Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Oh my God, I can't believe I finally found this.

From Wikipedia:

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is a 43 minute film regarding the life of pop vocalist Karen Carpenter. It was directed by Todd Haynes and released in 1987. It was withdrawn from circulation in 1990 after Haynes lost a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Karen's brother and musical collaborator, Richard Carpenter. The title of the film is derived from "Superstar," their 1971 hit song.

And

An unusual facet of the film was that, instead of actors, almost all parts were played by modified Barbie dolls. In particular, Haynes detailed Karen Carpenter's worsening anorexia by subtly whittling away at the face and arms of the "Karen" Barbie doll. Sets were created properly scaled to the dolls, including locales such as the Carpenter home in Downey, Karen's apartment in Century City, restaurants, recording studios - including minute details such as labels on wine bottles and Ex-Lax boxes. Interspersed with the story were documentary-style segments detailing the times in which Karen Carpenter lived and also detailing anorexia; these segments were seen as dry and melodramatic parodies of the documentary genre. The underlying soundtrack included many popular hits of the day, including songs by Gilbert O'Sullivan, Elton John, and the Carpenters themselves.

More here.

This is one of the greatest films you've never seen--indeed, for its utter ballsiness, I'd easily place it on my top ten all time list. And yeah, the Barbie doll actors are really fucking funny, but after a few minutes, you get used to the convention and start following the story. By the time it ends, it's pretty easy to shed some tears for Carpenter and this whole fucked up culture in which we all live.

This is definitely some great Real Art.

So check it out while it lasts; it's been on YouTube before, and yanked, as well as a cool site called Illegal Art, from which it was also yanked--we're dealing here with a major violation of intellectual property rights. Have fun.

Part One


Part Two


Part Three


Part Four


Part Five


Also, if you're not a Carpenters fan after watching this, you're an inhuman monster.

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