Todd Haynes [Far from heaven, Safe] burst upon the scene two years after his graduation with his now-infamous 43-minute "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" (1987). Seizing upon the inspired gimm...
Todd Haynes [Far from heaven, Safe] burst upon the scene two years after his graduation with his now-infamous 43-minute "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story" (1987). Seizing upon the inspired gimmick of using Barbie and Ken dolls to sympathetically recount the story of the pop star's death from anorexia, he spent months making miniature dishes, chairs, costumes, Kleenex and Ex-Lax boxes, and Carpenters' records to create the film's intricate, doll-size mise-en-scene. The result was both audacious and accomplished as the dolls seemingly ceased to be dolls leaving the audience weeping for the tragic singer.
Unfortunately, Richard Carpenter's enmity for the film led to the serving of a "cease and desist" order in 1989, and despite the director's offer "to only show the film in clinics and schools, with all money going to the Karen Carpenter memorial fund for anorexia research," "Superstar" remains buried, one of the few films in modern America that cannot be seen by the general public.
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Dolls! That's it! The cast is nothin' but dolls! Heavens to murgatroid...no wonder there didn't seem to be much flexiblitly to their movements! Hmmm....I wonder if this director would have done "Saving Private Ryan" with GI Joes??? :)
i remember the first time i saw this i thought i'd be a dark comedy, with the use of comparing Karen Carpenter to a barbie doll, but its actually pretty depressing...and bizare
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kudos for helping to get this film out there!