Russ Meyer

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

At first I had a good laugh, then I realized you might mean that showing pubic hair in Japan is a total no-no and so these would probably be cut?

More detail than you probably wanted, but pubic hair is generally OK if the actual genitalia aren't clearly visible. That said, there isn't really any consistency as to what gets censored and what doesn't (the official guidelines only say that pubic hair and genitalia should be avoided "in principle").

[Westwood]

I have been taping them from tv whenever they get shown and caught some showing a penis, not shocked
They should really be released in pristine condition, like so many others...

[zombeaner]

Well, I would say that even if they are uncut in Japan, I know that the extras on the UK set are well worth watching.

[zombeaner]

Found this on another forum

Anecdotal evidence

[Westwood]

Thank you very much for this one. I guess this puts the nail in the coffin for the Jap sets.

[strangerinparadise]

More detail than you probably wanted, but pubic hair is generally OK if the actual genitalia aren't clearly visible. That said, there isn't really any consistency as to what gets censored and what doesn't (the official guidelines only say that pubic hair and genitalia should be avoided "in principle").

It's good that these things come out in the open; potential customers should be aware precisely what they're paying for!

[domino harvey]

Will Ferrell in talks to play Meyer in an Ebert/Meyer buddy pic

[swo17]

20 bucks says Jonah Hill for Ebert.

[domino harvey]

Or Josh Gad. Michael Lerner's probably too old to do it anymore, but he already did it once

[Professor Wagstaff]

Ebert wanted Philip Seymour Hoffman to play him. I wish that had come to pass.

[domino harvey]

Or Josh Gad. Michael Lerner's probably too old to do it anymore, but he already did it once

Called it

[black&huge]

is there any news on any label restoring Meyer's films for blu ray?

[MichaelB]

Nope. Arrow would do it like a shot, but I haven't heard that there's been any progress with the Meyer estate. The estate themselves put out a restored Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! a few years ago, but I don't think there's been anything since - and Blu-rays aren't viable without direct physical access to Meyer's 35mm pre-print elements.

It's just as well Arrow got round to doing the Fox titles, because of course they're now off limits thanks to the Disney takeover! Although it's a real shame they couldn't do a high-def scan of The Seven Minutes - believe me, they tried, but Fox point-blank refused to grant access to 35mm elements, so they had to make do with their ancient SD master. Although at least it was open-matte rather than pan-and-scan, so it was possible to reproduce the intended framing - and Meyer really watched his framing, so that was critically important.

[JamesF]

A couple of years ago, someone (Mark Toscano, I think?) from the Academy Film Archive posted a photo on Instagram of a pallet of Meyer's film elements on their way to being put in the archive's holdings. I can't find them listed on the archive's website, so maybe it didn't transpire, but fingers crossed it did and Meyer's elements are somewhere safe!

EDIT: Managed to dig out the post in question: https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQoPTRFFRd ... 2wva3aikss

[MichaelB]

That would certainly be a step in the right direction - I was very concerned about how (or whether) they were being preserved.

I've been lucky enough to see most of Meyer's output in 35mm (quite a bit of it courtesy of new prints struck in the 1990s), and it's criminal that virtually all of it is now reduced to fuzzy analogue SD video transfers as far as easy public accessibility goes.

[JamesF]

When I saw Faster Pussycat at BFI Southbank a while back, the person doing the introduction said something along the lines of the 35mm print being screened being the last exhibition print left in the world - no idea if that was a fib to help us forgive some of its defects though.

[MichaelB]

I wonder if that was the same print that we showed at the Everyman's Russ Meyer retrospective in 1995 - when, if memory serves, it was brand new. (I have very fond memories of the queue for that one, studded with men in raincoats and leather-clad lesbians, although I suspect the latter group got a fair bit more out of it.)

I also remember stunning 35mm prints of Lorna and MudHoney - where Meyer really stood apart from most of his exploitation peers is that he was a superb photographer - unsurprisingly, as that's how he made his living before turning to film. His framing was also millimetre-precise - The Seven Minutes looked awful in 4:3, but as soon as we cropped it to the intended 1.85:1 the images really zinged.

[moonboot]

So I've just seen Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! for the first time...

What led me to watch it was that one of my favourite bands, the Japanese jazz outfit United Future Organisation sampled some of the dialogue from the film for their music.

Anyway, contrary to some reviews, I didn't think it was particularly smutty or exploitative at all - what was far more interesting was the remarkably aggressive female leads... they were just brilliant and incredibly refreshing! Seems to me just a very funny and exciting romp, I really enjoyed it.

I can't help but think Tarantino was riffing on this film quite a bit when he made the pretty dreadful & far inferior Death Proof.

[JamesF]

Yes, it's far from Meyer's raciest film, but just so happens to be one of his most entertaining and cohesive, if not his most. Follow it up with Beyond The Valley of the Dolls while the Criterion is still in print!