Paris Is Burning
by Jennie Livingston
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Andr? Christian, Carmen and Brooke, David The Father Xtravaganza, Dorian Corey, Paris Dupr?eDirector: Jennie Livingston
Brand: Paris
Cinematographer: Paul Gibson
Producer: Jennie Livingston
Editor: Jonathan Oppenheim
Producer: Barry Swimar
Producer: Richard Dooley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 71 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-09-06
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of Paris Is Burning
Movie Review: fermentation is a necessary process in filmaking...
Summary: 4 Stars
i've noticed a number of comments about the dated feel and look of "paris is burning". i've watched 'paris' many times before purchasing it finally...not sure why because i think i liked the film from the start. a couple years ago, i listened to the directors commentary track to hear about what was going in some scenes and get insights into some of the people involve. apparently, the film took almost ten years to make due to financing problems...i wouldn't have known. but, i was impressed with the artistry that the men and women featured showed and expressed themselves. also, what is interesting about the commentary track is learning about what has become of some of the people in the film...sadly, most of them had their fame only in the ballroom and only in this film.
Summary of Paris Is Burning
The award-winning PARIS IS BURNING has been igniting audiences and critics across the country and all over the world with record-breaking box office performances. An unblinking behind-the-scenes story of fashion-obsessed New Yorkers who created "voguing" and drag balls, and turned these raucous celebrations into a powerful expression of fierce personal pride. This world-within-a-world is instantly familiar, filled with ambitions, desires, and yearnings that reflect America itself. Paris Is Burning is an intimate portrait of one urban community, a world in which the allure of high fashion, status, and wealth becomes an affirmation of love, acceptance, and joy.Paris Is Burning closes with two neon-lit boys holding each other on the streets of Harlem. One looks into the camera and asks, "So this is New York City and what the gay lifestyle is all about--right?" This documentary takes an honest, humorous, and surprisingly poignant peek into one of America's overlooked subcultures: the world of the urban drag queen. It's a parallel dimension of bizarre beauty, where "houses" vie like gangs for turf and reputation ... only instead of street-fighting, they vogue their way down makeshift catwalks in competitive "balls." The only rule of the ballroom: be real.
In surprisingly candid interviews, you discover the grace, strength, and humor it takes to be gay, black, and poor in a straight, rich, white world. You'll meet young transsexual "cover girls," street hustlers saving up for the big operation, and aging drag divas reminiscing about the bygone days of sequins, feathers, and Marilyn Monroe.
Made in the late 1980s, this fashion-conscious film shows its age less than you'd expect. It's still a great watch for anyone interested in the whole range of humanity, or anyone who's ever been an outsider, desperately wanting something the world hides out of reach. --Grant Balfour
Fascinating, discomfiting, and poignant (sometimes all at once), Paris Is Burning documents New York City's recherch? "ball" circuit, where members of the black and Latino gay, transvestite, and transsexual communities compete to see who can wear the most outlandish outfits and dance, pose, and generally show off to most outrageous effect. These are folks who live with a double whammy of discrimination, as they are minorities both sexually and racially. But while their tales of rejection by both society and their own families are woeful and bitter, the participants come alive when they hit the "runway" (actually the floor of some old gymnasium) to strut their stuff, liberated from the pressure of blending in with the mainstream. "Whatever you want to be, you be," says one, whether it's a school kid, a country club polo player, a high-rent executive, a character from television's Dynasty (which for some represents the dernier cri in elegance and wealth). anything goes. Along the way, we meet characters with names like Pepper Labeija, Venus Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja; we also learn about "reading" (i.e., dissing your competitors), "shading" (a more subtle, non-verbal version of the same thing), and "voguing" (later adopted by Madonna, it combines the poses and haughty looks of your average supermodel). Critics at the time of the film's original 1990 release tended to focus on the sadness and not-so-quiet desperation of these people's efforts to transcend their circumstances and become one-night legends, but overall, Paris Is Burning comes across as simply a damn good time. --Sam Graham
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