Lips Hips Tits Power: The Films Of Russ Meyer (Persistence of Vision vol 4) [Paperback]

Doyle Greene's new book is a marvelous, thoughtful and insightful analysis of those great "Bustoons" of cult film legend Russ Meyer. Greene brings these beloved films to life in a way I don't believe any other writer has done.

Having always loved Meyer's unique serio-comic treatises on the battle of the sexes, yet not always able to articulate why, I found Greene's astute observations to be a bonafide revelation.

Reading this terrific book, you will not only understand exactly what makes films like LORNA and FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! so enduring and memorable, you will see the brilliant set of themes which run through all of Meyer's work (centering, of course, on the awesome political and psychological power of sexual relations).

There is an entire chapter devoted to Meyer's masterpiece BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, which features a breathtaking scene-by-scene breakdown that not only brings this glorious film to life in a way you've never experienced before, but proves once and for all that Meyer is not merely an exploitation filmmaker or a cinema painter, but a sexual philosopher of the first order.

Finally, Greene's compelling thesis convinces any open-minded individual that Meyer is, indeed, a modern film artist as important as Hitchcock, Godard or Fellini. No kidding.

Bravo, Mr. Greene!

As a long-time Russ Meyer fan, I am always delighted to see new books about his work, particularly when they go to the lengths Doyle Greene has of presenting Meyer as a filmmaker of both great talent and great importance.

While originally disappointed that the book did not offer anything new in the way of biographical information on Meyer himself, nor of the day-to-day production of his films, I quickly found myself swept up in the sheer burning intellectuality Mr. Greene displays toward his subject, even if I personally doubt that Meyer had very little "intent" with his movies other than to "get enough asses" on the theatre seats.

What I mean is I felt that Mr. Greene was often seeing layers of Intent and Meaning in the Russ Meyer films that are simply not there, and it often felt like Doyle Greene was really trying to impress me with the genius verbosity and vast storehouse of socio-sexual-political references of DOYLE GREENE, rather than the talents of Russ Meyer.

Indeed, the text sometimes threatened to unintenionally sink into the baffling murk of the celebrated overblown narration of Russ's wonderfully weird films themselves.

But this is small complaint. In fairness to Greene, he makes the point very early on how problematic Russ Meyer's movies are when trying to establish just what the hell they are; can you really call a woman being murdered in a bathtub satire (in Supervixens), and so on.

What is undeniable about Russ Meyer is his unique place in history, how he, more than any other filmmaker, advanced the depiction of sex, and by extension, sexual politics, in motion pictures. He did it first, and there is something irresistible about a film style that consists largely of "posed" fantasy women saying things like "You're a groovy boy, I'd like to strap you on sometime", and combining this with industrial-film narration, rapid-fire editing, ludicrous plotlines and bizarre camera angles. In the lingo of Russ's time (1959-1979) a Russ Meyer movie is quite a trip.
I think Greene may be saying that Russ Meyer was a Great Artist in spite of himself, to which I would heartily agree.

While Greene's book might be too intellectual to appeal to casual Russ Meyer fans, he does make a point of including MANY photographs (only a few of them grainy) of the legendary Russ Meyer actresses, indeed everyone from Eve Meyer to Tundi, and I can confirm that nearly all of the photos are rare; you won't find them in any other book on Meyer. So on the basis of the illustrations alone you won't be disappointed; that's how great they are. But overall, it's probably best to say that this a book for Russ Meyer Completists.

Hopefully, this book will start a new trend of getting more precise information on RM's films in print.

I thought the films produced prior to 'Lorna' were virtually ignored, however, the analysis of the films that were included rekindle some old memories and bring to light different insight.

I highly recommend this book.