REAL FILM

From the American Prospect online:

The Carpenters were already strange enough. The brother and sister duo churned out hit after relentless hit in the 1970s, all perk, sweet harmonies and Karen Carpenter's eerily smooth voice. But that contralto seemed to mask a yawning emptiness; Karen crooned about melancholy in much the same way she sang about joy -- with the flattened affect of the medicated.

Filmmaker Todd Haynes found the perfect way to heighten that strangeness and illustrate the incongruity of Karen's heavenly voice by telling the story of her hellish life. The "actors" in his 1987 film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, are not real people but Barbie dolls, whose painted-on smiles and unrealistic bodies underscore the tragic nature of the tale. Karen Carpenter, you might recall, died after years of battling anorexia nervosa -- that voice, in later years, wafting out of a ravaged face.

Haynes' film is being shown as part of the Illegal Art tour -- a showcase for paintings, etchings, sculptures and fake stamps that borrow liberally from copyrighted, corporate images. Haynes' use of Barbies and his critical take on the Carpenter family earned the director no end of grief from Mattel and Karen's survivors. As a result, Superstar was barred from public release, though screenings such as those sponsored by Illegal Art and online versions keep the cult hit alive.

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Superstar is one of the best films that I've ever seen. It's an engaging and emotionally moving story. It uses a brilliant artistic metaphor. It is extraordinarily political in content. All in all, it is a total work of film art that really blew me away the first time I saw it, and it stands up well on repeated viewings. But don't take my word for it. See it yourself; it's online, and it's free. It may take a few minutes to download, but it's well worth the time.

Enjoy.

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