Death of An X-Rated Auteur
By Rachelle Bowden in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 22, 2004 4:19PM
Russ Meyer, the film director who gave Roger Ebert a screenwriting career to fall back on, has died at the age of 82. The Associated Press reports that he died due to complications from pneumonia though he also suffered from dementia in recent years.
Meyer began his film career as a newsreel cameraman in Word War II before finding a niche as a Playboy photographer in the early days of the magazine. He combined these two early experiences and made his first full-length motion picture The Immoral Mr. Teas. Thus began a career that would include films like Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Supervixens, and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls which was indeed co-scripted by Roger Ebert. Long before Kevin Smith or Robert Rodriguez, Meyer was the epitome of the DIY filmmaker often producing, writing, directing, editing and distributing his own films.
Dubbed King of the Nudies, Meyers work featured women he felt were girl next door types (which was only true if you lived in Hugeboobsville) forced into violent situations by sadistic men. In an article in todays Sun-Times, Ebert notes that in an industry known for devaluing women, he treated the actresses in his movies with affection and respect. Eventually recognized as an auteur, the credit (or the blame) for the modern sexploitation flick is generally laid at Russ Meyers feet.
So the next time youre watching a Shannon Tweed movie on Skinimax at 3 AM, youll know whom to thank. And the next time you see Roger Ebert, consider that he once wrote the line I love it when a beautiful woman licks between my toes. Yowza.
Read a 2003 essay by Ebert detailing his work with Meyer on Beyond The Valley of the Dolls.
(Thanks, Scott!)