CINEMA CYCLE
(Cardio Workout And Reviewing Movies At The Same Time)
DATE VIEWED: 08/19/2015
FORMAT: LaserDisc
TIME RIDDEN / FILM LENGTH: 1 hour 13 minutes
DISTANCE RIDDEN WHILE VIEWING: 17.2 miles
TOTAL CINEMA MILES LOGGED: 2428 miles
SYNOPSIS: A wanton young Canadian woman deals with her libido, racism, and infidelity in the outback of Alberta.
CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Erica Gavin works the eyebrows. The pornography industry wouldn’t be anything today without Russ Meyer. Like Irving Klaw, he struggled against the repressive puritanism of the late 1950s and won in the end.
PROS AND CONS: Meyer walks a fine line between grind-house cinema (violence) and exploitation (sex) cinema. However, the man knew what he was doing. With control over the script, cinematography, acting, casting, editing, etc, he made films that were his vision and no one else. The fact that they were done on a shoestring budget does not affect the quality of the work.
Having seen this film several times before, I watched it this time with the audio commentary supplied by Meyer himself. The commentary was more entertaining than the film, since Meyer often times wanders off onto topics that are fascinating but no related directly to the film. It appears that the filming of his works during this period was akin to the real “Boogie Nights”, where the casting couch was in full swing and the film crew regularly slept in different tents each night.
While there is sex and skin aplenty in this film, Meyer is trying to get something across. Being an asshole (in this case a very condescending and arrogant woman) is not a likable person to be. Racism, infidelity and lesbianism are also touched on. These were subjects that mainstream studios would not even considering touching at the time and the studios regularly tried to shut Meyer down because of the way he pushed the envelope.
This film is a part of my LaserDisc Collection.
Clicking on the title will take you to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) entry for this film.
This film was viewed while exercising on my recumbent cycle. A summary of my time spent working out on my journey through movie-land can be found on Strava.com.
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