Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story - Soundtrack

[Rick Henry]

For those interested, the following is the track listing to the soundtrack for Todd Haynes' "Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story".

* Superstar – Carpenters (Beginning credits)

* I'll Never Fall In Love Again – Dionne Warwick (which Karen sings along)

* I’ll Never Fall In Love Again – Carpenters

* We’ve Only Just Begun – Carpenters

* (They Long To Be) Close To You – Carpenters

* Top of The World – Carpenters

* Sing – Carpenters (at the white house)

* Alone Again (Naturally) – Gilbert O’Sullivan (while Karen is talking on the phone)

* Let Me Be The One – Carpenters ( played straight after Alone Again…)

* Native New Yorker – Odyssey (restaurant scene)

* Love's Theme - Love Unlimited Orchestra

* Elton John's 'Philadelphia Freedom' played briefly as Richard discovers Karen unconscious

* Rainy Days and Mondays – Carpenters (at the end of the song, Karen collapses)

* Love Will Keep Us Together – Captain & Tennille (scene when naked body parts are shown)

* Don't Go Breaking My Heart – Elton John with Kiki Dee (Karen's housewarming party)

* This Masquerade – Carpenters (Karen meeting Tom Burris)

* For All We Know – Carpenters (New York/Recovery montage)

* (They Long To Be) Close To You – Carpenters (Ending)

Superstar Review
by Thomas Beller
from Cineaste, vol. XVI, no. 3, 1988

Superstar
A film by Todd Haynes;
Written and produced by Cynthia Schneider and Todd Haynes;
43 minutes, color;
Distributed by Apparatus Productions, 225 Lafayette St. #507, NYC 10012, phone [phone]

Superstar depicts the rise and depletion of Karen Carpenter, of The Carpenters fame, a pop duo (with her brother Richard) which rose to international popularity in the early to mid-Seventies on the strength of their soft melodic tunes. The film is a straightforward docudrama except that its story is acted out by an ensemble of Barbie dolls working on miniaturized sets, with voice-overs providing the dialog.
The film traces The Carpenters' career - their rise to stardom, mounting family tensions, and the ascendancy of Karen's' anorexia as the controlling factor in her life. The film begins in 1982 with a handheld camera moving through the rooms of a suburban home. A matronly and suspiciously commanding voice, presumably that of Karen's mother. calls out for Karen, unaware of the impending tragedy the jiggly, eye-level camera will uncover. Along with the musical crescendo of a thriller-like soundtrack comes the sight of two emaciated legs protruding from a closet. Karen Carpenter is dead at the age of thirty-two from anorexia nervosa.
The film flashes back to the early Seventies and the beginning of The Carpenters' career. Encouraged by her domineering mother, Karen begins to sing for her brother's band. Once their career takes off, Karen's nightmare begins. A columnist remarks that Karen looks fat, triggering her obsession with food and dieting. As Karen's dilemma becomes more serious, the film cuts away to several montage sequences edited to the soothing, bland smoothness of The Carpenters' songs. The visual 'subplots' include clips of Nixon and other Seventies' footage, contrasting the gravity of Karen's condition with the political malaise of the period. Eerie shots of spanking and nearly subliminal shots of emaciated war victims flash on the screen. The song "We've Only Just Begun" ends with bombs falling on Cambodia.
Superstar highlights the sinister elements lurking not only behind these scenes, but also behind our reaction to them. We often intellectually dismiss music which we nevertheless appreciate on a more intuitive level, as if the confectionery combination of Barbie dolls and those catchy songs don't really attract us. When Karen (Barbie) is filmed singing in front of a fake scenic backdrop, it seems the ultimate kitsch joke. What initially seems comic, however, is surmounted by the film's unflinchingly serious treatment of Karen's battle to control her own femininity. In true docudrama fashion, the film includes important information, including the fact that anorexia is often a result of a highly controlled family environment. The 'fascism over one's body' reflected by anorexia is shown to be a byproduct of a culture which continues to control women through the commoditization of their bodies.
Both Barbie and Karen are pop parodies of themselves, yet these seemingly benign jokes are shown to have dark undertones, including Carpenter's premature death and the widespread appeal of the Barbie doll as the first standard of femininity against which many young girls measure themselves.
At first glance, a film with a cast of Barbie dolls would seem to be the ultimate giggle movie, but the unfolding story evokes a different reaction - nervous laughter. Superstar effectively and intelligently integrates into its dramatic narrative the themes of anorexia, pop culture, the Seventies, sex and death in order to examine and question our conditioned appreciation of the feminine esthetic. Karen Carpenter is a likable character because we empathize with Barbie and all her victims.

-end-

[enigma]

great summary of this movie Rick I see the movie for what it is and understand how it may be offensive to some Carpenter fans. I do not take it too seriously and have a tongue and cheek approach to viewing the film . Soundtrack? obviously not an official one but does an actual soundtrack exist for the film or is this a list of songs in the film obviously its not going to be official because Richard would never allow the Carpenters material in it.

What else has Todd done? just curious I kind of like his style of humor.

[Rick Henry]

There wasn't an official soundtrack release. Although the music tracks used in a movie are generally referred to as the "soundtrack" whether or not there is a release. I think this would make a pretty good release actually. One of my favorite songs from the era is "Native New Yorker" by Odyssey, the song was really popular in So Cal during 1977/1978.

"Native New Yorker" was originally written for and recorded by Frankie Valli, but Odyssey's cover was the big hit.

In another thread the mention of Karen being spanked by her father in her adult age is brought up. This is meant to be symbolic of the stronghold her family, society, her own mental condition and the powers that be (such as A&M) had on her in her adult life. This movie is full of symbolism and must be looked at that way or you just will not get what the author was trying to say.

By the way the movie has had such a huge impact on modern day culture that a book on this movie was recently released.

Here's some info:


CLICK HERE: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story - Book

Banned by the Carpenter estate, Todd Haynes’ experimental biopic Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (which uses Barbie dolls to narrate the tragic life of the American singer) has become a cult hit because of both its controversy and its rarity. This study details the film’s fascinating history: its production and initial reception, its journey through the courts, and its bootleg circulation among fans. It also explores Superstar’s rich, provocative, and moving content, paying close attention to the film’s aesthetics, generic form, and cultural position as a hybrid text.



March 18th, 2009 at 1:49 am
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

Earlier this week at South by Southwest, there was a surprise screening of Todd Haynes’s legendary and brilliant film Superstar. The film has become notorious for its use of dolls to narrate the tragic life of the singer Karen Carpenter, and for its legal problems— the film was withdrawn from circulation following a legal battle with Karen’s brother Richard Carpenter.

However the film can be shown for academic purposes and has made it to youtube and google video (see below). Perfectly coinciding with the film’s showing at SXSW is Glyn Davis’s new study of the film, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which is part of the Cultographies series.

Davis details the film’s fascinating history: its production and initial reception, its journey through the courts, and its bootleg circulation among fans. It also explores Superstar’s rich, provocative, and moving content, paying close attention to the film’s aesthetics, generic form, and cultural position as a hybrid text.

[Rick Henry]

Another interesting thought is the possibility of a remake of this movie.

Dave had mentioned a remake using today's techniques.

I thought that might be interesting... although I really enjoyed the techniques used in the original. The original gives you a feel of homespun with the use of some of it's crude techniques. I believe that is what Haynes was trying to elicit... that home movie type feeling. Again, this is something very symbolic of the Carpenters as they were marketed by A&M to give people that down to earth homespun feeling. Haynes was symbolically trying to achieve that same feeling.

Now, a remake of this movie could be extremely popular as a few million people around the world have now watched the original and I'm sure would be very curious to see what could be done in a newer version.