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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Russ Meyer

20:06 / 04.01.07

I saw there wasn't a thread on Russ Meyer, and figured it was time. I saw Beyond the Valley of the Dolls a few months ago and was completely wowed. The film just popped with fantastic music, propulsive editing and a succession of increasingly bizarre narrative events that's virtually unrivaled in cinema.

While that's Meyer's best film, he's got a lot of other strong work. His films are prescient in their depiction of these very strong action-oriented female heroes. His women have total control over the events of the film, the only ones with any narrative agency. In his films, it's the men who are just 'the boyfriend,' while women are the fully realized characters.

And yet, he's also constantly exploiting female sexuality. The man's name is virtually synonymous with big breasts, and he generally cast his actresses more for their physical attributes than any great acting talent. Plus, a lot of his stuff is softcore porn, so it can be difficult to apply any sort of critical eye when the primary agenda was to arouse the viewer.

So, what are the highlights of Meyer's canon, and are his films pop masterpieces of just icky?

01:01 / 05.01.07

In all this discussion of the male gaze we often forget to also dicuss the female gaze, who I believe are also known as Libyans.

Solitaire Rose as Tom Servo

03:28 / 06.01.07

I saw Beyond on TCM a few weeks ago and as I watched it, I kept remembering all of the film books I had read in the 80's about how horrible it was, and how I must be watching a different movie. Maybe it's because of the fact that I'm watching it almost 40 years after it was made, but it seemed like a note-perfect parody of the 60's, down to the "Helter Skelter" ending. And that it was a sequel to a typical 60's potboiler novel/movie that was a huge bestseller makes it all the more wonderful

I haven't seen any of Meyers's other movies, and I know that most of his movies were done with next to no budget, but this was a fun, strange movie that probably was about 20 years ahead of its time.

19:48 / 06.01.07

Dolls was meant to be a parody. Ebert talks on the commentary about how the actors were instructed to play it absolutely straight, but the dialogue and situations were so over the top it becomes comic. I think a lot of people didn't get that it was supposed to be intentionally funny, hence the criticism. But, even if the narrative doesn't work at all, the really dynamic editing and music should keep the film off any worst of lists. I guess some people just hate fun.

Meyer's other movies are much lower budget, but there's still some good stuff. Faster Pussycat! is probably the most accessible, a cult classic deserving its cult status.