Viva
Director: Anna Biller
Year Released: 2007
Rating: 2.5
Purposely gaudy simulation of low-budget sex films from the 1970's: here, a housewife (Biller) with an absentee husband sets out to make her life more interesting by working as a prostitute, taking a role as a nude singer in an O Calcutta!-type revue and exploring all facets of her sexuality. Biller, aside from being the director and screenwriter and star, also designed the sets and costumes and music and drew the picture's sole animated clip (of carnivorous apples), so this is clearly a labor of love, though it's certainly no surprise that the movie only really gets going when the clothes start peeling off: until then it's a very studied - and somewhat trying - exercise in period filmmaking (complete with ugly zooms, wooden acting and run-on scenes). The fact that it's made by a woman obviously adds another layer of interest to it, but the satire is admittedly weak.
