Superstar: The Musical Biopic Made with Dolls
By Luke Doherty
On February 4th, 1983, Karen Carpenter, lead vocalist and drummer of the pop-duo The Carpenters alongside her brother Richard, collapsed after getting out of bed. She was rushed to hospital and passed away shortly after due to complications from anorexia nervosa, a condition she had been struggling with for a decade prior.
A few years after her passing, an MFA student at Bard College, New York, made it his mission to adapt her life story into a feature film; thus, Superstar: the Karen Carpenter Story was born.
Todd Haynes’ decision to pursue the project arrived from hearing one of the band’s songs on the radio while in a coffee shop in New York, impelling him to reflect on their legacy. The early success of the musical duo, with their wholesome image which was later undercut through the public knowledge of Karen’s personal struggles, reflected the growing cynicism under the Republican administration of the seventies. Karen herself had acknowledged how unfeasible the band’s clean-cut persona was in a 1974 interview with Rolling Stone: “The image we have, it would be impossible for Mickey Mouse to maintain. We’re just… normal people.”
When Todd Haynes decided to make the project alongside fellow graduate Cynthia Schneider, they were compelled to pursue an unusual creative decision; it would be filmed with dolls instead of actors. Despite striking occasional resemblance to watching a sibling play with their toys, the decision ties the same nostalgic feeling to the film that the writers were undoubtedly propelled by when they chose Karen as their subject. It allowed the writers to wordlessly satirise beauty standards of that time, as well disguising the low budget; you can genuinely forget that you are watching toys instead of real humans in front of the camera.
The film embraces yet is deeply cynical about Americana, especially the deconstruction of its suburbia aesthetic. Opening with tracking shots of Southern California neighbourhoods while the titular 1971 cover of “Superstar” plays foreshadows Karen’s story whilst also infusing bitter notes beneath the sunny suburban sprawl depicted. The Barbie-Dreamhouse style sets where the drama takes place expose a clear criticism of the façade these worlds foster. Watching this, it is easy to see how Todd Haynes went on to create the genius domestic-horror-thriller Safe, where he suggests that American suburbia is so toxic, our very bodies would begin to break down rather than live out a mundane existence there.
Richard Carpenter himself did not care for the feature due to his depiction as an abusive, uncaring figure in Karen’s life. He sued the film for the unlicensed use of his music and in 1990, it was officially pulled from circulation. However, the original copy is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, in hope that one day it will be properly seen again.
The most enduring legacy of Superstar from my perspective is its dynamic retelling of an artist’s life, more so than many of the musical biopics produced in recent years. Think of the troubled production of Bohemian Rhapsody, originally intended to tell the life story of Freddie Mercury until the surviving members of the band became involved, repackaging the film as a story of the band itself. The independent spirit of Superstar, almost ruthless in its dedication to telling the story of Karen Carpenter as it happened, makes it truly worthy of being seen by a larger audience.
