THE MODEL SHOP (1969)
Written, produced, directed by Jacques Demy
English dialogue by Carol Eastman
Music by Spirit
THE MODEL SHOP, written, produced and directed by Jacques Demy, is an interesting meditation on relationships and loneliness circa 1969. This low-budget reflection of contemporary California of the times tells the story of George, an unemployed architect disillusioned with the shallow competitive money-grubbing nature of his career, whose relationship with his live-in girlfriend Gloria, an aspiring actress, is falling apart. The two are professionally jealous of each other and bicker constantly.
Gloria is bitter that George quit his promising job at the prestigious architectural firm while he is either berating her attempts to audition for acting gigs or making her feel like a whore when she is asked to do scenes naked.
George’s car is being repossessed because he hasn’t made a car payment in 2 months, due to his unemployment. This construct humorously mirrors love itself, which can be “called back” or taken away at any time when it isn’t tended properly.
George drives around trying to borrow money from his friends for his overdue car payment. Remarkably enough, the second friend he visits is a musician in the real-life California psychedelic blues rock band Spirit.
Spirit composed and performed most of THE MODEL SHOP’s soundtrack. These excellent compositions featuring the lovely guitar virtuosity of Randy California are cleverly incidentally scattered throughout the movie. One Spirit song plays on a jukebox in a diner/pool hall. Another is playing on the radio as George drives around town. Spirit’s beautiful musical passages and songs definitely add another layer of cultural integrity to this complex film.
There is a rather long dialog passage, too, where music, art and philosophy are discussed by our protagonist and his musician friend. (These dialog scenes were written by Carol Eastman, who also wrote THE SHOOTING and FIVE EASY PIECES.) This discussion is very precious, tender and innocently idealistic in a way seldom portrayed in interchanges between males. George and his friend actually appear to be sensitive and communicating on a deeper level. It’s actually quite touching but very short-lived, because the musician starts yelling at his wife to quiet the baby directly after making a sensitive and understanding statement in a much-too-brief moment of clarity and observation. Life intrudes on the moment
After this scene, George begins following a woman (the beautiful actress Anouk Aimee) dressed all in white (the color of mourning in many non-Western cultures), out of boredom and lustful curiosity. He follows her to her workplace, where women are paid to model lingerie for amateur photographers in small private rooms with bright photographic lights. George is so intrigued by this emotionally-distant yet beautiful (and slightly older) French woman that he visits her twice at work and tries to convince her to have an affair with him. She is heartbroken, she tells him, and will never love anyone again.
Another very tender and revealing discussion, this time concerning love and relationships, idealized and actual, takes place between George and this mysteriously sad model Cecile/Lola. So much is revealed concerning the depths of loneliness, bitterness and despair that a wayward and vindictive lover can bestow upon his or her mate, leaving that person a hollow and empty shell, unwilling and perhaps incapable of ever experiencing such profound emotions again. To destroy a person so completely must stem from an utterly callous and irrational disregard for that person’s emotional well-being on any level.
George has never really experienced anything like the model’s grief and loneliness, but he tries to understand and show some compassion, nonetheless. He is facing his own difficult challenge – he must report for the draft (Vietnam) in 3 days. He convinces Cecile that they can help out each other.
THE MODEL SHOP is a very well-written, well-acted, well-directed story of complex interpersonal relationships, artistic ideals, and emotional devastation set against the turbulent backdrop of late 1960’s southern California. This low-budget classic is much more intelligent than it had to be and is almost Bergman-esque in nature, with so much revealed through private conversations. The music and sound design is great throughout. It is a beautiful, melancholy meditation on relationships and the human psyche.
-----Review by Anne Heller
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL
Although this is not really an exploitation movie, elements of exploitation are used throughout, such as excessive violence, maniacal laughter and midgets.
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL (1970)
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL (1970), written and directed by Werner Herzog, is a disturbing movie which explores the evil destructive nature of roguish mob mentality. The fact that this meanness and destruction is caused by a group of “little people” further magnifies the truly horrific nature of their destructive behavior.
The heinous acts of these midgets are in response to the imprisonment of their fellow “inmate” for allegedly raping a female instructor while the principal is away. The group of nine midgets storm the principal’s house and grounds in an attempt to free their rapist friend Pepe. They kill chickens, chase each other through the grounds, hit each other, torture each other and are always ganging up on one or another of the group.
It was shot at a low angle looking up at the midgets, giving the sense that they are the proper proportion. The world around them is overly huge and “wrong.”
These little people ridicule each other constantly. It’s miraculous that the group could ever organize enough to all throw stones at the windows of the principal’s mansion or all join to destroy the only palm tree on the island. These scenes are juxtaposed with scenes of chickens cannibalizing each other and fighting over a dead mouse. (Herzog says on the commentary track that chickens are profoundly stupid. Perhaps these juxtaposed shots further reflect the stupidity of mob mentality and social scapegoating.)
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL was shot in black and white to highlight the stark contrasts of this nightmarish place where the world has so overgrown its inhabitants. The oversized natural world, further accentuated through sweeping circular panoramic shots, makes the surrealistic violence of the midgets seem more of a response meant to assert some sort of control over their environment.
Is this also a reflection of societal violence and scapegoating? Do people in “normal” society assert control over their uncontrollable natural environment by ganging up on the weaker and smaller? What is the trigger for this behavior in ordinary society? Is it just Darwinian? If so, then humanitarianism is a great lie, a sad and impractical ideal which was doomed from the start. I cry at the prospect /realization that humanitarianism probably never really existed, even when it was espoused by intellectuals in its heyday in the 20th century. Human beings are too disgustingly base to truly care about one another, and those who DO care are scapegoated and destroyed. The more one practices humanitarianism, the faster and more evilly that person will be destroyed by the stupidity of mob mentality and base animalistic tendencies. There is no hope for humanity. The rapists are lionized and the cruel destroy the just. The blossoming flowers are watered with gasoline and set ablaze as barbarians laugh, torture and cannibalize each other. Just look around.
----------------------review by Anne Heller
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL (1970)
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL (1970), written and directed by Werner Herzog, is a disturbing movie which explores the evil destructive nature of roguish mob mentality. The fact that this meanness and destruction is caused by a group of “little people” further magnifies the truly horrific nature of their destructive behavior.
The heinous acts of these midgets are in response to the imprisonment of their fellow “inmate” for allegedly raping a female instructor while the principal is away. The group of nine midgets storm the principal’s house and grounds in an attempt to free their rapist friend Pepe. They kill chickens, chase each other through the grounds, hit each other, torture each other and are always ganging up on one or another of the group.
It was shot at a low angle looking up at the midgets, giving the sense that they are the proper proportion. The world around them is overly huge and “wrong.”
These little people ridicule each other constantly. It’s miraculous that the group could ever organize enough to all throw stones at the windows of the principal’s mansion or all join to destroy the only palm tree on the island. These scenes are juxtaposed with scenes of chickens cannibalizing each other and fighting over a dead mouse. (Herzog says on the commentary track that chickens are profoundly stupid. Perhaps these juxtaposed shots further reflect the stupidity of mob mentality and social scapegoating.)
EVEN DWARVES STARTED SMALL was shot in black and white to highlight the stark contrasts of this nightmarish place where the world has so overgrown its inhabitants. The oversized natural world, further accentuated through sweeping circular panoramic shots, makes the surrealistic violence of the midgets seem more of a response meant to assert some sort of control over their environment.
Is this also a reflection of societal violence and scapegoating? Do people in “normal” society assert control over their uncontrollable natural environment by ganging up on the weaker and smaller? What is the trigger for this behavior in ordinary society? Is it just Darwinian? If so, then humanitarianism is a great lie, a sad and impractical ideal which was doomed from the start. I cry at the prospect /realization that humanitarianism probably never really existed, even when it was espoused by intellectuals in its heyday in the 20th century. Human beings are too disgustingly base to truly care about one another, and those who DO care are scapegoated and destroyed. The more one practices humanitarianism, the faster and more evilly that person will be destroyed by the stupidity of mob mentality and base animalistic tendencies. There is no hope for humanity. The rapists are lionized and the cruel destroy the just. The blossoming flowers are watered with gasoline and set ablaze as barbarians laugh, torture and cannibalize each other. Just look around.
----------------------review by Anne Heller
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
THE STUDENT NURSES
THE STUDENT NURSES (1970)
Written & Directed by Stephanie Rothman
Review by Anne Heller
When times are bad, the most economical way to enjoy oneself (other than masturbation) is to head down to the neighborhood independent video store and check out a gem from the past. Luckily, Austin has the two best independent video store chains in Texas (if not the United States) – Vulcan Video and I Luv Video, both with interesting and extensive collections. From the DVD racks at Vulcan Video South, one can rent ‘70’s liberated sexploitation classic THE STUDENT NURSES, written and directed by the first woman to be awarded the Director’s Guild of America fellowship, Stephanie Rothman. She started working for legendary low-budget filmmaker/producer Roger Corman in the late ‘60’s doing second unit work at AIP and New World Studios.
Screened on 35mm as part of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday series in May, THE STUDENT NURSES (1970) is not a typical sexploitation movie. Sure, the nudity and sexual openness is there, but it’s not all for laughs. Stephanie Rothman scripted a socially compelling, well-written tits & ass movie which confronts the topics of racism, socio-economic inequalities, rape, abortion, medical ethics, public health issues, human rights, the Vietnam war, free love, LSD and drug experimentation.
Four sexy college roommates are taking their nursing internships at the same time. Sharon (Elaine Giftos) is assigned to the terminal care ward, Lynn (Brioni Farrell) to public health administration, Priscilla (Barbara Leigh) to gynecology and Phred (Karen Carlson) to psychiatry. Lynn falls for a local leader of La Raza Latino resistance movement and starts a health clinic in the barrio. Sharon falls in love with her patient, a brooding young poet with cystic fibrosis to whom she teaches the ways of sexual fulfillment. Priscilla has an affair with a rogue pharmacist and gets pregnant from their shared acid trip on the beach. Phred encounters her own psychiatric difficulties when she vehemently opposes the abortion her gynecologist lover gives Priscilla in their apartment bedroom. These four beauties have ample opportunities to disrobe and fornicate, of which they take advantage, much to the delight of male viewers. These are liberated women at the height of the sexual revolution, after all, and are as intelligent as they are horny and beautiful.
The action quotient is quite high as well. There’s a very bloody gunfight at the resistance movement headquarters in which two policemen are shot and killed and several members of the group are badly hurt. An anti-(Vietnam) war protest consisting of spookily-dressed young people of all races painted like skeletons becomes violent, with cops beating protesters. The trip sequence on the beach consists of confusing sensory and memory montages with hyper-sensual overtones.
In short, THE STUDENT NURSES is a thoughtful and compelling reflection of the times, expressed through real women’s perspectives. But, it’s still fun and titillating, despite its sobering treatment of subject matter.
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Written & Directed by Stephanie Rothman
Review by Anne Heller
When times are bad, the most economical way to enjoy oneself (other than masturbation) is to head down to the neighborhood independent video store and check out a gem from the past. Luckily, Austin has the two best independent video store chains in Texas (if not the United States) – Vulcan Video and I Luv Video, both with interesting and extensive collections. From the DVD racks at Vulcan Video South, one can rent ‘70’s liberated sexploitation classic THE STUDENT NURSES, written and directed by the first woman to be awarded the Director’s Guild of America fellowship, Stephanie Rothman. She started working for legendary low-budget filmmaker/producer Roger Corman in the late ‘60’s doing second unit work at AIP and New World Studios.
Screened on 35mm as part of the Alamo Drafthouse’s Weird Wednesday series in May, THE STUDENT NURSES (1970) is not a typical sexploitation movie. Sure, the nudity and sexual openness is there, but it’s not all for laughs. Stephanie Rothman scripted a socially compelling, well-written tits & ass movie which confronts the topics of racism, socio-economic inequalities, rape, abortion, medical ethics, public health issues, human rights, the Vietnam war, free love, LSD and drug experimentation.
Four sexy college roommates are taking their nursing internships at the same time. Sharon (Elaine Giftos) is assigned to the terminal care ward, Lynn (Brioni Farrell) to public health administration, Priscilla (Barbara Leigh) to gynecology and Phred (Karen Carlson) to psychiatry. Lynn falls for a local leader of La Raza Latino resistance movement and starts a health clinic in the barrio. Sharon falls in love with her patient, a brooding young poet with cystic fibrosis to whom she teaches the ways of sexual fulfillment. Priscilla has an affair with a rogue pharmacist and gets pregnant from their shared acid trip on the beach. Phred encounters her own psychiatric difficulties when she vehemently opposes the abortion her gynecologist lover gives Priscilla in their apartment bedroom. These four beauties have ample opportunities to disrobe and fornicate, of which they take advantage, much to the delight of male viewers. These are liberated women at the height of the sexual revolution, after all, and are as intelligent as they are horny and beautiful.
The action quotient is quite high as well. There’s a very bloody gunfight at the resistance movement headquarters in which two policemen are shot and killed and several members of the group are badly hurt. An anti-(Vietnam) war protest consisting of spookily-dressed young people of all races painted like skeletons becomes violent, with cops beating protesters. The trip sequence on the beach consists of confusing sensory and memory montages with hyper-sensual overtones.
In short, THE STUDENT NURSES is a thoughtful and compelling reflection of the times, expressed through real women’s perspectives. But, it’s still fun and titillating, despite its sobering treatment of subject matter.
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