

Critical and audience reaction has been largely negative or baffled, reflected by a very low user rating, and many viewers find the pacing and improvisation difficult to engage with. Themes include performance of gender and sexuality, spectacle versus intimacy, and the blurring of art and everyday life. The style favors long, unvarnished takes and spontaneous interactions over plot, so it tests conventional expectations about character development and narrative coherence.