Mixxie Powers's video: Romantic Scene between Joe Dallesandro and Maria Schneider

"I'd love to sleep with you."....Joe's come on to Maria Schneider in what is clearly the best, the sexiest, scene in this strange film. This is a scene from the interesting, yet, ultimately, failed film "Merry-Go-Round". It was made in 1979 by acclaimed director Jacques Rivette. Apparently, one of Rivette's problems was filming too much and not knowing where to stop. This production was plagued by difficulties, starting with the female star Maria Schneider who suffered a breakdown during filming. Joe was dealing badly with the death of his brother, Bobby, dulling his grief with drugs and alcohol. The director was not in control of his film, which was largely improvised. The actors were given a basic plot (I suspect the supporting actors were given a bit more plot to work with) and told to improvise. Maria Schneider was not as comfortable with improvisation as Joe (who got his start that way with the Warhol/Morrissey productions). According to Joe, they got along well at first (which can be seen in some of the earlier scenes) but at some point Maria mysteriously turned on him and he could not figure out why. There is a scene about 2/3 through the film where Joe breaks down in tears and one wonders if the stress of dealing with her increasing hostility was the cause. This film went on and on and seemed to have no end. Joe actually said, "We worked on the film for so many weeks, and they kept shooting these scenes where I was running. Running, running, running. It got so bad that I wasn't even aware that Maria had left he picture. She was so far away during these endless scenes that I had no idea they'd replaced her with a double. That's when I really understood that this movie could go on forever, If they'd have replaced me with a double, they'd still be out there shooting.". In a scene like this one, which took place toward the end, you can see Joe's involvement in the plot----here he attempts to seduce Maria Schneider's character...he goes on in this scene to talk about his misspent youth. To me, he is supremely sexy in this scene. She was not interested and not long after she was admitted to a hospital for a nervous breakdown and she wanted her girlfriend to visit but her girlfriend was refused. Joe was very respectful of her relationship with her girlfriend at the time. In spite of this, he dealt with an increasingly cold attitude from Maria Schneider after they started out as friends. It is interesting that both these actors were openly bisexual. All that being said, this is a very sexy scene in my opinion. One of the best in the film. "I'd love to sleep with you." is stated with frank sincerity. I don't really feel like Joe wanted to sleep with Maria Schneider (by then she was being pretty cold to him) but he managed to portray that desire pretty well. Although, I imagine portraying the desire to sleep with someone was something he learned at an early age. It would seem to be an important part of the skill set of a successful hustler.