Father Geek here, posting a report from our very own World Famous Sky Gazer Copernicus on his spotting of some very large pink super novae at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema the other night when Director Russ Meyer presented his cult classic FASTER,PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! Now I snook-in to this forbidden bit of cinema when I was 14 and it was double-featured with MOTOR PSYCHO at a sleazy little shotgun theater called the JOY in a run-down section of west San Antonio. I would never be the same again, I was totally un-prepared. No other films had this kind of impact on my psyche until my Drive-in experience with 2000 Maniacs double-featured with Blood Feast. Both of these cult encounters rank among my most remembered film experiences. Right up there with the double-bills of The Killer Shrews/The Giant Gila Monster, I Was a Teenage Werewolf/I Was a Teenage Frankenstein, and my first viewings of 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Leopard Man, High School Confidental, Star Wars, Easy Rider, House of Wax in 3-D, North By Northwest, Forbidden Planet, Curse of Frankenstein, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Sooooo naturally when Alamo Tim announced the Pussycat screening with Russ Meyer present, well nothing could keep me away. I was not to be disappointed! Read our starman's report, and then kick yourself several times for not being there.
I just spent a good part of the evening in the presence of the one and only Russ Meyer, a man that can only be described as the Timothy Leary of breasts. Could there be a bigger champion of breasts on the face of the earth? I don't think so. And he's right up front about it too. At the question an answer session after the movie, with the audience enthralled and hanging on every word of this famous director, he selected his words carefully. They trickled out in that deep whisper that sounds like he's talking more to himself than to an audience: "I... like.... bazooms." Of course this caused the place to go wild with laughter and cheering. Then he added, "And so did Ebert!"
We're so unused to directness and true honesty in this age of political correctness. That's one reason Russ is so refreshing. He's much less politically correct than the president, for example, but no one gets mad because he's just so honest about what he thinks. Most of us have to hold back what we really think because of our job, or fear of offending people, or because we're afraid what others might think. Russ escaped all that by doing what he loves, saying what he feels, and the world has beat a path to his door. It shows in his disposition that he has done something he loves all his life. He's not bitter, jaded, mean, or narrow minded. On the contrary, he's one of the nicest, most gracious, and generous directors to come through Austin.
I love Russ Meyer because he's our breast guy. If aliens landed tomorrow and said, "Tell us everything there is to know about the human female breast," who would we turn to? Russ Meyer. He could really make a documentary. When people have this kind of passion for something that puts them so far out of the range of most people I say just given them a camera and tell them to keep rolling they die. As evidence, Russ brought about 2 solid hours of footage of huge, huge, breasts each with enough mass to have their own small moons. There were breasts everywhere! In the bathtub, in the shower, in the desert, in the house... it was total breast imersion. And not a single one was under a 38 DDD. If you ever need stock footage of some of the largest breasts in the known universe,(being a world famous astro-physicist I should know) this guy has the market cornered. No plot or anything, it was just mammaries as far as the eye could see, shown as people took their seats. Oh and it was played on the Alamo's giant movie screen as the Faa Faa Fooooom girls (6 of them) in their calf covering go go boots and sparkling gold mini Mini Skirts danced on stage and in the audience to the live (early 60's style) band, The Esquires. Watching it, one gets the impression that this visual onslaught was the reason the term "bodacious ta ta's" was invented. Russ is no breast snob, though. When asked if he prefers natural breasts, he replied with such passion that you could just feel his enthusiasm, "Oh, I love the implants!"
But don't think he's a one trick pony. Russ Meyer is as three dimensional as the women in his movies. Interestingly, Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kil! has no nudity, though I think if he had to do it again, he'd change this, as he said the movie is "too tame." To start to build a mental picture of this movie if you haven't seen it, take three playboy models who kill people and like to drive fast cars, give them some hillarious one-liners, and film them black and white with flair. After seeing Doris Wishman earlier this year at the world famous Alamo Cinema, often called the female Russ Meyer, I'd have to say that she is a very nice person, but she can't hold a candle to the inspired direction of the man himself. Between the shot selection, cuts, and note-perfect dialogue, this is one well put together movie, although her Bad Girls Go TO Hell kicked ass also.
But Pussycat isn't just tits and style. It is the godfather of female empowerment movies. After seeing this, I have to ask why Thelma and Louise caused any controversey at all. Varla, Rosie, and Billie make Thelma and Louise look like June Cleaver. They make the Spice Girls look like Betty Crocker. The men in this movie aren't just incompetent or boring like in Thelma and Louise, they are actually all crippled! One is crippled physically, one mentally, and the other is crippled by his ties to the other two. (Ok, there is one guy who isn't damaged goods, but he has his neck snapped by one of the women in the first few minutes of the movie.) In contrast, the women are sure of themselves, bold, and forceful. They take what they want when they want it, and if they don't get it they kill you!
I don't want to give too much of the movie away, but if you want the rundown, get it straight from a guy that has worked with Russ Meyer, Roger Ebert: http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1995/03/971488.html
Russ had plenty to say about Ebert too! In Russ Meyer's own jestful words, "To be direct... Ebert liked to screw." He told how they both enjoyed the use of "the casting couch". And they had a literal casting couch too, all tricked up with special features. I asked him later if this still goes on in Hollywood. He said, "You bet your life it does." He was laughing as he told most of the above about his his buddy Roger. Sex wasn't all we talked about though, he said he really loved seeing so many people show up, and even though he shows his movies all around the world, he never gets over the reaction people have to his work. He seemed truly moved and so excited at the reception he was getting.
After the show, he stayed around in the lobby to sign autographs, talk with people, and take pictures. One press guy came up with a camera and was going to take a picture, but Russ just couldn't stand letting the guy take a bad shot. He asked the press guy if he had a wide angle lens, and what speed of film he had. You could tell he had a shot in his head. Of course the guy didn't have a wide angle lens, but Russ found one, along with some black and white film. He checked the aperture on the camera, put the guy up on a ladder, got Tim (the owner of the Alamo Drafthouse) to bump up the lights, and invited everyone there hanging out to get in a crowd shot to document all the fun we were having. This guy just lives, eats, and breathes directing. He has such a passion for his craft and life in general that he just infects everyone around him with good spirits. It was a great time had by all and a wonderful tribute to a national treasure. Long live the king of sexploitation!
