Belted, Buckled, and Booted...

I download a lot of stuff. That’s what fast Internet connections are for – right?

Sometimes it might be a TV show that doesn’t play here, sometimes it’s an old horror movie soundtrack, translated Manga, whatever.

I tend to grab a lot of curious bits and pieces – generally anything that kind of sparks my interest. I was looking through my download folder and found a track I must have tagged from an album called ‘Cranking Hollywood’. Didn’t download the whole thing – just one track. The ‘Russ Meyer’ one.

Just listened to it – and I don’t get it. Was it supposed to funny? Didn’t seem funny.

Maybe I’m biased because I class Russ Meyer as a God. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since catching a triple bill at the original ‘Scala’ in London (must have been back in the early 90s).

My first experience of Russ goes back to when I was a young child being led by the hand around the streets of Leeds. We passed a ‘grind house’ cinema that was showing ‘Vixen’. I remember it primarily because it was rated as ‘XXX’. This bugged be as a kid because back then you had to be 18 to get into see an ‘X’ rated movie. My little kiddie brain started ticking and I spent the rest of the day trying to work out how old I would have to be to see this ‘XXX’ movie. Would I really have to wait until I was 54 years old? One of the few childhood memories that has stuck with me. Read into that what you will.

I can understand why some people don’t ‘get’ Russ. I can understand why some people may be offended by Russ Meyer’s movies. Still, as he rightly says in this so-called prank, his movies will live on way beyond the vast majority of Hollywood’s output.

Back when we were doing ‘Croc’ we had a Japanese designer (Aoki Kobuta where are you!) fly over to work with us. We instantly hit it off when he saw my ‘Faster Pussycat Kill Kill’ poster. Russ crosses difficult language barriers. Russ should run the United Nations.

Russ Meyer is a true independent filmmaker. Russ Meyer is a man who knows what he likes, and has made an absolute fortune out of it.

Nic.

posted by Nic @ 1:47 PM 0 comments