An audible silence (7/31/99)
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Some Nudity Required. [Johanna Demetrakas and Odette Springer, 1998.]
Ms. Springer, an erstwhile composer of soundtracks for the Corman B-movie empire, here directs an documentary examination of the manufacturers of exploitation film, one that seems, finally, to savor of a kind of tainted love: though her original intention was, obviously, a scathing denunciation of the industry as an instrument that perpetuates the subjugation of women — a view certainly supported by her interviews with those celebrated auteurs of sleaze Fred Olen Ray and Jim Wynorski — in the course of the investigation her honesty gets the better of her and she admits the guilty pleasures of cinematic trash. Interviews with prominent scream queens run the gamut: though Maria Ford [
Burial of the Rats] feels perpetually violated, Julie Strain [
Return to Savage Beach] loves to take her clothes off for the camera and begs to differ who’s exploiting whom; Lisa Boyle [
I Like To Play Games] takes an intermediate position. The directors for the most part seem guarded and defensive; though Corman himself seems indifferent to the implied accusations if not evasive, and [to take his part] a system that provided the first breaks to Scorcese, Coppola, Spielberg, Ron Howard, Paul Bartel, and Jonathan Demme — for that matter to women like Katt Shea, who began as a spearchucker in
Barbarian Queen and now directs in the mainstream — requires no defense. Were there not an exploitation cinema, where would talents like these find the opportunity to learn their craft? — As for Ms. Springer herself, she winds up stripping for the camera and examining her torso in the mirror, trying to decide whether she too needs a boob job. — I’d advise against it. But she should consider another documentary.
____________Sharks wha hae (7/25/99)
