Sunday, November 18, 2007

Lipstick

     This is another one of those movies that had huge expectations that couldn't possibly have realistically been met. As was typical in movie making, the powers that be chose one of the biggest and most popular faces of the time (the late 70s) the incomparably beautiful Margaux Hemingway (Ernest's granddaughter) to be the lead character. Margaux, who was never really shy about taking on challenges, was offered her first chance at acting and even though she hadn't taken even one acting lesson in her life, she jumped at the chance to be in a film. The producers figured that her incredible looks were enough to carry a movie, but just in case, they hired veteran superstar Anne Bancroft and newcomer Chris Sarandon. Margaux's little sister Mariel even got a part in the movie as what else...Margaux's little sister. 

      Margaux Hemingway plays a model (I guess they thought that putting her in a familiar environment would enhance her acting performance) named Chris McCormick who is introduced to her little sisters' school music teacher (Chris Sarandon). Apparently, it was common to have music playing in the background of modeling sessions and this teacher thinks he can maybe use Chris as a way to get his music noticed. One day he comes to her apartment to let her listen to his music and possibly have it used during one of her modeling sessions, but unfortunately, it really sucks (irritating no-beat screechy techno mixed with whale song). It's obvious that she doesn't like it and being a model, she's very busy and usually in a hurry. The music teacher becomes irritated when she finds more important things to do than listen to his shitty music, so he becomes enraged and gets revenge by violently raping her (which is very realistically depicted and extremely hard to watch), he then trashes her apartment before finally leaving. 

      He's soon caught and the whole thing goes to trial, but he insists that Chris wanted him to do this to her in some sadomasochistic fashion because that's what turns her on. The court (for some unknown asinine reason) finds him innocent (despite a great performance by Anne Bancroft as Chris McCormick's attorney). He walks free and now the totally defamed Chris is hemorrhaging modeling contracts at an incredible rate. Due to her severe trauma, she can't even concentrate on the few modeling jobs that she has left. 

      Anyway, soon afterward, Chris has a modeling session to do and her little sister Cathy goes with her. The actual modeling session proves pretty boring for little Cathy so she goes roaming around the large building where the session is being held. She stumbles upon Mr. Stuart (the music teacher that raped her sister) who is there giving a musical presentation of his work mixed with lasers and dancers (underage students that are mostly Cathy's friends since they were all in the same music class). He lures Cathy into a dark area and makes some very inappropriate advances toward her. She runs, he catches up with her and rapes her as well. Cathy stumbles, beaten, and half-clothed back to her sister's modeling session and when Chris sees this she completely flips. She grabs a shotgun from her jeep and runs to find Mr. Stuart (all in a beautiful red beaded fabulous couture that's to die for) and proceeds to blast off every appendage he has. With a final shot to the crotch, her rage is beginning to fade. She's handcuffed and carted off to jail for his murder. 

      The one-minute epilogue is a shot of Chris back in court being acquitted of his murder. I bought this film because I'm very much in love with Margaux Hemingway (even though she died in the early '90s). At first, this film really pissed me off, because it was as though Chris McCormick just couldn't win, even when the odds were totally in her favor. In fact, the producers and directors were sincerely trying to get the topic of unreported rapes out there so the public could walk away with renewed courage to be able to report more sex crimes, but ultimately this just left me pissed off. It felt like an exploitation film, with the rape scene taking center stage in the most tasteless way possible.  

     The movie tanked at the box office, Anne Bancroft was ridiculed for being part of such a bad film when she was always known for being in Oscar-winning movies.  Poor Margaux got terrible reviews, and unfortunately, her sister Mariel managed to steal the show with an unknown talent for acting and went on to have a pretty lucrative career, while Margaux basically lived out the fate of her character, losing modeling jobs left and right.  Before she took this acting job, Margaux Hemingway was the highest-paid model in history, scoring the first million-dollar job as the official model for Faberge perfume.  But after the film came out, the modeling jobs disappeared and she was forced to take roles in cheap B-movies that went nowhere and barely paid the rent.  A woman who managed to make the cover of every high fashion magazine in the world, including the cover of Time, became an overweight alcoholic, making a living by endorsing a psychic hotline, before ultimately committing suicide.  Such a shame that one bad movie would rob us of one of the most beautiful women ever to walk this earth.

No comments: