We’re talkin’ trash in this week’s column.
Well, in truth, the movies showcased aren’t trash to everyone. Many people think they’re good films, maybe even great films. And many hold the filmmakers — Russ Meyer and Roger Corman — in high regard. In fact, Corman is coming to Rochester in November to receive the prestigious George Eastman Award.
But first, Russ Meyer is the center of attention at “Frank De Blase Presents: Sin-o-matic Night at the Cinema,” a slate of sleazy mayhem at 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Cinema Theatre, 957 S. Clinton Ave. Scheduled is the Meyer classic, Faster Pussy Cat! Kill! Kill!, a $45,000 B-movie from 1965 that is often cited as the masterpiece of the sexploitation genre of films.
Starring the buxom babes that are typical of a Meyer film, it offers action, explosions, cornball dialogue, and a crazy script. If you do consider it a bad film, it’s a gem of a wildly entertaining bad film. Some, however, think it is celluloid genius. Sleaze-master director John Waters (of Polyester and Pink Flamingos) has called Pussy Cat “the greatest film of all time.”
Meyer is most famous for his use of super-buxom starlets in his films. The late Roger Ebert says Meyer once told him, “What the public wants are big laughs and big (breasts) and lots of ’em. Lucky for me that’s what I like, too.”
De Blase’s Sin-o-Matic Night will also include animation from well-known local animator and caricaturist David Cowles, posters available for signing by Doug Mac, and copies of De Blase’s new book, Pine Box for a Pin-up.
De Blase promises more Sin-o-matic nights with B-movie classics and sexploitation gems in months to come.
Admission is $10, and advance tickets are available at the Cinema box office. Proceeds will go to outfitting the Cinema with a new digital projector.
Meyer fans — new or experienced — will also note that his Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is being shown at the Eastman House Dryden Theatre at 8 p.m. Sept. 28, as the fifth of five female ensemble features in its “Before Bridesmaids” series screening this month.
