Date: Wednesday, May 14, 7:00pm
Beverage of Choice: Brooklyn Brewery
Quite simply, Russ Meyer is the man. He created a phenomenon and brought a bosomy fetish into the limelight. I picked up a few European DVD releases of his films recently on Ebay, and selected 2 for a fantastic "double" feature: Supervixens, and Mondo Topless. Starting with Vixens - this movie had everything and more. Meyer sets up every scene and angle to showcase the mammorys, even forgoing traditional framing and using shots that cut off the stars at the neck and focus right in on the "chesticles." Vixens was a 70's Meyer film and it showcased the era quite nicely - full denim ensembles, rockin, sax wailin' go-go music, bawdy, raucous humor and tons of flesh. From the sublime, to the trashy to the surreal, the non-stop pace of Vixens was intoxicating. Action, violence, sex, cussin and boobs. Huge, monsters that defy all logic, gravity and nature. That's one of the best things about the "Meyer girls" - they are ALL REAL. I have to say, my expectations were low, and carnal at best, but I was more than surprised at the talent Meyer showcases as a filmmaker. There's some real film making going on here. A unique eye for framing, an uncanny instinct for editing and over-the-top but decent acting.
The second feature, Mondo Topless, was obviously created to capitalize on the "Mondo" film craze in the 60's. Culturally, this is a pretty important film, showcasing a time in the 60's when strip clubs didn't really exist yet - just a few swingin' topless clubs on the west coast and in NYC. At best, after about 20 minutes of boobies swinging, this became quite boring, but with a barely 1-hour run time, it works out fine. Both films gave me the sense that they were engineered for a very specific 42nd street-era audience who were short on attention and needed a gimmick and a fast paced to get em in the theater and keep them there. Short run times allowed the grindhouse theaters to easily do double and triple bills and turn over the audiences to maximize profits. See the great book Sleazoid Express for everything you might want to know about 42nd street. Man, I wish I was in my 20s and lived in 1970's New York!
3 comments:
The most obvious question on my lips was, "Russ Meyer - Super Genius (or) Super Bad?
I must admit that the first comes to mind. I have a proclivity for laughing at any exploitive films as they hark to a very definitive time and mindset. It's almost like hearing someone from an earlier time use a piece of ignorant language and you kind of have pity on them but also you laugh at how inexcusable that mindset truly is...
Russ Meyer is kind of a genius. I think his genius comes from the fact that he saw the future and said to himself, I can make this work, much in the fashion that a Howard Stern attempts to.
In Super Vixens, his female characters are very sexual, they are black and white. The male characters are surprisingly black and white also.... the difference is that, while sexual, they can take or leave sex and each male character has a flaw in that direction.
I don't know if this makes any sense right off the mark, but it is definitely the opinion I am left with. After all, the lead male character was rather annoyed by his over-sexed wife and the way women came on to him. The antagonist had certain "frustrations" that swayed all of his actions. Every other male in between had the libido vs every day life battle to contend with.
Since all the women had names with the suffix "Super" in front of them, I don't see Russ Meyer as "using women" per se, as much as he was putting them on a pedestal.
I think what ends up happening is a kind of road-runner Looney-Tunes feel to every shot and action. things are hyper exaggerated from male genitalia (shown sparingly) to the over-use of cleavage. But in the end, this is a caricature more than anything else.
And now we move on to Mondo Topless. The Voice Over alone is somewhat amusing, in a Jimmy Durante/Howard Cossell kind of way. And the reference to Topless Dancing as "The Topless" add to the bizarre and subtle nuance. Its a cup of okay coffee with a hint of flavor that you cant quite forget. It is that hint of flavor that allows you to get through the cup. And that flavor can be a roasted, malted, or added component.
So after about 5 minutes of ridiculous jiggling in a form of dance that is often times too robotic, and other times too trippy, one is left "LISTENING" to the voice of these women performers. They know what they are doing and they know who they are doing it for. They even know the mechanics of psychology behind the "whys". In essence, they hold all the cards and Meyer knows it.
In the end, Russ Meyer is crazy...like a fox. He know what he is doing and he knows why, just like the topless dancers.
And since I have not really read a damn thing about him prior to this viewing, I may be completely off. He might just be nuts. Then again, anyone who is mentioned in a Seinfeld episode, cant be too far removed from the public psyche.
Russ Meyer knows what he likes and likes them he does. SuperVixens! was my first Meyer film and to a degree, it was exactly what I expected it to me. Lots 'o boobs punctuated by several scenes of over the top violence.
What I did not expect was how masterfully the whole thing was put together. Yeah sure, Russ Meyer is known as the king of the nudie films, but as Bryan said, I think he's some kind of mad genius. As the producer, writer, director, cameraman, and editor, he's got complete control over the product and the guy knows what he's doing.
Shots are well composed and framed in such a was as to, um, highlight his subjects appropriately. The story almost immediately veered into the nonsensicle, but I'll be damned if there was some crazy internal logic at play (unlike Troll 2 where the notion of internal logic apparently doesn't translate into Italian that well).
And ya know, the female form is a pretty compelling subject for the camera, so as long as there was ample jiggle and bounce (and there was plenty) the movie just cruised along with never a dull moment. Knowing how to capture the attention of a fickle viewing audience and keep 'em in their seat. That's genius.
Mondo Topless is another story. I never thought I'd grow tired of looking at bare breasts until I saw this film. For me the saving grace was the "Mondo" faux documentary style complete with a superb voice-over by John Furlong. Seriously the lines this guy had to read just kept me in stiches through the whole ordeal.
Ні there to everу оne, it's in fact a good for me to visit this website, it contains helpful Information.
Feel free to surf to my webpage: tantric massage in London
Feel free to surf my page :: sensual massage
Post a Comment