I Love This Movie

I don't know but it's so bizarre, I love it
is it still accessable online? I haven't seen this thing in like a year.

There's much to be said for Haynes's interpretations of Karen's anorexia. I like the way he hints, without establishing direct cause and effect, at the idea that anorexia was Karen's way of wresting some measure of self-control away from her domineering, punitive parents. Even more to the point, he very effectively portrays anorexia as a symptom of deeply recursive feelings of shame.

I think the truth we should be focusing on is anorexia as symptomatic of a greater, socially-rooted illness.

From what I can tell Todd Haynes was right on target with most of his facts in this movie. I found it to be closer to the truth than the 1989 TV movie which starred Cynthia Gibb.

http://carponline.proboards.com/index.cgi



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After watching a good print of it a few days ago, I can say that the film remains as reverent and haunting as it did on my first viewing. Haynes' moving and provocative featurette succeeds because it avoids the rigid and strict fact-based trappings of biopic films and instead uses the story of Karen Carpenter to both discuss anorexia and show Karen's beauty as an entertainer. His sympathetic examination of her allows him to dive into the dark topic of an eating disorder, spotlight a singular musical force, and work out his Nixon-era fetishes all in one mixed-media poem. It's an amazing work of avant-garde cinema that will survive even if it only exists as a cult classic circulating in bootlegs.