Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Superstar The Karen Carpenter Story is a 1987 American short biographical film produced and directed by Todd Haynes, cowritten by Haynes and Cynthia Schneider, and follows scenes from the final seventeen years of Karen Carpenters life. The film was withdrawn from circulation in 1990 after Haynes lost a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Karens brother and musical collaborator, Richard Carpenter. The films title is derived from The Carpenters 1971 hit song, Superstar.
The film covers Karen Carpenter from the time of her discovery in 1966 to her untimely death by cardiac arrest secondary to anorexia nervosa in 1983. The movie begins with a quasifirst person recap of her mother Agnes Carpenter discovering Karens body in her parents Downey, California home on February 4, 1983, and then returns by flashback to 1966. The story touches on major points in Karens life from 1966 onAn unusual facet of the film was that, instead of actors, almost all parts were played by modified Barbie dolls. In particular, Haynes detailed Karens worsening anorexia by subtly whittling away at the face and arms of the Karen Barbie doll. Sets were created properly scaled to the dolls, including locales such as the Carpenter home in Downey, Karens apartment in Century City, restaurants, recording studios including minute details such as labels on wine bottles and ExLax boxes. Interspersed with the story were documentarystyle segments detailing the times in which Karen Carpenter lived and also detailing anorexia these segments were seen as dry and melodramatic parodies of the documentary genre. The underlying soundtrack included many popular hits of the day, including songs by Gilbert OSullivan, Elton John, Leon Russell, and the Carpenters themselves. ........
Source: Wikipedia
