I'm doing this festival overview out of order because it is Monday and I am just now recovered enough to write on the last three days. The last day of the festival is a day that I have rarely attended, as I am usually worn out, and having to drive from out of town makes it even harder. But I felt that it would be worth it this year. Not only is Beyond the Valley of the Dolls rarely shown theatrically, it is the type of visually arresting movie that can benefit from the great projection at the Virginia. In this case they showed a new print whose bright and bold colors must have matched what was first shown in theaters four decades ago. The movie looked and sounded fantastic, but is the movie any good? Surprisingly, yes. While the movie starts out as an incomprehensible mess, it is clear that Meyer was trying to portray the chaotic life that these characters were living. While I hesitate to call Dolls a comedy, the audience laughed enough to apply that label. Ebert was clearly in on the joke when he wrote the screenplay. It is surprising that the scenes hold up so well, but maybe that is because the movie is so over-the-top that even forty years later the scenes still make a resounding impact.
Dolls is true to itself. The drug use is shown unapologetically, and the violence is carnal to the core. The nudity, well, what would a Meyer film be without nudity? Ebert and Meyer really threw in everything but the kitchen sink, as homosexuality (male and female) and abortion also appear in the storyline.
The music is not half bad. Not only did the film feature a successful band performing its music, it also featured some snappy music by a band with a female lead singer. Who this band was, I don't know, as they were thankfully "fronted" in the film by a photogenic threesome. I use the term fronted both loosley and literally, as the three girls did an awful job pretending to play music, though they adeptly displayed their fronts. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
