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Craig Hill
Oracle of DelphiRuss Meyer: nasty, brutish and short.
May 15th 2006 06:57
I just found out that legendary American director Russ Meyer died last year from pneumonia...so I though a few words about the man were in order.
Russ Meyer began making 8mm films as a kid, then served as a combat newsreel cameraman during World War II. After the war he worked as a freelance photographer, shooting six centerfolds for Playboy, before returning to filmmaking in the late 1950s. His first feature, the nudist comedy The Immoral Mr. Teas, cost $24,000 to produce and eventually grossed more than $1,000,000 on the independent/exploitation circuit, ensconcing Meyer as "King of the Nudies." Over the next decade, he made nearly twenty movies with a trademark blend of over-the-top sleaze, huge-breasted starlets and warped humour. A true auteur, Meyer wrote, directed, photographed and edited the films himself. He also financed each new film from the proceeds of the earlier films, and got very rich in the process.
Cult director John Waters called Meyer the greatest of American film directors, praise that Meyer himself was happy to accept: "I am the rural Fellini," Meyer once said, referring to the Italian filmmaker. "He liked women that were outrageously buxom, too. The difference is, his country looked upon him as a true artist."
Occasional artistry aside, Meyer's commercial success is unquestionable. At the height of his underground success, Meyer got the chance to make a big-budget Hollywood film for 20th Century Fox, producing the brilliant but not-quite-what-Fox-expected Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), co-written by Roger Ebert) in which he turned the homely story of an all-girl rock band's rise to fame under their transsexual manager into a delirious comedy-melodrama, soused in self-parody but spiked with dope, sex and thrills.
After a forgettable second film for Fox, he returned to the independent sector and made four more films, including Supervixens (1976) and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (1979). Over the years since, Meyer has frequently mentioned a lengthy autobiographical work-in-progress entitled The Breast of Russ Meyer, but as he told one interviewer, "I refuse to stop fishing and womanizing and having epicurean meals and generally having a good time, so it'll be ready when it's ready." It never was completed, Meyer dying before he finished the project.
The Russ Meyer canon is campy, fun, irreverent and silly. And although the sexual politics of his films are troubling, his filmic work remains an invaluable barometer of the shifting nature of society, and cinema itself, throughout the 1960s and 70s.
Vixen (1968)
Russ Meyer began making 8mm films as a kid, then served as a combat newsreel cameraman during World War II. After the war he worked as a freelance photographer, shooting six centerfolds for Playboy, before returning to filmmaking in the late 1950s. His first feature, the nudist comedy The Immoral Mr. Teas, cost $24,000 to produce and eventually grossed more than $1,000,000 on the independent/exploitation circuit, ensconcing Meyer as "King of the Nudies." Over the next decade, he made nearly twenty movies with a trademark blend of over-the-top sleaze, huge-breasted starlets and warped humour. A true auteur, Meyer wrote, directed, photographed and edited the films himself. He also financed each new film from the proceeds of the earlier films, and got very rich in the process.
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965)
Cult director John Waters called Meyer the greatest of American film directors, praise that Meyer himself was happy to accept: "I am the rural Fellini," Meyer once said, referring to the Italian filmmaker. "He liked women that were outrageously buxom, too. The difference is, his country looked upon him as a true artist."
Occasional artistry aside, Meyer's commercial success is unquestionable. At the height of his underground success, Meyer got the chance to make a big-budget Hollywood film for 20th Century Fox, producing the brilliant but not-quite-what-Fox-expected Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970), co-written by Roger Ebert) in which he turned the homely story of an all-girl rock band's rise to fame under their transsexual manager into a delirious comedy-melodrama, soused in self-parody but spiked with dope, sex and thrills.
Faster Pussycat film still
After a forgettable second film for Fox, he returned to the independent sector and made four more films, including Supervixens (1976) and Beneath the Valley of the Ultravixens (1979). Over the years since, Meyer has frequently mentioned a lengthy autobiographical work-in-progress entitled The Breast of Russ Meyer, but as he told one interviewer, "I refuse to stop fishing and womanizing and having epicurean meals and generally having a good time, so it'll be ready when it's ready." It never was completed, Meyer dying before he finished the project.
Faster Pussycat film still 2
The Russ Meyer canon is campy, fun, irreverent and silly. And although the sexual politics of his films are troubling, his filmic work remains an invaluable barometer of the shifting nature of society, and cinema itself, throughout the 1960s and 70s.
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Comment by amy
Still like your blog style even though we're back to 'cultural' excuses for pictures of sex symbols again =P
Haven't seen any of his films, but if my feminist sensibilities can handle the Austin Powers take on female sidekicks am I lax enough in my vigilance to see these without going "pfft" every five seconds?
Then again, why do I ask these questions of the ether?
Just give your adoring public a buzz when you decide to deign to enter such discussions that are evidently sparked by your choice of blog matter.
Secret Sydney