Liar Liar Pants On Fire

Some Nudity Required (1998)

Directed By: Odette Springer

Review Written By: Justin Bozung
Mondo Film & Video Guide Co-Founder
IMDb.com Link

There’s a damn good reason, you may have never heard of the name ” Odette Springer.”  Odette, a musician with classical training, moved from the east coast to the west coast in the mid 80′s to pursue music.   Somehow and someway, she weasled her way into the film industry, and begin acting as the composer and music supervisor on several Roger Corman produced films in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s.

In 1998, she would do something, that would shock and awe the B movie community to the effect that she would never work again in film…

In 1995, Odette begin work on a documentary film which went on to become the infamous ” Some Nudity Required.”   The film is a dissection of the B movie industry.  It features several actresses and filmmakers discussing women and nudity in film.   We are “treated” to interviews with Roger Corman, Jim Wynorski, Fred Olen Ray, Maria Ford, Arlene and Andy Sidaris, and Julie Strain amongst others.   Everyone in the film, speaks openly about female nudity in film.  And let me just tell you, you’ll be SHOCKED at what they say…

Roger Corman

More interestingly, what makes this film so shocking is the unusual amount of time the director, writer and narrator “Odette Springer” spends talking about herself, and her morality when it comes to working in the industry, and in particular, working, scoring the sleazy exploitative films that Roger Corman makes!  The film pulls a complete 180 on you, as Springer herself, unveils some truely shocking and disturbing aspects of her personal life, such as, the fact that her own family member’s possibly molested her.  She does this by showing silent super 8mm footage of herself at ages 3-5, dancing on a table, as a child, she pulls up her skirt, to unveil her 3-5 year old vagina, which the film’s editor chooses to freeze frame on, and repeat at least 2-3 times and then zoom on.  Springer, details how as the more time she spends in the B-movie industry she begins to become turned on by all the sex and violence, even though she knows it’s wrong!  She claims this causes her romantic relationships to fail in her personal life, and gets her involved in kinky sex with strangers.  She even includes a sequence of herself (she is not attractive in any shape or form)  standing in a lowly lit room, full frontally naked, touching her breasts, as her voice over explains, how these films, make her aware and upset about her own body image.   She really thinks she’s some sort of “artist” in this film, WTF…

Once the film was complete, it was accepted into the 1998 Sundance film festival, and it SHOCKED the industry.   However, almost EVERYONE with an on camera interview came out and stated that their participation was heavily edited, and didn’t reflect their true feelings about the B movie industry.   Here’s a statement  from the GREAT filmmaker Jim Wynorski on the film…

“The whole thing was a sham. It was made over ten years ago by a woman named Odette Springer. She and her then husband were the heads of the music department at Roger Corman’s New Horizons Productions. I was doing an independent production at the time called SORCERESS, and Odette made me a deal I should have refused: free music if I’d let her shoot some behind-the-scenes for a planned documentary on me.

Well she did a lot of filming, interviewed Julie Strain, Toni Naples, Rochelle Swanson and myself. But then turned around and broadened her documentary to include ALL B-movies – claiming they were harmful and turned people into child molesters, and that she herself was abused as a child and now found it odd and sickening that she herself was involved in their preparation and distribution.

I remember vividly the day she showed the piece to Roger Corman for possible distribution. He got up halfway thru the show with his fists clenched and walked out fuming. He had Odette escorted out by others, as he didn’t want to see her ever again.

When I finally saw the final version, I too was angry. She’d subverted the entire industry and made us all out to look like the alternative to guys who wait in black cars across from school yards. Roger started legal proceedings to try and stop any distribution, but failed. The picture went out to several midnight shows, film festivals and a vhs tape.

Later, however, I joined his lawsuit and we managed to get an injunction on all the actual footage we owned in the feature. That, in effect, put her out of business. She couldn’t make any further cable sales, laser disc or dvd deals. All that remains is the vhs tape – but, unfortunately, they must have made tens of thousands of ‘em – as I still see them all over the net. Eventually, like Odette herself, they’ll dry up and vanish.” – Jim Wynorski Oct 2006

Maria Ford’s interview’s created the most buzz amongst the industry.  Many feel her comments in the film “ruined” her career directly.  Taking her from a B movie siren, to a mere B movie walk on actress.  Some people in the industry also feel that the direct result and backlash from this film, caused Maria Ford to pursue her own personal identity change and move forward with breast implants, and collagen injections in her face, completely altering her image, transforming into what  she looks like today…  The most interesting and entertaining aspect of Some Nudity Required, is the fascinating behind the scenes sections of director Jim Wynorski directing on the set of 1995′s Sorceress.  He’s a real bad ass, hands down…

Some Nudity Required, as Jim Wynorski reports is getting more difficult to find these days.  It’s a testament, to the power of film editing.  While controversial filmmaking makes for wonderful entertainment, when the truth comes out,  it becomes SO MUCH less interesting… Check it out…

Justin Bozung is the Co-Founder of the Mondo Film & Video Guide. You can email him directly at justinb@mondo-video.com

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