Liquid Sky
Encyclopedia
Liquid Sky is an independent American film. It debuted at the Montreal Film festival in August 1982 and was well received at several film festivals thereafter. It was produced with a budget of $500,000. It became the most successful independent film of 1983 grossing $1.7 million dollars in the first several months of release.
On April 16, 2009 Dan Persons of mightymoviepodcast.com recalled that upon its release, Liquid Sky "provoked heated arguments and, love it or hate, was required viewing for anyone who really cared about film.". Persons considers the film "one of the formative forces of indie film."
Carlos James Chamberlin wrote in March, 2004 at senseofcinema.com: "It’s about time people started rendering unto Liquid Sky. Its long lipstick trace is smudged through much of indie cinema."
. The screenplay was written by Tsukerman, his wife and ubiquitous co-producer Nina V. Kerova, and Anne Carlisle
, who also enacted the film's two leading roles. The director of photography, Yuri Neyman, a Russian émigré, was also the film's special effects expert. Anne Carlisle also wrote a novel based on the movie (same title, ISBN 0-385-23930-0) in 1987.
Although the film is loosely centered around early 1980s punk subculture
, the film's score uses a series of strident synthesizer music pieces. The music was composed by Slava Tsukerman, Clive Smith
and Brenda Hutchinson
using the Fairlight CMI
, the first digital sampler/synthesizer. Most of it was original, but included interpretations of Baroque
composer Marin Marais
's Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris
, Carl Orff
's Trionfo di Afrodite
, and Anthony Philip Heinrich
's Laurel Waltz. All of these were orchestrated in a series of ominous, dissonant arrangements and nightmarish marches.
nightclub in Manhattan. Among the models are bisexual Margaret (Anne Carlisle) and Jimmy (also played by Carlisle). Jimmy is Margaret's rival and nemesis. He is apparently a drug addict, constantly hassling Margaret's heroin-dealer girlfriend Adrian (Paula E. Sheppard) for drugs despite not having any money to pay for them.
An alien spacecraft — about the size of a dinner plate — lands on the rooftop of the penthouse apartment occupied by Margaret and Adrian. Before the show, Jimmy suggests to Margaret that they both go to her place, but once there he only cares about finding Adrian's stash of heroin. We learn that Margaret's apartment is being watched by a tiny, shapeless alien from inside the UFO. Meanwhile, Adrian performs "Me and My Rhythm Box" at the club. Margaret and Jimmy return to the club to participate in the show. During preparations both agree to a photographic shoot the following night on Margaret's rooftop. They are assured that there will be plenty of drugs available at the shoot.
Margaret and Jimmy perform in the nightclub fashion show. Margaret connects with Californian soap opera
actor and son of a TV producer Vincent (Jack Adalist). Vincent is offering cocaine to all the women at the nightclub. Back at Margaret's apartment she rejects Vincent when all he offers are Quaaludes. He beats her and rapes her on the building's staircase.
German scientist Johann Hoffman (Otto Von Wernherr) arrives in New York. Across town, middle class Katherine (Elaine C. Grove) revoices her objection to the heroin use of her boyfriend, failed writer and heroin addict Paul (Stanley Knap).
Jimmy has lunch with his image conscious mother, Sylvia (Susan Doukas), a television producer. She tries to connect with him, but Jimmy's main interest is in obtaining money from her. Paul buys heroin from Adrian while trying to seduce Margaret. Johann secretly starts observing the aliens from the Empire State Building
. Johann needs somewhere to continue his surveillance when the observation deck closes. He seeks help in this from the only person he knows in America, college drama teacher Owen (Bob Brady). Owen fobs Johann off as he plans to go meet a former student, Margaret.
Seeking a vantage point on his own, Johann seeks access to an apartment building adjacent to Margaret's. This is Sylvia's building and lascivious Sylvia, who happens to have a free evening, eagerly invites Johann to her apartment for dinner.
Margaret is seduced by her former acting professor Owen, a representative of the erstwhile hippie generation. He dies as they make love in view of the aliens, with a crystal protruding from his head. Adrian returns and they clash over Margaret's dalliance with Owen. Adrian recites a eulogy, helps hide the body, and goes out to buy food for an impromptu wake.
Paul refuses to play host to Katherine's business clients at a party in her loft, claiming he feels sick. She angrily throws him out. Paul shows up at Margaret's while Adrian is out, and rapes her. He too dies, with a crystal protruding from his head. The aliens dispose of his body which instantly disintegrates. Margaret apparently believes it is the work of an "Indian"
god possessing the Empire State Building and is grateful, but in shock.
From Sylvia's apartment, Johann intermittently continues his observation between dinner and dodging Sylvia's various attempts to seduce him. He leaves to warn Adrian when she buys provisions for the wake. Rebuked by Adrian as a narc
he returns to Sylvia.
The crew arrives at Margaret's apartment for the fashion shoot. During the shoot Margaret is taunted by Jimmy, so she agrees to have sex with him knowing it will kill him. He dies and the body evaporates as Paul's had done. Adrian perversely encourages Margaret to have sex with her, rapes her, and Adrian also dies. A vengeful Margaret applies new make-up, deserts the crew and goes to a downtown nightclub. There she reconnects with Vincent, who previously raped her. Back at her apartment she seduces him, ensuring his death. Katherine arrives at the nightclub asking after Paul's dealer, Adrian.
Johann reveals that the alien is extracting the endorphins produced by the brain when an orgasm occurs—apparently a fatal operation. Johann resumes observation of Margaret's apartment and sees she is in mortal danger so goes across to help her. He explains to Margaret that she survived because she never experienced an orgasm. Seeing the alien craft leaving, Margaret stabs Johann in the back and injects herself with heroin to induce a wild autoerotic orgasm to ensure the aliens take her with them. Sylvia and Katherine arrive at the apartment together and reach the penthouse in time to see Margaret vaporized by the aliens.
.
On April 16, 2009 Dan Persons of mightymoviepodcast.com recalled that upon its release, Liquid Sky "provoked heated arguments and, love it or hate, was required viewing for anyone who really cared about film.". Persons considers the film "one of the formative forces of indie film."
Carlos James Chamberlin wrote in March, 2004 at senseofcinema.com: "It’s about time people started rendering unto Liquid Sky. Its long lipstick trace is smudged through much of indie cinema."
Production
Liquid Sky was produced and directed by Slava Tsukerman who, prior to making Liquid Sky, had a successful career as a documentary and TV film maker in the USSR and IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. The screenplay was written by Tsukerman, his wife and ubiquitous co-producer Nina V. Kerova, and Anne Carlisle
Anne Carlisle
Anne Carlisle is an actress, performance artist, acting teacher, author, and model.She is known for co-writing and playing both the lead male and female roles in the movie Liquid Sky...
, who also enacted the film's two leading roles. The director of photography, Yuri Neyman, a Russian émigré, was also the film's special effects expert. Anne Carlisle also wrote a novel based on the movie (same title, ISBN 0-385-23930-0) in 1987.
Although the film is loosely centered around early 1980s punk subculture
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, the film's score uses a series of strident synthesizer music pieces. The music was composed by Slava Tsukerman, Clive Smith
Clive Smith
Clive Smith may refer to:*Clive Smith , Kingston Polytechnic lecturer, trained as a cosmonaut in the USSR under Project Juno, British space programme in the early 1990s...
and Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson
Brenda Hutchinson is a composer and sound artist who has created a body of work she calls "collaborating with strangers." Hutchinson encourages her participants to experiment with sound, share stories, and make music...
using the Fairlight CMI
Fairlight CMI
The Fairlight CMI is a digital sampling synthesizer. It was designed in 1979 by the founders of Fairlight, Peter Vogel and Kim Ryrie, and based on a dual-6800 microprocessor computer designed by Tony Furse in Sydney, Australia...
, the first digital sampler/synthesizer. Most of it was original, but included interpretations of Baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
composer Marin Marais
Marin Marais
Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...
's Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris
Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris
Sonnerie de Ste-Geneviève du Mont-de-Paris, "The Bells of St. Genevieve" in English, is a work by Marin Marais written in 1723 for viol, violin and harpsichord with basso continuo. It can be considered a passacaglia or a chaconne, with a repeating D, F, E bass line...
, Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...
's Trionfo di Afrodite
Trionfo di Afrodite
Trionfo di Afrodite is a cantata called "concerto scenico" written in 1951 by the German composer Carl Orff. It is part of Trionfi, the musical triptych that also includes Carmina Burana and Catulli Carmina...
, and Anthony Philip Heinrich
Anthony Philip Heinrich
Anthony Philip Heinrich was the first "full-time" American composer, and the most prominent before the American Civil War. He did not start composing until he was 36, after losing his business fortune in the Napoleonic Wars. For most of his career he was known as "Father Heinrich," an emeritus...
's Laurel Waltz. All of these were orchestrated in a series of ominous, dissonant arrangements and nightmarish marches.
Plot
An avant garde fashion show is to be held in a New WaveNew Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
nightclub in Manhattan. Among the models are bisexual Margaret (Anne Carlisle) and Jimmy (also played by Carlisle). Jimmy is Margaret's rival and nemesis. He is apparently a drug addict, constantly hassling Margaret's heroin-dealer girlfriend Adrian (Paula E. Sheppard) for drugs despite not having any money to pay for them.
An alien spacecraft — about the size of a dinner plate — lands on the rooftop of the penthouse apartment occupied by Margaret and Adrian. Before the show, Jimmy suggests to Margaret that they both go to her place, but once there he only cares about finding Adrian's stash of heroin. We learn that Margaret's apartment is being watched by a tiny, shapeless alien from inside the UFO. Meanwhile, Adrian performs "Me and My Rhythm Box" at the club. Margaret and Jimmy return to the club to participate in the show. During preparations both agree to a photographic shoot the following night on Margaret's rooftop. They are assured that there will be plenty of drugs available at the shoot.
Margaret and Jimmy perform in the nightclub fashion show. Margaret connects with Californian soap opera
Soap opera
A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...
actor and son of a TV producer Vincent (Jack Adalist). Vincent is offering cocaine to all the women at the nightclub. Back at Margaret's apartment she rejects Vincent when all he offers are Quaaludes. He beats her and rapes her on the building's staircase.
German scientist Johann Hoffman (Otto Von Wernherr) arrives in New York. Across town, middle class Katherine (Elaine C. Grove) revoices her objection to the heroin use of her boyfriend, failed writer and heroin addict Paul (Stanley Knap).
Jimmy has lunch with his image conscious mother, Sylvia (Susan Doukas), a television producer. She tries to connect with him, but Jimmy's main interest is in obtaining money from her. Paul buys heroin from Adrian while trying to seduce Margaret. Johann secretly starts observing the aliens from the Empire State Building
Empire State Building
The Empire State Building is a 102-story landmark skyscraper and American cultural icon in New York City at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. It has a roof height of 1,250 feet , and with its antenna spire included, it stands a total of 1,454 ft high. Its name is derived...
. Johann needs somewhere to continue his surveillance when the observation deck closes. He seeks help in this from the only person he knows in America, college drama teacher Owen (Bob Brady). Owen fobs Johann off as he plans to go meet a former student, Margaret.
Seeking a vantage point on his own, Johann seeks access to an apartment building adjacent to Margaret's. This is Sylvia's building and lascivious Sylvia, who happens to have a free evening, eagerly invites Johann to her apartment for dinner.
Margaret is seduced by her former acting professor Owen, a representative of the erstwhile hippie generation. He dies as they make love in view of the aliens, with a crystal protruding from his head. Adrian returns and they clash over Margaret's dalliance with Owen. Adrian recites a eulogy, helps hide the body, and goes out to buy food for an impromptu wake.
Paul refuses to play host to Katherine's business clients at a party in her loft, claiming he feels sick. She angrily throws him out. Paul shows up at Margaret's while Adrian is out, and rapes her. He too dies, with a crystal protruding from his head. The aliens dispose of his body which instantly disintegrates. Margaret apparently believes it is the work of an "Indian"
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
god possessing the Empire State Building and is grateful, but in shock.
From Sylvia's apartment, Johann intermittently continues his observation between dinner and dodging Sylvia's various attempts to seduce him. He leaves to warn Adrian when she buys provisions for the wake. Rebuked by Adrian as a narc
Narc
Narc or nark may refer to:* Narc , a narcotics agent or informant** Informant or nark or narc* Narc , a 2002 film* NARC , a 1988 arcade game and a 2005 video game...
he returns to Sylvia.
The crew arrives at Margaret's apartment for the fashion shoot. During the shoot Margaret is taunted by Jimmy, so she agrees to have sex with him knowing it will kill him. He dies and the body evaporates as Paul's had done. Adrian perversely encourages Margaret to have sex with her, rapes her, and Adrian also dies. A vengeful Margaret applies new make-up, deserts the crew and goes to a downtown nightclub. There she reconnects with Vincent, who previously raped her. Back at her apartment she seduces him, ensuring his death. Katherine arrives at the nightclub asking after Paul's dealer, Adrian.
Johann reveals that the alien is extracting the endorphins produced by the brain when an orgasm occurs—apparently a fatal operation. Johann resumes observation of Margaret's apartment and sees she is in mortal danger so goes across to help her. He explains to Margaret that she survived because she never experienced an orgasm. Seeing the alien craft leaving, Margaret stabs Johann in the back and injects herself with heroin to induce a wild autoerotic orgasm to ensure the aliens take her with them. Sylvia and Katherine arrive at the apartment together and reach the penthouse in time to see Margaret vaporized by the aliens.
Cast
- Anne CarlisleAnne CarlisleAnne Carlisle is an actress, performance artist, acting teacher, author, and model.She is known for co-writing and playing both the lead male and female roles in the movie Liquid Sky...
... Margaret / Jimmy - Paula E. Sheppard ... Adrian
- Susan Doukas ... Sylvia
- Otto von Wernherr ... Johann Hoffman
- Bob Brady ... Owen
- Elaine C. Grove ... Katherine
- Stanley Knap ... Paul
- Jack Adalist... Vincent
- Lloyd Ziff ... Lester
- Harry Lum ... Chinese Food Deliveryman
- Roy MacArthur... Jack
- Sara Carlisle... Nellie
- Nina V. Kerova ... Designer
- Alan Preston ... Photographer
- Christine Hatfull ... Hair Stylist #1
Awards
- Montreal World Film FestivalMontreal World Film FestivalThe Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
– First Jury Award - Sydney Film FestivalSydney Film FestivalThe Sydney Film Festival is an annual film festival held in the Australian city of Sydney and is held over 12 days in June. The competitive film festival draws international and local attention, with films being showcased in several venues across the city centre and includes features,...
- Audience Award - Cartagena Film FestivalCartagena Film FestivalThe Cartagena Film Festival, or Festival Internacional de Cine y T.V. de Cartagena de Indias. is a Colombian film festival which focuses on the promotion of Colombian television programs, Latin American films, and videos...
– Special Jury Prize for Visual Impact - Brussels International Film Festival - Special Prize of the Jury
- Cinemanila International Film FestivalCinemanila International Film FestivalThe Cinemanila International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Manila, the Philippines. It was founded by Filipino filmmaker Amable "Tikoy" Aguiluz in 1999....
- Special Jury Prize
Reception
The film received a 94% Certified Fresh rating on review aggregate Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.
External links
- http://www.nytimes.com/1983/07/22/movies/liquid-sky-high-fashion-and-a-ufo.html?scp=2&sq=Slava%20Tsukerman&st=cse Review of Liquid Sky by Janet MaslinJanet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times. She served as the Times film critic from 1977–1999.- Biography :...
, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, July 22, 1983.] - Official website.