Before Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie,” there was “Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story.”
“Mattel did pay a visit to our office,” said acclaimed producer Christine Vachon during an onstage interview with Deadline at Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Back in 1987, she was helping out on the Todd Haynes and Cynthia Schneider-produced movie. The now-banned film, dedicated to Carpenter’s tragic life and her untimely passing, featured dolls instead of actors.
“Todd bought all these toys in garage sales. There were Barbies, but also all these Barbie rip-offs, so he was able to prove to Mattel that it was off brand,” Vachon said.
While he appeased the famous company, Carpenter’s family was less pleased, filing a lawsuit against the director.
“The reason he didn’t seek permission for these songs was because he didn’t expect it would blow up the way it did,” Vachon said. “The movie made a tremendous splash, until we got a true cease-and-desist order. He was able to use it to gain the confidence to bring investors on, with my help, for his first feature ‘Poison’.”
Recently, Vachon collaborated with Haynes on Cannes premiere “May December,” inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau and starring Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and Charles Melton.
“It surprises me how many people, some of whom were children when it happened, still remember this case. When something tips over the zeitgeist to such a degree, it’s irresistible not to look under the hood of that,” she said, underlining that its subject matter and script still “scared people.”
But Vachon, also known for “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Happiness,” is no stranger to controversy.
“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around [the question] if you could make ‘X’ film today,” she said. “I am not. I made it then and it was a different cultural climate. I guess the answer is: ‘Thank God I didn’t.’ It’s out there and it exists, no matter what people think.”
She continued, “Producing is like childbirth. You have to forget how difficult it is, otherwise you would never do it. When I take one of these movies out into the world, and I see the effect it has on an audience, that’s what it’s all about.”
While being honored at the fest, where she has presented “You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder” and Celine Song’s Sundance smash “Past Lives,” Vachon opened up about supporting first-time directors.
“That’s something I really love to do. It’s really easy to get cynical in this business, and cynicism is incredibly destructive. First-time directors tend to be making the story they waited their whole lives to tell. Their joy and exhilaration is something that gets me excited enough to keep doing what I do,” she told PvNew international features editor Leo Barraclough during an onstage event at the festival Sunday. “The first time we sat down with Celine, in two minutes it was clear that she knew the story she wanted to tell. She knew it so specifically and intimately. There are filmmakers where you realize the film is already beautifully made in their head. All you have to do is to help get it out.”
During the talk, she also pondered the future of independent cinema (“people have been dancing on its grave for a really long time. What we are really looking at now is what is going to happen to adult-driven drama”) and talked about her company Killer Films, founded in 1996 with Pamela Koffler.
“What we do is really eclectic. We make movies that we feel are truly original, provocative and really have something to say,” she said.
Asked whether more filmmakers should make politically-focused movies, she responded: “I am never going to start a sentence with ‘filmmakers should.’ The people I work with make extraordinary creative choices, choices that are deeply influenced by the world they are living in. If we make stories that are true and organic to the people telling them, they can be subversive and they can change the world. But I am never going to make a movie that ‘ticks boxes.’”
