Mansfield 66/67. (15.)
Directed by Todd Hughes, P David Ebersole.
Featuring A.J. Benza, John Waters, Kenneth Anger, Jayne Mansfield, Anton LeVay and Tippi Hedren. 85 mins.
Probably straight men don't deserve nice things, we don't look after them properly. In the 50s Jayne Mansfield was the second choice Marilyn Monroe, the busty blonde bombshell who was that bit more shapely and that bit more giggly. She was smart, successful but turned to shallow in a manner that was way ahead of her time when it came to being a celebrity. She got involved with a succession of ever-increasing bozos before finally hanging out with San Franciso's Church of Satan leader Anton LeVay and dying in a car crash, (in which she was not decapitated) perhaps due to the curse he'd put on her boyfriend.
A publicity obsessed starlet and the publicity-obsessed satanist. It's the perfect News of The World story. Her death is part of J.G. Ballard's Crash (and Cronenberg's film of it) but here it gets the camp, fabulous treatment with a series of drag artists and underground filmmakers talking up its fabulousness. It styles itself as "A true story based on rumour and hearsay" and those are the truest words in the film. American gossip columnist A.J. Benza does most of the heavy lifting in turns of information and storytelling. One of Benza's recent claims to infamy was trying to help Harvey Weinstein deflect attention away from sexual abuse claims by supplying him with celeb gossip that he could use to barter with journalists in exchange for dropping stories about him. And he's this film voice of authority. Most everybody else offers interpretation or ghoulish appreciation. I loved Hairspray, but the average stone has more human compassion and empathy than filmmaker John Waters. There are even some dance routines to shed light on her life.
Maybe I'm harsh, motivated by an inherent sentimentality on the subject of fallen chesty ladies, but I can't help thinking that the Girl Who Couldn't Help deserved a little better than this collection of arch vultures picking over her corpse.
Directed by Todd Hughes, P David Ebersole.
Featuring A.J. Benza, John Waters, Kenneth Anger, Jayne Mansfield, Anton LeVay and Tippi Hedren. 85 mins.
Probably straight men don't deserve nice things, we don't look after them properly. In the 50s Jayne Mansfield was the second choice Marilyn Monroe, the busty blonde bombshell who was that bit more shapely and that bit more giggly. She was smart, successful but turned to shallow in a manner that was way ahead of her time when it came to being a celebrity. She got involved with a succession of ever-increasing bozos before finally hanging out with San Franciso's Church of Satan leader Anton LeVay and dying in a car crash, (in which she was not decapitated) perhaps due to the curse he'd put on her boyfriend.
A publicity obsessed starlet and the publicity-obsessed satanist. It's the perfect News of The World story. Her death is part of J.G. Ballard's Crash (and Cronenberg's film of it) but here it gets the camp, fabulous treatment with a series of drag artists and underground filmmakers talking up its fabulousness. It styles itself as "A true story based on rumour and hearsay" and those are the truest words in the film. American gossip columnist A.J. Benza does most of the heavy lifting in turns of information and storytelling. One of Benza's recent claims to infamy was trying to help Harvey Weinstein deflect attention away from sexual abuse claims by supplying him with celeb gossip that he could use to barter with journalists in exchange for dropping stories about him. And he's this film voice of authority. Most everybody else offers interpretation or ghoulish appreciation. I loved Hairspray, but the average stone has more human compassion and empathy than filmmaker John Waters. There are even some dance routines to shed light on her life.
Maybe I'm harsh, motivated by an inherent sentimentality on the subject of fallen chesty ladies, but I can't help thinking that the Girl Who Couldn't Help deserved a little better than this collection of arch vultures picking over her corpse.
