HEIDI FLEISS: THE HOLLYWOOD MADAM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1996 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
As readers of my reviews have long since learned, my favorite movie genre is the documentary. Even poorly constructed documentaries can provide a fascinating experience and most documentarians are quite skilled. If a documentary actually gets a theatrical release, you can generally be sure that it will be well worth seeing since bad documentaries have trouble finding a distributor. Well I am sorry to report that narcissistic director Nick Broomfield found an outfit called InPictures to distribute HEIDI FLEISS: THE HOLLYWOOD MADAM. Simply put, this is the worst documentary I have ever seen.
Nick arrives in Hollywood just in time to find out that he will not be able to interview Heidi for two months since she is being put by the courts into a mandatory drug rehab program. He does not stop a minute and instead interviews whomever he can find no matter how unimportant and boring. Nick appears on camera almost as often as the putative stars of the film. He kept reminding me of Perot, saying, "this is not about me," but actually the picture seeming to be mainly about him.
The documentary is as much about Nick failed attempts at making the documentary as it is about Heidi Fleiss, her disgusting friends, and their life running prostitutes for a living. Many times, we have long sequences of Nick driving around trying to find someone and talking about his search. Lots of shots from inside Nick's car out over the car's hood as he drives around neighborhoods. Although Ross McElwee made a movie about making a documentary in one of the best documentaries ever, SHERMAN'S MARCH, this is a technique that should be used only by the most skilled documentarians of which Nick Broomfield is certainly not one.
Nick pays off most of the people he interviews and is so crass as to record him counting off fresh hundred dollar bills to them in front of the camera before the interview starts. When Nick needs more material, he just splices into a lot of stock footage from TV newscasts like Hard Copy or the local TV station reports. He gives them credit, but it feels like plagiarism. In his narration Nick takes great pains to pronounce madam with the accent heavily on the last syllable rather than the first. Perhaps that is the way the British always do it, but it sounded like an affectation.
Heidi's story does emerge through interviews with her coworkers, her competitive pimps, "her girls", and her sleazy boyfriends. They tell of her prostitution ring being famous. Men would call Heidi up and say things like, "fly us 3 girls now to the Dorchester hotel in London."
Heidi came from the family of a respected pediatrician father and a schoolteacher mother. Nick tells us her parents were children of the 60s and believed in a free wheeling lifestyle. Heidi's mother tells the camera, "I bet a lot of people who came down on prostitution, say 'I'd like to make $1,500 a night.'"
The film concentrates on two despicable characters in Heidi's life. The first is her original pimp and later her main competition as a pimp, Madam Alex. She is in her late 60s and is interviewed on her bed while dressed in a flimsy white outfit. You feel like she might slime her way off of the screen at any moment.
The other is her boyfriend and her second pimp, Ivan Nagy. He, as are most of the others, are into both drugs and prostitution, but Ivan is a smooth operator who hides his evil. The interviews with both of them reveal little insight because of Nick's almost total lack of skills as an interviewer.
The film feels like someone making a parody of a documentary. It is so muddled, it is like staring at something through a glass of mud. Based on what little I did learn, I suspect that even if the glass had been clear, none of the people interviewed were worth hearing from.
Eventually, just before the film, ends Nick finally gets to interview Heidi. She provides such enlighten explanation as to how she got started as, "I just realized there were young pretty girls around and a lot of rich men." Well, that certainly explains everything. Heidi is one of the shallowest people you will ever meet and consequently her interview has no depth. Moreover, she is a sigularly unattractive woman. As Madam Alex put it, "she wasn't even a 5" on the infamous 10 point beauty scale. Heidi does prefer older men and we learn, "Any guy over 40 looks good to me!"
In a movie populated by boring sleasebags and done by a self-serving documentarian, there is a single good scene. Just before he is to interview Heidi he gets into an argument with the local channel 5 reporter and camera crew over who are legitimate and who are exploiters. The channel 5 reporter has the definite argument. She is legitimate because she has a number on her mike, and he doesn't. Case closed.
HEIDI FLEISS: THE HOLLYWOOD MADAM runs 1:46 and seems like it will never end. I saw it all but wish I had left early. The film is not rated, but would certainly get an R for bad language, some sex, and some nudity. The show would be fine for most teenagers. I can not recommend it and give it the lowest rating I have ever given to a documentary, a single *.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEW WRITTEN ON: April 12, 1996
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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