While reading a review of a new book about Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, I discovered that Todd Haynes’s infamous short film is available to watch online. I’d been dying to see this thing for years, so I quickly downloaded it as a QuickTime movie off of illegal-art.org. You can also buy a DVD copy, and you can watch the whole film in parts on YouTube. It runs 43 minutes.
Haynes made Superstar in 1987 as a grad student at Bard College. (Cynthia Schneider co-wrote and co-produced the film.) It quickly became a cult classic, but was removed from circulation in 1990 when Richard Carpenter won a copyright infringement lawsuit. Haynes had used 10 of the Carpenters’ songs without permission.
Part thesis statement, part horror film, Superstar is no ordinary musical biopic. It chronicles the battle Karen Carpenter fought and lost with anorexia nervosa. The entire cast is made up of Barbie dolls, and if that sounds like a joke, it’s not. It’s impossible to imagine this story being told in a more powerful and affecting way.
The Carpenters - Richard and his kid sister, Karen - were responsible for such squeaky-clean ’70s hits as “Rainy Days and Mondays” and “(They Long to Be) Close to You.” They were embraced by the right as a response to the more revolutionary sounds of the ’60s, and were even invited to sing at the White House by President Nixon. But, as Haynes points out, there was more to the Carpenters than their wholesome public persona. The film - with its shock cuts and ’80s slasher-movie score - is like a veil being ripped away from America’s idyllic self-image.
The film identifies several possible culprits in Karen’s demise, including a music critic who referred to the impressionable singer as “chubby” in a magazine article. Haynes is unapologetic in his depiction of her family. Karen’s parents and her brother are shown treating her more like a mental patient than a member of the family. It’s these scenes, more than the use of the Carpenters’ music, that most likely led to the film’s suppression. Haynes insinuates that Richard was gay by having Karen say: “I’ll tell them about your private life.” Evidently, that didn’t sit too well with Richard.
Superstar is by no means for everyone. The title cards seem deliberately hard to read, and the film’s use of Holocaust footage is upsetting to say the least. It’s clearly a thesis project; at one point, Haynes gives us an overview of food production in the U.S. after World War II. But it’s also a stunning work of art. The director’s choices - obsessive close-ups of Ex-Lax pills, the bizarre sight of Karen being spanked by her father as an adult - go right to the core. And the Barbie dolls are a masterstroke. They get at the root of the problem: society’s unrealistic expectations for girls. Superstar ranks alongside Safe and I’m Not There as the most radical and profound thing Haynes has ever done.
Stephen Shupe is a Web writer, film critic and aspiring screenwriter living in Miami. He directed a handful of short films in college, winning a screenwriting award for the horror movie The Realm. Recently, he's gotten into the video-sharing business, and is currently at work on two film and play projects. 
That was a great film. I was amazed at how well the Barbies worked. I was expecting stop motion, but the way they were puppeteered along with the seamless close ups of real people make it smooth as heck.
Do you know if he made all those tiny props? I’m also very curious about how he got a tiny TV in her apartment in the scene when she hints at Richard being gay. Maybe it was some effect like green screen. I wish the quality had been better.
My only grip is that some of the text was plain illegible, and it seemed important too.
It was very impactful and educational. The end, where it kept flashing the ipecac, really got to me.
Thanks for posting this up.
I’m not sure if he made all the props. I’m guessing he had some help from the art department at his school. Some of this stuff might be discussed in the new book about the film.
I agree about the hard-to-read text. It’s always frustrating when that happens.
I’m actually surprised the quality is as good as it is. From what I’ve read about it, all copies of the film were supposed to be destroyed, and the only way it survived was through bootleg tapes that Haynes had already sold prior to the lawsuit.
You should see Safe if you haven’t. It was named the best film of the ’90s by the Village Voice. If Superstar is the best film about anorexia nervosa, then Safe is the best film about religious cults.