Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987) by Todd Haynes
Thursday, April 14, 1988, 8:00 pm
POP ICONS: The Mythic Deaths of Elvis Presley & Karen Carpenter
Mommy, Mommy, Where’s My Brain? and Der Elvis by Jon Moritsugu; Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story by Todd Haynes
The grotesque images of Elvis and Karen Carpenter seem appropriate icons of America’s cannibalistic appetite. Elvis the bloated, Karen the emaciated, they appear as the physical and emotional extremes of a common self-destruction. Der Elvis is a raunchy assault on the Elvis myth, gleefully violating the sanctity of his sainted memory. Superstar uses Barbie and Ken, the role models for the real Richard and Karen Carpenter, to examine the pressures that doomed Karen to her anorexic fate.