Eyes of Laura Mars is such a film. A well-crafted, imaginative, suspense thriller whose flaws frequently loom so large that, over time, they start to take on the character of virtues.
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| Faye Dunaway as Laura Mars |
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| Tommy Lee Jones as Det. John Neville |
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| Rene Auberjonois as Donald Phelps: Laura's Manager |
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| Brad Dourif as Tommy Ludlow: Laura's skeevy driver |
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| Darlanne Fluegel as Lulu - a model |
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| Real-life 70s supermodel Lisa Taylor as Michele - a 70s supermodel |
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| Raul Julia as Michael Reisler: Laura's suspicious-acting ex-husband |
At its core, Eyes of Laura Mars may be just a another stylishly dressed-up pulp thriller, but BOY is it a pulp thriller that works!
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| The Eyes of Dunaway & Auberjonois |
Movies built around a gimmick, even a clever one, can be problematic. Everything hinges on working the gimmick into the film as quickly and as frequently as possible, often at the expense of a coherent plot. Eyes of Laura Mars teeters on occasion with a screenplay committed to delivering the genre goods as honestly as possible (lots of red herrings, dark rooms, shock cuts, and people popping into frame out of nowhere), but with its tin ear for dialog, luckily it has the good sense not to take itself too seriously.
Faye Dunaway, in the first of many suitable-for-a-drag-queen roles that would soon derail her once-impressive film career, is actually rather good here and is given solid support by a compelling cast of New York
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| Hunky Detective Tommy Lee Jones shows Dunaway the finer points of firearms while showing the audience a little open-shirt beefcake. |
However, the film's greatest asset is its setting. Not since Blow Up has the world of fashion photography been used to such irresistible effect. Inspired by a real-life hot-button social issue of the late 70s: the emergence of violent, sadomasochistic imagery in fashion and advertising (specifically the works of Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, & Rebecca Blake), Eyes of Laura Mars makes colorfully dramatic use of the mystique surrounding the fashion industry. All of which creates a credible backdrop for its implausible, "I have an ocular/psychic bond with a serial killer!" gimmick.
Released three years before the debut of MTV, Eyes of Laura Mars can be credited or blamed with paving the way for the glut of 80s thrillers which endeavored to hide narrative shortcomings behind an overabundance of visual panache. Many have tried, but few have been able to hit all the high notes that Eyes of Laura Mars does so effortlessly. A stateside version of the Italian "Giallo" thriller, it is at times loopy, obvious, and heavy-handed, but there are still enough surprises to go around and it is never for one second, boring. In fact, it's really a lot of lurid fun.
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"OK America, OK world... you are violent. You are pushing all this murder on us, so here it comes right back at you! And we'll use murder to sell deodorant...so that you'll just get bored with murder. Right?"
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WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS FILM
Not everything one loves about a film is actually up on the screen. Sometimes it's what we associate it with and what memories it evokes. Every time I watch this movie I think of the summer of 1978: the year I turned 21 and moved to Los Angeles
It was the same iconic Scavullo portrait of Dunaway used in the poster, but the staring eyes were illuminated and flashed on and off 24/7. It could be seen from blocks away and I was just thunderstruck by it. Seriously, it was like some 70's reimagining of The Great Gatsby with me as a bell-bottomed George Wilson mesmerized by the eyes of a female Dr. T.J. Eckleburg staring down from an advertisement.
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| Not a photo of mine, found on the internet. But that's the billboard! |
PERFORMANCES
It's not easy being a Faye Dunaway fan. When she's good she's peerless, but unless handled by a particularly watchful director, she's prone to giving overly mannered performances (one recalls Jan Hook's hilariously spot-on Dunaway impersonation on SCTV). Hot off of her Oscar win for Network and in the first role requiring her to truly carry a film, Dunaway falls somewhere in between here.
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| Laura Mars on falling in love: "I'm completely out of control!" Words that would come back to haunt Ms. Dunaway three years later on the release of Mommie Dearest. |
My absolute favorite performance in the film is given by Darlanne Fluegel, portraying a sweetly ditzy model of the sort I once thought exclusively indigenous to Los Angeles
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| Darlanne Fluegel - Pretty in Pink |
THE STUFF OF FANTASY
Were this thriller comprised solely of fashion shoot sequences and behind-the-scenes footage of Laura Mars at work (in some of the most flamboyantly impractical outfits ever), it would be enough.
Each scene plays out like a little mini-film: kinetic, witty, and bubbling over with an unerringly precise sense of time and place. Unlike laughable sequences in movies like Valley of the Dolls that try to make modeling look glamorous and desirable, Eyes of Laura Mars is not afraid to mine the absurdity.
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| Casual Fridays for Laura Mars |
THE STUFF OF DREAMS
As a time capsule vision of late 70s chic, Eyes of Laura Mars is perfection (although the once-daring photos at the center of the plot look almost quaint by today's standards), which only adds to my overall enjoyment of a film that, for all its faults, continues to fascinate and entertain me through repeated viewings. Still, given the relative kinky cleverness of the premise, I might wish that the film's potential was better realized in the script. I don't usually need everything spelled out for me, but it does nag at one to have interesting ideas introduced and never expanded upon.
For example, I'm not sure it's ever explained why/how Laura came to share the killer's "eyes" and what, if anything, it all signified in relation to her photographs. Also, as the film progresses, Laura's attitude towards violence seems to undergo a change and she becomes more squeamish about the glamorized bloodletting she had once defended. Does this mean that her earlier "moral" defense of her work has altered as well?
In the end, perhaps these kind of questions don't ultimately matter in a film so preoccupied with visual style.
For example, I'm not sure it's ever explained why/how Laura came to share the killer's "eyes" and what, if anything, it all signified in relation to her photographs. Also, as the film progresses, Laura's attitude towards violence seems to undergo a change and she becomes more squeamish about the glamorized bloodletting she had once defended. Does this mean that her earlier "moral" defense of her work has altered as well?
In the end, perhaps these kind of questions don't ultimately matter in a film so preoccupied with visual style.
What I do know is that Eyes of Laura Mars has been one of my favorite films for the last 33 years.
A statement I proudly make without benefit of excuses, apologies, or rose-colored glasses...just with my eyes wide open.
Copyright © Ken Anderson
ah, you keep picking movies that found me last year!! live action helmut newton was why i picked it up - but along the way i fell in love with the sumptuous sets (my favorite being her bedroom with those lamps on either side of the bed), the fashion, and the music (when she's shooting out on the street). it is indeed a movie for the senses, less for existential reflection (like the last two movies you reviewed). (gosh, i'm using a lot of parentheses today). the casting was fantastic - i especially loved brad douriff in a rare, non-tragic or terribly disturbing role (sometimes i think he is our american malcolm mcdowell).
ReplyDeletei love your description of the blinking eyes of the advertisement! i wish i could've seen that!!!!!
Hi Kathrynnova
ReplyDeletedoesn't surprise me that you would appreciate this movie for its style. It has it in spades.
I agree with you about Brad Dourif. Not sure when his career took a turn for the offbeat and disturbing (like Isabelle Huppert) but I like seeing him in a more or less "normal" role. Thanks for reading!
I hadn't seen "Eyes Of Laura Mars" for years, until just this afternoon. It came out when I was a Photographic Arts student in Toronto, and I was already trying to see what I could do with sort of a Helmut Newton/Rene Magritte style of portraiture. The best I could do with posing someone in a fiery car was one already burned out, but I did manage a flaming newspaper being read on a park bench.
ReplyDeleteSeveral things came to mind while watching the film again. Okay, the biggest laugh in the theatre back in '78 was when Rene Auberjonois did his Lloyd Bridges. But as for all those killings, one after another, I wondered today how Laura (a Laura Mars in the real world) could keep going; how it was that she didn't just throw herself under a bus.
A couple of things I'd forgotten. I'd completely forgotten that impressive chase scene with Tommy and the cops. Very nicely done.
And I'd also forgotten how GREAT that final scene is with Neville coming clean before Laura, finally telling her "I'm the one you want." For me, that's another praiseworthy instance of a line being written and delivered and filmed...perfectly. It's soooo good I had to immediately watch it again. Best scene that Jones and Dunaway had, not to mention the best part of the whole movie.
That flaming newspaper photo sounds pretty cool. I too remember the huge laugh that Lloyd Bridges "silent" impersonation got. So on the money.
ReplyDeleteThe point you make wondering how Laura is able to function after the deaths of so many of her friends in rapid succession is very apt when it comes to the thriller genre. Probably one of my pet peeves with thrillers is that in order to keep the thrills coming, the body count has to be high.unfortunately, in order to keep the plot moving, they rarely have the characters react to the deaths of loved ones with the same overriding grief that happens in real life. Did you ever see the film "In the Bedroom"? I'd love to see a suspense thriller with THAT level of post-death suffering integrated into the plot.
Thanks for bringing up the final scene. I think Tommy Lee Jones is great in that too. So chilling!
Yes indeed, I have seen "In The Bedroom." Liked it so much, I bought it for a dear friend as a present. Speaking of wanting to watch a certain scene again, as soon as the movie ended, I went right back to that clash between the slain boy's parents (their names escape me).
DeleteTalk about a one-on-one confrontation...I had NEVER seen filmed emotions so raw. My brother and his wife had recently lost their older daughter to cancer, and my mum and I (we watched the movie together) wondered how closely they compared to the on-screen couple in their grieving. Helluva movie!
Excellent point about when deaths mostly just keep the story going. I thought Michael in the elevator near the end was fairly gratuitous. But then, who else was there left? I was actually kind of annoyed when these dynamic photo shoots kept being interrupted by Laura's visions. 'Tsk! Not again?!'
You seem to share my fondness for searing, one-on-one verbal clashes between characters. You have to tell me if you've ever seen Mike Nichols' "Closer" or "Carnal Knowledge". I don't know what it is about two people just letting go with a kind of brutal honesty rare in real life, but if these scenes are written and played well, they are more thrilling than a car chase or gun battle.
ReplyDeleteHad to laugh at your being annoyed at having Laura's dazzling photo shoots interrupted by her visions. The "Not again!" is priceless!
Nope, I haven't seen either of the Nichols films you mentioned. Just reading the title "Carnal Knowledge" instantly reminds me of Edith Bunker having taken Archie to see it in the mistaken belief it was a religious film titled "Cardinal Knowledge."
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I do enjoy a good slanging match. Not so much in real life; they leave me very unsettled. What was so striking about that scene from "In The Bedroom" was the surgical precision each character used against the other. It wasn't a shouting match as such. It was the most intimate of character assassinations.
Enjoyable film...and captured the late 70s fashion zeitgeist perfectly. I remember Barbra Streisand sings the movie's love theme "Prisoner" -- I think it's on her Greatest Hits Vol 2 album.
ReplyDeletehey angelmann: yes, I loved Prisoner by Streisand.!!!! should have been released as a single!!! and yes, on babs Streisand vol. 2. would listen to my Mom's album always in 79!!! cheers!
DeleteI can't wait to leave some comments for you!! :) I'm at work and they will tell us to "close our computers" but my favorite line from the film is her assistant who says, "have you had breakfast??" after one of her meltdowns. doesn't get much better.....
ReplyDeleteHa! Every time I've ever seen this film at a theater, that very line gets a huge laugh! It's like it's the lamest comeback ever to someone suffering a trauma. Like in "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" when a big melee breaks out at a party and one of the girls inquires of her friend "And how is she getting home?"
DeleteThanks for risking getting in trouble at work to leave a post!
Shortly after we got HBO, this movie played relentlessly and I saw it at least three times on cable. I was about 14 at the time so I thought this was supposed to be the epitome of High Glamour and enjoyed it on those merits. The actually murder mystery itself was, I thought, a little weak, and I paid more attention to the photography sessions, the soundtrack, and Tommy Lee Jones.
ReplyDeleteHi Andy
DeleteYes, I think you chose the 100% appropriate things to pay attention to...in exactly that order!
Hi Ken, I saw this one again the other day and it's one of my favourite films too! It's more of a guilty pleasure for Faye Dunaway and the fashions scenes. The murders are pretty gruesome and not the 70s TV-style deaths with no blood. I have to look away sometimes until they're over! But they do add to the suspense.
ReplyDeleteI love that it was filmed in New York when it was a dangerous and decadent place for adults. It looks rough and dirty, with desolate areas most people wouldn't dare to go to.
The fashions in the film are quite classy for the 70s. Only the police have that sleazy 70s look with turtle neck sweaters,unbuttoned shirts and bell bottoms. Faye is discreetly dressed apart from the skirt with the high slit! She seems to enjoy herself, trying to make Laura seem human and sensitive among all the nutty characters. She does have a lot of moments to do her wonderful stares and halting line readings. Love it!
All the charcter actors add so much to this film. I agree that Darlanne Fluegel is a sensation! Lisa Taylor is better than most model/actresses. She looks suitably glum while Lulu is frizzy and fun. I LOVE Rene Auberjonois and Brad Dourif so much in this film. Funny and menacing at the same time.
There are so many lines in the movie that are great, like when Donald offers to bring Tommy a piece of birthday cake and Tommy says:"You're a piece of cake."
Laura with the fake blood at the shoot: "That's enough. THAT'S ENOUGH!!" and "The eyes are perfect. Keep them soft!" and also: "Michelle's eye, cover it."
-Wille
Hello Wille!
DeleteSo cool of you to visit some of my older posts! I rewatched this recently on the occasion of its Anniversary, and your feelings very much reflect my own.
Lots of good dialog, great retro fashions, a relatively subdued Dunaway performance, and the pleasure of seeing old New York.
I like your description of Lisa Taylor as being "glum"- perfect. And I too agree that the character actors really make the film. The tension between Dourif and Auberjonois is great.
Back in the 70s when critics were calling this an American giallo thriller, I then had no awareness of the Italian genre. When I watch the film now, I can see what they mean (in terms of style and gore).
So glad to hear it's a favorite of yours. Your use of quotes and description of scenes makes me want to watch it again!
This is one of my favorite movies, and the book upon which it is based is also one of my favorites.
ReplyDeleteI need to check out the book sometime. I enjoy the movie so much.
DeleteNope, nope. Eyes of Laura Mars was first an original screenplay by John Carpenter until it was rewritten by David Zelag Goodman and Julian Barry. There is a novelization which, as most novelizations go, is mainly a prose transcription of the film. I would very much like to read the original Carpenter script though!
DeleteThis is such an "early autumn" movie for me - I just got done with my annual viewing of it (with director Irvin Kershner's amusing commentary track. He talks about the process he went through to throw the audience curve balls about the characters. Fun stuff.)
Hi, Ken--
ReplyDeleteThis is a great review of one of my two favorite movies (the other is "Mahogany" and I love your review of that one too!) I think it's worth assigning this film as the one that best represents Faye's well attested status as a fashion icon. Many of her best known films are period dramas, but "Network" and, particularly this film, show Faye's slinky, silky, slouchy 70s style. Who else could run through Soho in a car wash skirt and aviator cap? I am also pleased to see Lisa Taylor in this film. She embodied the 70s New York fashion scene perfectly--a tough, blase blonde who tended to look down rather than up, hooded and brooding, (Eyes of Lisa Taylor?) even when no one was pulling her hair. I often compare this film to Mahogany. Both are 70s fashion movies; both have a character that is a high strung photographer. I enjoy imagining Diana Ross as Laura Mars (although I don't think she would enjoy Barbra singing her theme song.) What do you think of that casting? Yes, it is tough being a Faye Dunaway fan. But it's worth the aggravation. I think she's one of the greatest actresses of our time.
Hi Peter - I like your casting idea! I think Diana Ross would have made an interesting and convincing Laura Mars. Far more so to my way of thinking than the originally-considered Barbra Streisand (there's something so indestructible about STreisand. I don't know that I ever could buy her as a quaking-in-her-stilettos heroine of an American Giallo).
DeleteI'm no expert on films set in the worlds of fashion, but I do know my melodramas, and on that score MAHOGANY and MARS do share a '70s feel and the dominance of diva personality spillover in their casting.
And both Dunaway and Ross are thoroughbred clothes horses, so they share that, to be sure.
Way back in the mid-80s I had the opportunity to meet Lisa Taylor, who had then retired from modeling and had opened a animal boutique on tony Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. Gorgeous as ever, she very nice and very dismissive of her modeling career, but said she enjoyed working on MARS a great deal.
Glad you enjoyed both this and my MAHOGANY post (wish that would get a Blu-ray release). I certainly enjoyed your smart and funny comments on such a favored film. Thanks!
The first job I ever had was working as a movie usher in the summer of '78. The first movie I worked was Jaws 2 ("Swim, Eddie, swim!"). The last one was National Lampoon's Animal House, which I can practically quote from start to finish, and the one in the middle, which only played a few weeks, was Eyes of Laura Mars. My staid suburban town didn't react to this movie, but I thought it was great.I seem to recall that after the two models are murdered (SPOILER!) their answering service goes on ("This is Lulu and Michelle. We're not here, so go to hell!" I also have this image of Rose Gregorio getting brutally kicked shoved down the stairs.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe Irvin Kerschner followed this up with The Empire Strikes Back. Talk about a varied career. Also hard to believe Tommy Lee Jones was once considered a major stud muffin. After Coal Miner's Daughter he became a serious actor and that sexy stuff was history.
Summer of'78! And a theater usher, too! One of the best jobs for a budding film fan. Your snatch and grab recollection of EYES OF LAURA MARS is pretty on point, the answering machine message is verbatim (closing with "so if you're not a horny creep, leave a message after you her the beep"), and that stairwell attack sticks in the memory.
DeleteDirectors like Kershner are always so interesting because they can create unique and stylized works without one being able to attach any particular style to their filmmaking.
And yes, the starlet days of Tommy Lee Jones are like the work of another actor entirely. I can't say he ever looked comfortable as the hunklet (The Betsy) but he certainly was attractive. Were he less talented, he could have wound up the John Beck of his generation.
My one and only experience of actually working in the film industry (except for that day I drove a car up and down the highway on a Robert De Niro/Ed Harris movie called Jackknife) was when I worked as the location manager of a very low budget independent film in the summer of '05. The lead was a nice-looking young actor who had been working in New York a few years and finally got his "break" with a continuing role on a soap opera (He eventually won a daytime Emmy, then promptly disappeared from the industry.). Anyway, on the first day of filming, a really clueless guy about my age who hung around the set and didn't do much, told the actor he looked EXACTLY like Harry Hamlin. He kept bringing it up, over and over. (He looked nothing like Harry Hamlin.) The kid said thank you, but I don't think he knew who Harry Hamlin was. After he left the set, I said to the other guy, "Never tell a struggling young actor he looks like a guy who's barely worked in 20 years. Believe me, he won't take it as a compliment." Everybody on the set cracked up.
ReplyDeleteHa! Words to the wise. The kid must have been pretty green anyway, since, given the average actor ego, it's pretty much anathema to tell any actor they look like another living one. They glow, however, when told they resemble James Dean, Audrey Hepburn or Sharon Tate.
DeleteThe highway driving job on a De Niro film is great "story to tell the grand-kids" stuff.
Hi Ken-
ReplyDeleteMy partner and I just finished viewing this gem. What a great snapshot (bah dum bum) of NYC disco chic.
"What kind of theme are you thinking for the decor of your new apartment?"
"TAUPE."
(from an imdb review) "Does the killer have glaucoma?" Lol!
Raul Julia: "What's my character's motivation?"
Irvin Kershner: "You're convinced all of your love interests get incredibly horny at the loss of a friend/colleague."
Every photographer (not just fashion layouts, everyone) should be required to take all of their shots with one leg stretched out. In boots.
I find it hilarious that they get all of the models done up in clothes, hair and makeup, the setting properly lit...then she has her "vision" and no, it's not "okay everyone, let's reconvene in ten minutes" but "okay, that's a wrap for today." What?!?
Darlanne Fluegel is the highlight of the film for me. That moment at the opening is everything.
Did Auberjonois go to the same hair stylist as Barry Manilow? (His Bridges impersonation is favorite moment #2.)
I personally would love to have seen Miss Ross in the lead role of this movie. Why couldn't this have been her film for 1978? (She definitely wouldn't have been okay with Streisand singing the theme song, though.)
I saw this for the first time in the early 90s, when I was working in a video store. Sometimes we used to play certain movies/videos on the monitors just to hear a song that was involved while working (the opening credits for "The Blob", for example). One time I cued up where "Let's All Chant" is in the background of the photo shoot, but then we couldn't play it in the store because of the bare breasts. Bummer.
Can we please start a fundraising page for the glowing eyes billboard to be permanently reconstructed on Sunset Blvd? It's a part of Hollywood history, people.
Hey There, Pete
DeleteSo many parts of your comments had me chuckling to myself. They are the kind of spot-on off-the-cuff observations that a movie like EYES invites.
I especially like the very true take you had on the rapidly cancelled, expensive-looking photo shoot! Reading your comments post was like watching the film with you, I would have ben howling!
Interesting, too, that you worked in a video store. It was a gig I wondered about being a mixed blessing. First off, you'd see so many movies, but I imagined I would have been driven to distraction having to "listen" to the movies I was interested in seeing, or having films I hadn't seen spoiled by having random scenes screened.
Lastly, the idea of that glowing eyes billboard permanently erected (like they did for a time with the revolving Myra Breckinridge showgirl) would be absolute bliss!! I like the way you think!
Thank you for your enjoyable take on EYES OF LAURA MARS
Must cite another favorite:
"You're convinced all of your love interests get incredibly horny at the loss of a friend/colleague."
The best!