Eyes of Laura Mars | | Cast : | Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones | | Director : | Irvin Kershner | | Studio : | Columbia/Tristar Studios | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | August 02, 1978 | | DVD Released Date : | December 07, 2004 | | Language : | English (Subtitled), English (Dubbed), Portuguese (Subtitled), Thai (Subtitled), English (Original Language), Chinese (Subtitled), Korean (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 05, 2005 | | Summary | Helmut Newton's new york comes to life. | Content
 | A perfect fashion fantasy combining the daring photographs of Vogue's original bad boy imagist ,Helmut Newton, the lusty, excessive energy of studio 54 era manhattan, the stiletto heeled chic of Faye Dunaway and the violently raw sexiness of Tommy Lee Jones ( to say nothing of the red hot disco soundtrack). The story spins around the controversially provocative high- fashion photographs shot by the infamous Laura Mars ( Dunaway looking as hot as the models) and her premanitions. Casting the actual vogue models (and hairdressers and makeup people) who actually participated in racy fashion photos of that time makes it wonderfully authentic. A sensational thriller that captures that spirit of wild erotic abandon which the high fashion world was totally lost in at that time . To witness the outrageous photo-shoot sequences ( gorgeous half naked lingerie-clad models cat -fightingi next to burning cars, models in evening glamour posing with pistols and dead male models) is worth it alone.
And we can all thank mr. Tom Ford for tapping back into that special time for his work at gucci....and later at saint laurent. A very modern film noir showcasing the glam-fantasy of disco-mad manhattan. |
| Rating | | | Date | February 14, 2005 | | Summary | A guilty pleasure | Content
| I confess this movie has always been one of my big guilty pleasures. It masquerades as a slasher film (John Carpenter has a writing credit), but it's really a very sharp parable about the Artist in Society. Everything around her gets sacrificed as art-photographer Laura Mars (played by Faye Dunaway) pursues her inexorable visions; she's embattled against a hostile, uncomprehending public and her own self-doubts. The fact that she's a strong, independent woman is significant too, because she ends up realizing that she is still just a victim-tool of the patriarchy whose sign-system she has tried to hijack for her violent images. The twist ending redefines "tough love" at its toughest, as Laura finally realizes that she can't hope to transcend the world but must sink down to its lowest level in order to survive. And if all this sounds too highfalutin, well, this is also delicious camp, a delirious 70's time capsule, from the Streisand rock song to the coolly robotic disco strains, to the hugely mascara'ed, shag-cut models, to the outre photographs courtesy of Helmut Newton. This would make an excellent 70's-nostalgia double bill with "Can't Stop the Music," the Village People's immortal epic. And I should add that Faye Dunaway is at her most mesmerizing in this role, conveying with her intense eyes alone all the terror and sorrow and frustration of Laura Mars. With censorship once again on the rise in America, and subversive art still the perennial target of "moralistic" backlash, don't say that the premise of this film couldn't really happen! |
| Rating | | | Date | January 23, 2005 | | Summary | 70s Deluxe | Content
| THE EYES OF LAURA MARS D: Irvin Kershner (1978) Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, Raul Julia, Rene Auberjonois, and assorted disco-era models and fashionistas
Jon Peters' first production as he transformed himself (with girlfriend Barbra Streisand's help) from hairdresser to movie producer, the movie is a gem of Seventies style at it's finest. The clothes, the hair, makeup, music, attitude, interiors and locations ride the crest of the high-style wave that flooded the world through the Eighties. Combining the improbable worlds of violence and fashion, with a story that centers on a famous photographer (Dunaway) and her ability to *see* her friends and colleagues being stalked and murdered, *Eyes* has moments of serious suspense, but that's hardly the reason to see this movie. Utilizing the actual photography of fashion god Helmut Newton, the film maker has exquisitely captured the 1978 New York fashion and disco scene in a way that none of the recent looks at the Seventies has been able to, but then, again, this movie was *made* in 1978, not 20 years later. The scenes of photo shoots are particularly fun to watch, with one scene portraying a burning car crash in Columbus Circle in which the models, clad in garter belts and fur coats get in a cat fight before the camera. The ingenuous use of *real* models add the precise amount of vacuity necessary to make the surreal shot work. Another photo shoot involves a model dead from a gunshot to his heart lying in a pool surrounded by exotically dressed disco-dancing models and a throbbing disco beat. The plot is secondary to style in this movie, and style is the only reason this movie should be remembered. Favorite moment: Darlanne Fluegel as the model Lulu haplessly trying to explain to the press *why* violence is important in fashion photos. |
| Rating | | | Date | September 27, 2004 | | Summary | When "widescreen" isn't really... | Content
| "Eyes of Laura Mars" may be a flawed picture to some degree, but it's a great semi-kinky period piece [only "semi" by today's standards], the actors are good and paranoid and appropriately overwrought, and there is an atmosphere that holds this well-directed/well-edited film together.
The only faults are a couple minor quirks in the script-- like you can tell whodunit almost right away.
Irvin Kirschner, the very intelligent director who guided this (as well as "Empire Strikes Back", etc..), provides a non-stop commentary track which is interesting.
My main complaint with the DVD: as a double-sided disc, you have the option of watching it on the square "full screen" shaped for TV, or the ALLEGED widescreen--- but the widescreen here is actually the square TV-version only with the 'heads and feet' cut-off in letterbox style... In other words, you're not only missing the SIDES of the picture [as you do in a standard square TV print, of course] but they've lopped off the top and bottom to create a pseudo-widescreen version, which means you're missing a major part of the picture from ALL FOUR SIDES! (As a result, the standard, square TV version has more visual data.... but neither side of the disc gives you the actual original widescreen theatre version.) |
| Rating | | | Date | August 17, 2004 | | Summary | Great Glitzy 70's Thriller | Content
| Yes, I also remember when "Eyes of Lara Mars" came out with comely star Faye Dunaway arrayed in some of the best fashions of the 70's as a fashion photographer who sees murders before they happen. "Eyes of Lara Mars" is fantastically put together from the dynamic opening song by Barbra Streisand to the last frame -- it's a feast for the eyes and a great mix of glitzy 70's fashion icons and suspense. At that time, with the paint not yet dried on the women's movement (dig Dunaway's bralessness in tribute to the bra-burning times), there was an apparent backlash in the fashion world. In fact, so effected was I by this, that I still have a clipping on the subject from TIME MAGAZINE, which shows the disturbing violent imagery cropping up in many fashion magazines at that time, particularly from uber-photographer Helmut Newton who specialized in dark, kinky and dynamic images featuring some of the supermodels who star in this film. It is Newton's photographs, in fact, which are used as Lara Mars' images.
Anyway, the film is loads of fun with the suspense intact and yet enough unintentional camp to keep things entertaining. As many reviewers mentioned, the scenes of Dunaway running (in stylish tartans), screaming the next victim's name are really worthwhile alone. It is especially amusing because Dunaway is required to run in knee-high, stiletto-heeled (very stylish) suede boots -- and on none-too-even pavements on the mean streets of New York. What a hoot! (How did her ankles survive it?)
It's a good cast with aside from Dunaway, Raul Julia, Tommy Lee Jones as a detective on the case (he and Dunaway in one scene become a study in Gothic bone structure, both with their hollowed cheekbones and hooded eyes), and the flamboyant Rene Auberjonois (who rather annoyed me but was nonetheless fun) as "Donnaaaaallllld." It all works and it looks mah-velous! Faye looks mighty fetching, too; with her own high-fashion-glamour elegance, she's a perfect choice for the role. Oh, the beautiful people! And dig Dunaway's boudoir in this! |
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