Beyond Women

Russ Meyer once claimed that his films dealt in female archetypes that went “beyond women.” This video attempts to understand what he meant by that.

I’m reposting this one from the Gutter Studies vault in honor of Tura Satana’s birthday last week. Tura is best remembered today as the star of Faster Pussycat, and she remains an icon in exploitation film history.

This was actually the very first video essay I did as part of the Gutter Studies project. I’ve taken the opportunity to clean it up a bit, but it’s overall the same video. I’d love to do more videos on Russ Meyer. He was definitely my gateway to exploitation film, and I’ve seen just about every one of his movies.

Let me know in comments, email, messages if you’d like to see more Russ Meyer on here. In particular, I’d love to do a deep dive on his roughie masterpiece Lorna (1964) and to revisit his big-budget Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970). Looking back, he didn’t always have the most consistent career, but when he was interesting he was interesting.

In the meantime, check out my Letterboxd list: Lust and Profit: Russ Meyer ranked.

Sources

Dean DeFino - Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (Cultographies)

Jimmy McDonough - Big Bosoms and Square Jaws: The Biography of Russ Meyer, King of the Sex Film