“Edie, the faded starlet of “A.” is not so much a literal figuration of a woman, but a nightmare memory come to life. Nothing in Price’s cinema is quite what it appears to be. Daytime broadcasts implode into personal confessions. Edie is not Price-in-drag, but Price living within the ethos of the woman’s pictures that his mother obsessively tuned into when Price was growing up. Audio recordings Price made with his sister Sally, re-enacting the films Streetcar Named Desire and Imitation of Life invade the film. The memories engendered on these lazy afternoon are poured into Edie’s unsteady form. “A.” took years to film and the interior locales stretch out over 3 or 4 of Price’s apartments….it was a turbulent period of production in which Price became severely depressed and suffered a near-fatal accident while filming the suicide sequence.
