And the mighty fine print hastens the trip to our epilogue

[sovay]

I just got back from Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008). I love the movie: it is the Gothest, splatterpunkiest imaginable mash-up of Rigoletto and The Revenger's Tragedy with dystopian science fiction and a healthy dose of corporate satire. Some of the music is forgettable, but some of it gets stuck in my head not infrequently. I love Paul Sorvino's classically trained tenor and Alexa Vega briefly metamorphosing into Joan Jett for her adolescent rebellion showstopper, right before the uncredited cameo by actual Joan Jett; I love Terrance Zdunich as the prowling Graverobber and Paris Hilton's face falling off. Grieving, secretive Nathan Wallace is my favorite role by Anthony Stewart Head. The story, the music, and the setting are an obvious case of the creators throwing all the influences they loved into the same piece of art regardless of how they fit together and it works for me: it knows which of its elements to treat seriously, which to send up, and which to play like grand opera, damn the clichés and full coloratura ahead. I genuinely find the central relationship, between a sheltered daughter and a dangerously overprotective father, affecting and painful. Also, the primary visual aesthetic is an assortment of fetish gear and I am fine with that. There's a lot of blood onscreen. I am fine with that as well.

When I saw the film for the first time with greygirlbeast and humglum in 2009, I distinctly remember writing, "If it doesn't become a cult movie with midnight showings and audiences dressed to the gothic nines, there is no justice in this world."

I just saw a midnight showing with a shadowcast, à la Rocky Horror. It did not work for me at all. I am sad.

The company themselves were fine. The costuming was excellent throughout and some of the actors came uncannily close in gesture and attitude to the characters they were shadowing. (I was really impressed by their Luigi.) I had a lot of trouble with the spotlights that consistently washed out and often actually whited out the screen; I had even more trouble with the audience constantly talking through the soundtrack. I'm not complaining about the sing-along component: I like the music, I know most of the lyrics, and under less alienating circumstances, I might have joined in. But the rest of the audience participation came off a lot less like Rocky Horror callbacks and a lot more like the kind of spontaneous MST3K that evolves when a bunch of friends decide to cope with a bad movie by shouting at it, which as anyone who has ever been the one person in the room enjoying the movie knows is extremely irritating and dispiriting, especially if you have been looking forward to a theatrical viewing of Repo! The Genetic Opera since it was announced at the beginning of the summer. I didn't know about the live performance until this evening. Plainly I was not the target audience.

I felt like the only person in the theater who had come to see the movie, not the live show. (derspatchel joined me when he got off work, but I think his tolerance for the live show was higher than mine.) Having the stage lights on while the film was running, spotlights on the screen, and the audience mocking every other line made it very clear that the movie was a secondary part of the experience. I hadn't expected that. None of my college-era showings of Rocky Horror shone lights on the screen. The screen is God. The screen is worth more than you. I hope what I was seeing was affectionate ribbing rather than ironic enjoyment, but I really couldn't tell. It was a disorienting experience and not one I'd had in a theater before. Audience members heckling, yes: it memorably marred my first experience of The Birds (1963). Being so out of sync with an entire moviegoing ritual, I really don't think so.

And as far as I could see, no one in the audience came dressed in their fetish Goth opera best. I might have felt better if they had. I am listening to the soundtrack of Repo! and thinking that I should pick up a DVD when I can, so that I can at least rewatch it with the proper color saturation. I really had been looking forward to the showing tonight.

Comments

[spatch]

And as far as I could see, no one in the audience came dressed in their fetish Goth opera best.

I think there were one or two people in costume who weren't part of the shadowcast, and a couple of people who came dressed up Goth-dandified, but the fetish gear was definitely all from the shadowcast.

The riffing sounded affectionate. The kids in the balcony riffing along were also singing along. I find it very strange that the movie was created in part to encourage the group Rocky Horror experience which was, itself, an organic thing that just sort of happened around the time one of the regulars at the Waverly decided to yell "Buy an umbrella, you cheap bitch!" at Janet. Despite all its charms and those of Tim Curry's, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a technically lousy film ("Why do we come here every fucking week?" "To see the shitty fucking movie!") but it's those charms which helped turn the derisive and snarky audience participation to affectionate yet snarky.

From what I saw tonight, Repo! knows exactly what it is, knows exactly where its charms are and to which fan subgenres to play at any given time, and provides plenty of space around certain moments to invite that kind of affectionate yet snarky riffing. Even the casting of Paris Hilton, who is about as Goth as I am, seems a move calculated to bring out the snark when she's onscreen. And it's that kind of calculation that leaves the overall effect feeling rather hollow to me. I know The Kids are having fun riffing the film and I can't begrudge them that, but having a gift-wrapped opportunity dropped, almost complete with instructions, into one's lap is a far different thing than feeling compelled to holler back at the same shitty fucking movie you've been watching every fucking weekend for the past few months (which then compels someone else to get creative and start throwing confetti during the wedding, which in turn compels others to dance the Time Warp and act out the parts in front of the screen and nearly forty years later, you've got a World Convention...)

Still don't know how I feel about the film itself. Would have preferred to have seen it for the first time unadorned. Would have preferred not to have been so concerned about some of the shadowcast backing up to and moving about against the screen (which indeed is God and costs more than you; we can replace you but we can't replace the screen). I have a personal stake in that screen staying nice and un-gefucked. Was a better First Time viewing, however, than the Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog screening with a shadowcast that filled a cramped stage in front of a small rear-projected screen. (Both times the cast themselves did a darn good job, but all things considered I can't tell if I've actually, y'know, seen the film.)

[sovay]

Man, I wish I could remember any of the things I said last night before I read this comment.

Despite all its charms and those of Tim Curry's, The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a technically lousy film ("Why do we come here every fucking week?" "To see the shitty fucking movie!") but it's those charms which helped turn the derisive and snarky audience participation to affectionate yet snarky.

See, I'm actually very fond of The Rocky Horror Picture Show with or without audience participation—I saw it first on video without any callbacks, although I knew some of them already from reading Cousin Billy's book—but I agree that it benefits from the interactive culture of the midnight showings. One of the reasons the Repo! shadowcast didn't work for me is that I don't feel the film needs it. It is not a shitty fucking movie. It is not technically inept. It can be enjoyed for itself, not just because it provides the focus for a transgressive night out. You can argue about whether the libretto's mix of Grand Guignol and pitch-black comedy works for you, but that's a different thing from saying that there's no script; ditto the score's constantly shifting blend of punk, pop, rock opera, and actual opera. I don't like Sarah Brightman's voice. That doesn't mean she's miscast. Is way too much of the mise-en-scène computer-generated for my tastes? Yes, but they had no budget, and that's what no-budget looks like nowadays. I'm glad you thought the audience riffing was affectionate, because I really couldn't tell if the people seated next to us in the balcony actually liked the movie, or if they just liked it as an excuse to shout clever, socially inappropriate things ("Pedo says what?") at the screen.

Even the casting of Paris Hilton, who is about as Goth as I am, seems a move calculated to bring out the snark when she's onscreen.

This I remember mentioning: that Hilton was not premeditated stunt casting, but a surprise to the director who hadn't even wanted to give her an audition in the first place. I can't tell if the role was adapted to her after she got it—I don't know how closely the feature film resembles either the original stage musical or the short film that was sort of demo'd from it—but I don't think her presence in the finished film is any weirder than the disparate rest of the casting. Also, I'm pretty certain it proves that she has a sense of humor.

And it's that kind of calculation that leaves the overall effect feeling rather hollow to me.

I think I find Repo! The Genetic Opera a less calculated production than you do. I'm willing to believe that its shadowcast culture developed organically. I just want to believe that the shadowcast isn't more important than the movie, if that makes sense. I don't know. It's not the callbacks themselves: you've heard me shout at films I love during the 'Thon. Maybe I'd have been fine with it if they just hadn't shone lights on the screen.

(which then compels someone else to get creative and start throwing confetti during the wedding, which in turn compels others to dance the Time Warp and act out the parts in front of the screen and nearly forty years later, you've got a World Convention...)

I really hope that was set in motion early enough for Billy to hear about it. He should have been attending.

Still don't know how I feel about the film itself. Would have preferred to have seen it for the first time unadorned.

Well, when we get a DVD, I'll show it to you!

[sovay]

This postscript would have been an edit, except that LJ's ideas of reasonable comment limits are much shorter than mine.

According to this interview with the director, the kind of interactive audience culture that alienated me last night is exactly what he hoped would happen if the movie took off ("I encourage you to be obnoxious in this movie because it is a movie that is a carnival. It's supposed to be a fun time . . . I hope that people understand it's OK to have fun, it's OK to sing along with the movie, it's OK to make fun of the movie. That's what the movie's there for"), so maybe I'm not the target audience for the movie. Except for the part where I really love it, so I'm not sure where that leaves me. At the moment it seems to be making me feel as though I've just been told that I love the movie in the wrong way, and I have hated my entire life being told that there's something wrong with me for loving things seriously, whether they are academic things or things that are objectively kind of junk, so I should probably leave this corner of the internet alone right now.

[alexx-kay.livejournal.com]

To quote William Gibson "...the street finds its own uses for things". If your use is serious love, so be it.