Variety (1983 film)

Last updated

Variety
Variety1983.jpg
Box cover art for Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983)
Directed by Bette Gordon
Screenplay by Kathy Acker
Story byBette Gordon
Produced by Renée Shafransky
Starring Sandy McLeod
Will Patton
Richard M. Davidson
Luis Guzmán
Nan Goldin
Cinematography Tom DiCillo
John Foster
Edited byIla von Hasperg
Music by John Lurie
Production
companies
Distributed byHorizon Films
Release date
March 8, 1985
Running time
100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Variety is a 1983 American independent film directed by Bette Gordon [1] with a screenplay by Kathy Acker from a story by Gordon. The film stars Sandy McLeod, Will Patton, and Richard M. Davidson. The film follows a young woman who takes a job at a New York City pornographic theater and becomes increasingly obsessed with a wealthy patron who may or may not be involved with the mafia.

Contents

Plot

Christine, an aspiring author, desperately needs a job. Her friend Nan gives her a tip that the Variety, a pornographic theater in Times Square, is looking for a ticket-taker. Christine takes the job and becomes interested in the movies that are playing. Her boyfriend Mark, an investigative journalist, is concerned and confused about her interest in her new job. At the Variety, Christine meets a rich patron, Louie, with whom she spontaneously decides to go on a date. After he abruptly leaves, she follows him in a cab, watching while he meets a mysterious man. Later, she shares her suspicions with Mark that he is involved in some kind of mafia operation. Increasingly obsessed, she follows Louie to Asbury Park, New Jersey, sneaking into his hotel room, from which she steals a pornographic magazine. Her obsession with Louie and her own awakened sexuality ultimately leads her to call and threaten him unless he meets her. The final, mysterious shot is of an empty intersection at Fulton and South Street, where Christine has told Louie to meet her.

Cast

Production

After meeting Kathy Acker, Bette Gordon asked her to collaborate on a screenplay for a new film. Gordon also collaborated with the burgeoning New York film scene: "The film is a sort of Who’s Who of downtown street cred: music by John Lurie, cinematography by frequent Jarmusch collaborator Tom de Cillo, script by former sex worker and Pushcart Prize-winning feminist novelist Kathy Acker, and roles played by Spalding Gray, Luis Guzmán, Mark Boone Junior and photographer Nan Goldin (who also took production stills)." [2] [3] Producer Christine Vachon, who would become a pioneer in the New Queer Cinema movement, also worked on the film as a production assistant. [4]

The film was produced with an initial $80,000 budget, provided by ZDF West German Television, [5] Great Britain's Channel 4, and the New York State Council. [6]

Release

Variety premiered at the 1983 Toronto Film Festival [7] and later screened at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. [8] It was given a small theatrical release in the US on March 8, 1985.

Reception

Contemporary reviews were mixed; while New Statesman 's John Coleman disliked Acker's "dreadful dialogue," [9] Amy Taubin championed the film in The Village Voice , describing how "the editing alternates conventional Hollywood action cutting with sequences that forcibly distance the viewer." [10] Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times that the film had a "painfully underwritten screenplay (by Kathy Acker) and a static, uncommunicative directorial style." [11] Critics compared Variety to Hitchcock films like Rear Window and Vertigo . [12]

The film was released in a particularly important time for feminist filmmakers, and Gordon was both criticized and praised for making a film about pornography. Gordon presented at the watershed 1982 Barnard Conference on Sexuality with Kaja Silverman, arguing that since cinema itself had recently been theorized as voyeuristic, then pornographic films have really become "extreme examples of mainstream Hollywood cinema, [since both] employ the voyeuristic mode to exploit women as objects of male fantasy and male desire." [13] In 2011, Amy Taubin wrote in Artforum, "Gordon realized that the problem of the objectification of women in film has less to do with the display of the body than with who has control of the narrative—of the desire that motors it and of how that desire is resolved, or left as an opening into the unknown. She also understood, psychologically and pragmatically, that for a woman to become a filmmaker or to simply enjoy movies, she had to take pleasure in her own voyeurism." [14]

Home media

In September 2020, Variety received a 2K restoration on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber. [15] The release includes making-of featurettes and Gordon’s 1981 short film Anybody’s Woman. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kathy Acker</span> American novelist and playwright (1947–1997)

Kathy Acker was an American experimental novelist, playwright, essayist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality and rebellion. She was influenced by the Black Mountain School poets, William S. Burroughs, David Antin, Carolee Schneeman, Eleanor Antin, French critical theory, mysticism, and pornography, as well as classic literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nina Hartley</span> American pornographic actress (born 1959)

Marie Louise Hartman, known professionally as Nina Hartley, is an American pornographic film actress and sex educator. By 2017 she had appeared in more than one thousand adult films. She has been described by Las Vegas Weekly as an "outspoken feminist" and "advocate for sexual freedom", and by CNBC as "a legend in the adult world".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nan Goldin</span> American photographer and activist

Nancy Goldin is an American photographer and activist. Her work often explores LGBT subcultures, moments of intimacy, the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the opioid epidemic. Her most notable work is The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986). The monograph documents the post-Stonewall, gay subculture and includes Goldin's family and friends. She is a founding member of the advocacy group P.A.I.N.. She lives and works in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facial (sexual act)</span> Sexual activity involving ejaculating on the face of another

A facial is a sexual activity in which a man ejaculates semen onto the face of one or more sexual partners. A facial is a form of non-penetrative sex, though it is generally performed after some other means of sexual stimulation, such as vaginal sex, anal sex, oral sex, manual sex or masturbation. Facials are regularly portrayed in pornographic films and videos, often as a way to close a scene.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Mulvey</span> British feminist film theorist

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist and filmmaker. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She previously taught at Bulmershe College, the London College of Printing, the University of East Anglia, and the British Film Institute.

Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism, is a feminist movement centering on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women's freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether they are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with marginalized groups. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement. Sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, producers of pornography and erotica, among others. Sex-positive feminists believe that prostitution can be a positive experience if workers are treated with respect, and agree that sex work should not be criminalized.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Candida Royalle</span> American pornographic filmmaker (1950–2015)

Candida Royalle was an American producer and director of couples-oriented pornography, pornographic actress, sex educator, and sex-positive feminist. She was a member of the XRCO and the AVN Halls of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian erotica</span> Visual art depiction of female-female sexuality

Lesbian erotica deals with depictions in the visual arts of lesbianism, which is the expression of female-on-female sexuality. Lesbianism has been a theme in erotic art since at least the time of ancient Rome, and many regard depictions of lesbianism to be erotic.

The feminist sex wars, also known as the lesbian sex wars, sex wars or porn wars, are terms used to refer to collective debates amongst feminists regarding a number of issues broadly relating to sexuality and sexual activity. Differences of opinion on matters of sexuality deeply polarized the feminist movement, particularly leading feminist thinkers, in the late 1970s and early 1980s and continue to influence debate amongst feminists to this day.

Amy Taubin is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British Sight & Sound and the American Film Comment. She has also written regularly for the SoHo Weekly News, The Village Voice, The Millennium Film Journal, and Artforum, and used to be curator of video and film at the non-profit experimental performance space The Kitchen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erika Lust</span> Swedish pornographic film director

Erika Lust is a Swedish erotic film director, screenwriter and producer. Since the debut of her first indie erotic film The Good Girl in 2004, Lust has been cited as one of the current leading participants in the feminist pornography movement, asserting that an ethical production process sets her company apart from mainstream pornography sites. Lust has stated that she finds no issue in calling her films porn, since she expects viewers to be sexually aroused, unlike other directors of erotic films who make a distinction between their work and porn even when both types contain sexually explicit scenes. In addition to directing and producing a number of award-winning films, she has written several books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linda Williams (film scholar)</span> American professor of film studies

Linda Williams is an American professor of film studies in the departments of Film Studies and Rhetoric at University of California, Berkeley.

Feminism has affected culture in many ways, and has famously been theorized in relation to culture by Angela McRobbie, Laura Mulvey and others. Timothy Laurie and Jessica Kean have argued that "one of [feminism's] most important innovations has been to seriously examine the ways women receive popular culture, given that so much pop culture is made by and for men." This is reflected in a variety of forms, including literature, music, film and other screen cultures.

Feminist pornography is a genre of film developed by or for those within the sex-positive feminist movement. It was created for the purpose of promoting gender equality by portraying more bodily movements and sexual fantasies of women and members of the LGBT community.

Feminist views on sexuality widely vary. Many feminists, particularly radical feminists, are highly critical of what they see as sexual objectification and sexual exploitation in the media and society. Radical feminists are often opposed to the sex industry, including opposition to prostitution and pornography. Other feminists define themselves as sex-positive feminists and believe that a wide variety of expressions of female sexuality can be empowering to women when they are freely chosen. Some feminists support efforts to reform the sex industry to become less sexist, such as the feminist pornography movement.

Porn for women, women's porn or women's pornography is pornography aimed specifically at the female market, and often produced by women. It rejects the view that pornography is only for men, and seeks to make porn that women enjoy watching instead of what is being offered in male-centric mainstream pornography.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bette Gordon</span> American filmmaker

Bette Gordon is an American filmmaker and professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. She is best known for her films Variety (1983) and Handsome Harry (2009), both of which received critical acclaim in North America and abroad.

Renée Shafransky is an American writer, independent film producer and director, and psychotherapist. She is known for her collaborations with writer/actor/monologist Spalding Gray, and as a founding member of the Collective for Living Cinema. Her novel Tips for Living was published in 2018.

<i>Antiporno</i> 2016 Japanese film

Antiporno (アンチポルノ), also known as Anti-Porno, is a 2016 Japanese drama film written and directed by Sion Sono. It was released by Nikkatsu as the fourth film in the reboot of its Roman Porno series. Other directors involved in the series include Hideo Nakata, Akihiko Shiota, Kazuya Shiraishi, and Isao Yukisada.

<i>All the Beauty and the Bloodshed</i> 2022 American film

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a 2022 American biographical documentary film about photographer, artist, and activist Nan Goldin. The film is produced, co-edited and directed by Laura Poitras, and tackles Goldin's life thought her advocacy during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80's, and her fight against the Sackler family for their role in the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Poitras, a long-time friend and fan, stated that "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for years, and has influenced generations of filmmakers."

References

  1. ↑ American Indies, 1980-1989|MoMA
  2. ↑ "All hail, Bette Gordon". Downtown Express. April 2009. Archived from the original on April 30, 2009. Retrieved March 30, 2017.
  3. ↑ Wood, Jason (2004). 100 American Independent Films. London: BFI. pp. 232–233. ISBN   978-1-84-457005-8 . Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  4. ↑ Quinn, Brian (October 2, 2020). "Why Bette Gordon's Variety Is More Than A Feminist Vertigo". The Quietus. Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  5. ↑ Hulser, Kathleen (August 15, 1982). "A TV Workshop That Relishes Risk". The New York Times . Retrieved December 22, 2022.
  6. ↑ Dubler, Linda (October 1, 1984). "Reviews: Variety" . Film Quarterly . 38 (1): 24–28. doi:10.2307/1211864. JSTOR   1211864 . Retrieved December 22, 2022– via JSTOR.
  7. ↑ Klady, Leonard (September 21, 1983). "Film Reviews: Reviewed From Toronto Fest". Variety .
  8. ↑ Martini, Emanuela (July 1984). "Variety". Cineforum. 235 (32).
  9. ↑ Coleman, John (May 25, 1984). "Variety". New Statesman .
  10. ↑ Taubin, Amy (May 15, 1984). "As Long As She Pleases: Bette Gordon's 'Variety'". The Village Voice .
  11. ↑ Maslin, Janet (March 8, 1985). "SCREEN: 'Variety,' by Bette Gordon". The New York Times . ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 26, 2022.
  12. ↑ Ferguson, Kevin L. (2017). "On Variety: The Avant-Garde between Pornography and Narrative". Cinema Journal . 56 (4): 51–75. doi:10.1353/cj.2017.0040.
  13. ↑ Gordon, Bette (1984). "Variety: The Pleasure in Looking". In Vance, Carol S. (ed.). In Pleasure and Danger: Exploring Female Sexuality. Boston: Routledge & K. Paul. pp. 189–203. ISBN   978-0-71-020248-2.
  14. ↑ Taubin, Amy (April 14, 2011). "Amy Taubin on Bette Gordon". Artforum . Retrieved December 23, 2022.
  15. 1 2 Drumm, Diana. "Variety". Cineaste . Retrieved December 23, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.