Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Oh my God! A friend of mine just told me about this movie (he had seen the bootleg). This clip looks hilarious (check out the Richard doll). Have any of you actually seen the whole thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrAA6VMIPb0

I actually saw an illegal showing in a theater. And believe it or not, it's much more harrowing than hilarious.

And then the director went on to such great heights!

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The use of Barbies just struck me as being funny. I'd love to see the whole thing.

i have a copy too.
it will make you cry, much more than any live action film would.

besides the dolls, the whole way The Carpenter's music is used is so sensitive & well done.

There's also the one icky little moment where Karen asks Richard what would happen if people found out about HIS private life.

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"all you ever have is salad & iced tea!"

I first saw this in a living room in a share in the Pines in the early 90s. My housemates, who had been going to Fire Island since before AIDS--my dog and I were the babies in the house-- used to get high and screen 16mm prints of camp classics like All About Eve and Queen of Outer Space.

Some nights Daisy would announce before dinner, "It's Baubles, Bangles and Beads Night!"--and he would bring out a big jewelry case filled with cheap costume jewelry, and everyone would have to sit at the dinner table wearing bracelets or big clip-on earrings or tiaras.

One night someone knew someone who knew someone who had a print of Superstar and they showed that instead of a camp classic. It was astonishing. I was a little too high to pay close attention, but hours later, as I walked from the Pavilion to the Meat Rack, the images were still with me.

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A very great and disturbing film.

It wasn't just Richard Carpenter who was incensed about the film. If I'm not mistaken, Herb Alpert took legal action against both the unauthorized use of the A&M records logo and his depiction as the simister "Mr. A&M" who setrs Karen off on her way to fame and eventual death.

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I saw it back in the mid-90s along with Street of Crocodiles and rather bizarre banned Looney Toons shorts. It was something of an herbal evening. We weren't high on Life, but then I've never smoked cereal before ("I don't want to try it! You try it!"). I love how the older characters had wrinkles drawn on the dolls' faces with what was probably a Flair felt-tip pen (anyone remember those commercials?). The Dionne Warwick doll was fabulous. And while the film was mostly camp, it was still rather unsettling. Especially those bottles of Epicac flashing on the screen.

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Yeah, I still have my old bootleg too. I recently put it on a DVD, just to preserve it.

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