retro-tripping
dirty martini the film
This great documentary by Iban del Campo shows us the wonderfull world of Dirty Martini. A portrait of the performer who lives travelling from the present to the past and vice versa. the film shows the free, funny and real side of the underground world of Burlesque. Don ́t miss it!
retro-tripping
So here I am. Lying dead in the dark, in a backyard in the middle of a rainy night, somewhere in London.
I came here tonight for a sleazy Grind a Go Go! burlesque show.
I came here tonight to meet Annette and now, alas, the game is up.
But before I get ahead of myself let me get back to where this deadly trip through Burlesque started. I got to know Burlesque by chance last summer when I was on my first ever visit to New York City. I'm a Basque independent filmmaker and I was in that dreamy city with the strange sensation of having travelled in time. So many films have been shot here over the years... being in New York I had an unending sense of jet-lag without ever getting on a plane. My mind was in a whirl and I was lost in a sensory overload and loving it.
So one night when a friend I'd made suggested we go to Galapagos in Brooklyn, some kind of art space where they had interesting shows, I jumped at the invitation. Suddenly I was watching my first burlesque show. I was captivated at once. One particular performer seemed to have just stepped from the screen of some black & white Fellini movie. I tripped out completely lost watching her perform live. It was a flashback with a Super 8 texture. The costumes, the music, the props, the stage and the language... it all flowed through me. My pulse quickened. It struck me then that I somehow had to spend time with this creature and if possible try in some way to capture an essence of what I was witnessing now, on film.
When the show ended and I saw her standing at the bar surrounded by hangers on, I moved towards her, attracted it seems, I proposed we make a film. This wild thing that I had just seen on stage, who had held me so plainly mesmerized was Miss Dirty Martini, the international burlesque sensation, a.k.a. “The best body in burlesque”.
She accepted the deal. My heart skipped a beat.
And so the filming started. Dirty got me into some of NY's more infamous nightclubs, from the Lower East Side through to off-off-Broadway and down to Coney Island. I got to know her chosen family of burlesque performers; Tigger!, Bunny Love, Legs Malone, World Famous BOB, Jo “Boobs”, Nasty Canasta to name a few. Little by little I got to see a bit of what burlesque was all about. I always think it's a good sign if you can't summarise something with just one word, but burlesque takes it to a new level... Here's my attempt to summarise what can't be summarised: Burlesque, or at least what I saw during those weeks, is a sophisticated retro-striptease with a touch of fetishism combining classical American popular cabaret, vaudeville theater and 50's pin up naïve eroticism.
I'm out of breath just thinking about it.
And if that isn't enough then there is neo-burlesque, up-dating this antiquated universe and introducing a love for extravagant lingerie and yakuza style tattoos, throwing into the mix a hint of sadomasochism and a touch of post feminism. And what's more, it is all put together as some bizarre entertainment extravaganza. Glitter and doom I would say... if we bear in mind how my trip comes to a conclusion.
To be continued in:
This great documentary by Iban del Campo shows us the wonderfull world of Dirty Martini. A portrait of the performer who lives travelling from the present to the past and vice versa. the film shows the free, funny and real side of the underground world of Burlesque. Don ́t miss it!
retro-tripping
So here I am. Lying dead in the dark, in a backyard in the middle of a rainy night, somewhere in London.
I came here tonight for a sleazy Grind a Go Go! burlesque show.
I came here tonight to meet Annette and now, alas, the game is up.
But before I get ahead of myself let me get back to where this deadly trip through Burlesque started. I got to know Burlesque by chance last summer when I was on my first ever visit to New York City. I'm a Basque independent filmmaker and I was in that dreamy city with the strange sensation of having travelled in time. So many films have been shot here over the years... being in New York I had an unending sense of jet-lag without ever getting on a plane. My mind was in a whirl and I was lost in a sensory overload and loving it.
So one night when a friend I'd made suggested we go to Galapagos in Brooklyn, some kind of art space where they had interesting shows, I jumped at the invitation. Suddenly I was watching my first burlesque show. I was captivated at once. One particular performer seemed to have just stepped from the screen of some black & white Fellini movie. I tripped out completely lost watching her perform live. It was a flashback with a Super 8 texture. The costumes, the music, the props, the stage and the language... it all flowed through me. My pulse quickened. It struck me then that I somehow had to spend time with this creature and if possible try in some way to capture an essence of what I was witnessing now, on film.
When the show ended and I saw her standing at the bar surrounded by hangers on, I moved towards her, attracted it seems, I proposed we make a film. This wild thing that I had just seen on stage, who had held me so plainly mesmerized was Miss Dirty Martini, the international burlesque sensation, a.k.a. “The best body in burlesque”.
She accepted the deal. My heart skipped a beat.
And so the filming started. Dirty got me into some of NY's more infamous nightclubs, from the Lower East Side through to off-off-Broadway and down to Coney Island. I got to know her chosen family of burlesque performers; Tigger!, Bunny Love, Legs Malone, World Famous BOB, Jo “Boobs”, Nasty Canasta to name a few. Little by little I got to see a bit of what burlesque was all about. I always think it's a good sign if you can't summarise something with just one word, but burlesque takes it to a new level... Here's my attempt to summarise what can't be summarised: Burlesque, or at least what I saw during those weeks, is a sophisticated retro-striptease with a touch of fetishism combining classical American popular cabaret, vaudeville theater and 50's pin up naïve eroticism.
I'm out of breath just thinking about it.
And if that isn't enough then there is neo-burlesque, up-dating this antiquated universe and introducing a love for extravagant lingerie and yakuza style tattoos, throwing into the mix a hint of sadomasochism and a touch of post feminism. And what's more, it is all put together as some bizarre entertainment extravaganza. Glitter and doom I would say... if we bear in mind how my trip comes to a conclusion.
To be continued in:
