Lipstick

Plot synopsis:
Twenty-one year-old Chris McCormick (Margaux Hemingway) is a top model for a company selling lipstick. McCormick has responsibility for her 14 year-old sister Kathy (Mariel Hemingway) as their parents were killed in a car crash. They share an apartment and Kathy attends a private, Catholic school.Kathy invites her handsome, young music teacher, Gordon Stuart (Chris Sarandon) to come to one of Chris's photo shoots along the ocean because she wants her older sister to hear his somewhat avant garde musical compositions. The shoot runs long, so Chris does not have a chance to hear it, but arrangements are made for him to stop by her apartment the next day to play it for her.The next day, Stuart arrives at the apartment, but Chris has forgotten the appointment and this causes her to greet him fresh out of the shower dressed in nothing but a robe. Stuart obviously hopes that if she likes his music she might be able to use some of her musical connections to help him. While he is playing a selection from his tape recorder (the composition uses a lot of environmental sounds with electronic synthesizers) Chris is interrupted with a phone call from her boyfriend Steve Edison (Perry King) and retreats to her bedroom.The interruption and Chris's apparent apathy toward his music enrages Stuart and he enters her bedroom smashing things and hitting her. He then throws her naked across her four poster bed and secures her spread-eagle on her stomach with silk scarves to the posts and sodomizes her.Toward the end of the rape Chris has stopped struggling so when little sister Kathy arrives home from school she enters the apartment and hears nothing amiss. She walks into Chris's bedroom via a connecting balcony and sees the scene, but does not realize that Chris is being forced against her will, so she leaves quietly, shutting the patio door behind her.Chris hears the patio door shut and realizes that Kathy must be home and begs Stuart to release her. After half-jokingly suggesting they make it "threesome," he does, noting that Kathy must think "her sister just made it with her favorite teacher." Stuart leaves and a crying Chris stumbles to Kathy who finally realizes that something is wrong.The police arrive and gather evidence while Chris talks to a rape-crisis counselor. Later that night the police pick up Stuart and take him to jail.A few days later Chris, Edison and Chris's priest/brother, Martin (John Bennett Perry) meet with district attorney Carla Bondi (Anne Bancroft). Bondi warns Chris that getting a conviction under these circumstances (she invited him to her apartment) will not be easy. Edison also has his doubts about pressing charges as he fears it may damage Chris's career. Chris makes it clear that she want to go ahead, however.Stuart's attorney Nathan Cartright (Robin Gammell) does everything he can to raise doubt in the jury's mind about whether the encounter was consentual even bringing in Chris's sexy pictures from the photo shoot in an attempt to besmirch her reputation. However, in the end it is Chris's own sister's testimony that gets Stuart off the hook: despite Kathy's protests that she believes her sister's story, it is clear that the afternoon of the attack Kathy's failure to call the police after seeing them together in the bedroom is a clear indication that she did not think at the time that her sister was being raped. The jury acquits Stuart.Chris tries to go back to work, but it is clear that she cannot focus her attention on her modeling and the lipstick company decides to suspend her contract. Kathy switches schools as it looks like Stuart may get his old job back.Kathy is watching her older sister at one final shoot being done at a partly completed mall complex and gets bored. She starts exploring the empty mall and stumbles across Stuart and some of her former classmates preparing a dance performance to his music. When the classmates leave, Stuart sees her and invites her to help him with the final mixing of his composition. She approaches and lets him place a contact microphone on her chest to record her heartbeat to add to the music. We hear her heartbeat suddenly speed up as Kathy realizes that Stuart is making sexual advances toward her. She runs and he chases her through the empty mall until he catches her in a sub-basement tunnel. There we see him start to tear her clothes off....Kathy stumbles back to the part of the mall where the photo shoot is going on. She crying and her clothes are torn. Chris asks what happened. At first Kathy tells her nothing, but then admits she ran into Stuart and he attacked her.Chris races to the window and sees Stuart leaving the building. She runs down to her truck and gets a rifle she has in the back and shoots Stuart as he is driving from the parking lot. He crashes his car, then climbs out, but is shot again and again by Chris, including a shot to his genitals. She continues to try and pump bullets into his dead body even after he has stopped moving and the gun is empty. The police arrive and arrest Chris who is in a state of shock. As the camera pulls away from the scene we hear Bondi, who has apparently left the D.A's office to defend Chris, tell the jury during Chris' murder trial that justice can only be served if they acquit Chris of Stuart's murder.

Tags: revenge, cult, murder, violence

Review:
That was to show the audience that even a top fashion model who's used to exposing her body to the public and is anything but a Mother Teresa in her social life has as much right as a Cloister Nun to say no when she's put upon by someone and should have the same protection from the law and court system as well.Margaux Hemingway, Chris McCormick, is a top world fashion model who's little sister Kathy, Mariel Hemingway, is infatuated with her music teacher Gordon Stuart, Chris Sarandon.
Gordon thinking that Chris is easy and loose and from the photos in her apartment of her with a number of movie stars and other well known personalities feels that she made out with all of them so why not with him.
Before you know it Gordon with very little urging on his part brutally attacks and rapes her.As Gordon has Chris tied down on her bed her sister Kathy enters the apartment and sees what's happening and gets sicken by it.
Even though at the time it looked like Chris was not fighting Gordon off, she was too exhausted by then, Kathy believed her sister when she told her that he raped her.
That negative opinion of his musical talent on Chris' part somehow made Gordon feel insulted and set him off.Chris hurt and humiliated as well as having to have her little sister Kathy see what happened to her goes to woman advocate lawyer Caria Bondi, Anne Bancroft, to help in the state's case against the man who raped her Gordon Stuart.
Caria is more then honest with Chris by telling her that if the case against Gordon is prosecuted by the state that Chris can expect to be raped all over again by Gordon's lawyer but this time in public not in private like she was raped by Gordon; and even after all that the odds of getting Gordon convicted is 98% against her.
Even though the movie has a very contrived ending when the rapist who got away with raping Chris and later also rapes her sister Kathy getting just whats coming to him.
Later in the movie her lawyer Claria Bondi evens thing out in court by getting Chris off for shooting him on a temporary insanity plea.
Manipulative drama about a glamorous model (Margaux Hemingway) who is raped by a geeky but unbalanced musician (Chris Sarandon) – to whom she had been introduced by her younger sister (played by real-life sibling Mariel), whose music teacher he is.
While the central courtroom action holds the attention – thanks largely to a commanding performance by Anne Bancroft as Hemingway’s lawyer – the film is too often merely glossy, but also dramatically unconvincing: the jury ostensibly takes the musician’s side because a) the girl invited assault due to the sensuous nature of her profession and b) she was offering no resistance to her presumed aggressor when her sister arrived at the apartment and inadvertently saw the couple in bed together.
The second half of the film – involving Sarandon’s rape of the sister, which curiously anticipates IRREVERSIBLE (2002) by occurring in a tunnel – is rather contrived: Mariel’s character should have known better than to trust Sarandon after what he did to her sister, but Margaux herself foolishly reprises the line of work which had indirectly led to her humiliating experience almost immediately!
The climax – in which Sarandon gets his just desserts, with Margaux turning suddenly into a fearless and resourceful vigilante – is, however, a crowd-pleaser in the style of DEATH WISH (1974); incidentally, ubiquitous Italian movie mogul Dino De Laurentiis was behind both films.It’s worth noting how the two Hemingway sisters’ lives took wildly different turns (this was the film debut of both): Margaux’s career never took off (despite her undeniable good looks and commendable participation here) – while Mariel would soon receive an Oscar nomination for Woody Allen’s MANHATTAN (1979) and, interestingly, would herself play a glamorous victim of raging violence when essaying the role of real-life “Playboy” centerfold Dorothy Stratten in Bob Fosse’s STAR 80 (1983).
Chris Sarandon had just been Oscar-nominated for "Dog Day Afternoon" and I wanted to see all his movies, and I was interested in seeing the Hemingway sisters.
Chris Sarandon is competent as the psycho rapist, as is the always great Anne Bancroft, but Perry King, then a pretty big star, has a worthless role as Margaux's boyfriend.
The scripts and characterisations had to be good because this was pre special effects, they actually shot films outdoors in real life settings, not just studio caverns.This is a beautifully made film and we can appreciate the freshness of the Hemingway sisters , as well as understand the difficulties a disturbed young man faces when his desires get the better of him.The revenge aspect would make the viewer feel good as they see justice as being done.Though in the end no one wins, expect viewers who are treated to almost 2 hours of suspense , escapism and possibly voyeurism as the girls are so attractive.I am tired of the franchise films of today, the TV remakes, the special effects-making actors and writers redundant when good scripts and real life locations are needed to help us identify with the situation..
The cast, headed by Margeaux and Mariel Hemingway, Chris Sarandon and Anne Bancroft, all invest deep emotion into their roles.
Chris Sarandon is excellent as a school teacher who rapes fashion model Margeaux Hemingway.
There is lots of tension before the rape and we really see Chris as a big time weirdo who plays really bad music while poor Margeaux tries to make an excuse to leave the room.
Just viewed this film and found it fantastic, there was no mention in the horrible rape case about DNA, no such thing existed.
This film showed exactly what a woman goes through when she is raped, it needs to be viewed and observed by appreciative fans of Margaux Hemingway, who gave a wonderful performance..
He was a very successful singer/songwriter and had written music for numerous movies, many of these were hits.The music he specifically composed for "Lipstick" was a statement and I regret that it was not recognized as such.He still lives in the US and occasionally "comes back" to his fans who always were there waiting and until now were never disappointed.They are still hoping for a real true come back in good old France though.LOEMOEMBA.
This is another lurid entry into the misbegotten "rape-revenge" genre, but it manages to be even more sleazy than usual because it was backed by a major studio and it features two of Ernest Hemingway's granddaughters (only one of whom was talented), sisters Margeaux and Mariel Hemingway.The late model-actress (or, more accurately, model-bad actress)Margeaux Hemingway plays an, um, model (at least she doesn't stretch herself too much) who lets her younger sister's middle-school music teacher (Chris Sarandon) into her house to listen to his weird avante-garde music.
So he ties her to the bed and violently sodomizes her(!) in a highly exploitative scene that involves Margeaux being butt-naked and tied up for nearly ten minutes (Strangely, Mariel Hemingway ended up in exactly the same position some years later at the end of the otherwise much better Dorothy Stratten bio "Star 80").
Without giving too much away, Sarandon's character (who even for a middle-school music teacher is ridiculously evil) sets his sights on the younger Mariel and has to face the wrath of the vengeful Margeaux.Margeaux Hemingway was not much of an actress and she has one of the most annoying voices in the history of cinema.
Even in her first role, Mariel Hemingway is far better as the troubled teen who isn't sure if she saw her favorite teacher raping her sister or her slutty sister seducing him.
Chris Sarandon is also pretty good, and he no doubt had a hard time living this role down, but he would go on to "The Sentinel" and "Fright Night".
I somehow missed this sleazy piece of trash back in the 70's (but I guess I was only seven at the time), but I saw it recently completely by accident while trying to find an even more obscure (and much better) Italian film with the same name.
Fashion model is raped by her kid sister's music teacher and hopes to have her day in court, but the creep turns out to be a convincing actor on the witness stand.
However one views this picture, there was absolutely no reason to frame certain shots of the rape sequence with close-ups of Margaux Hemingway's bare breasts or buttocks.
I don't think there's yet been a way to stage a rape scene for a dramatic film and not have it come off as some pervert's fantasy.
Once you get passed that, however, there are some good bits and pieces: pre-teen Mariel Hemingway sticking up for Margaux in court ("Not my sister!
"Lipstick" focuses on Chris (Margaux Hemingway), a Los Angeles model working for a lipstick company, who ends up being brutalized and raped in her apartment by her little sister's deranged music teacher/avant-garde composer (Chris Sarandon).
After a feisty attorney (Anne Bancroft) fails to get a conviction, Chris takes is later forced to take matters into her own hands.Decried as one of the worst films of the '70s, "Lipstick" has been condemned as everything from exploitative trash to a shameless vehicle for the Hemingway sisters.
I'm going to play the devil's advocate here and say that, while, yes, the film does edge into the territory of the exploitation film (think 1973's "Thriller"), and yes, a lot of the legal jargon is dumbed down and the script set-up is at times completely arbitrary, this is not nearly as terrible a film as many would lead you to believe.Lamont Johnson, who previously directed the superb Patty Duke thriller "You'll Like My Mother" in 1972, is behind the camera here, and the film is very stylishly shot.
Margaux Hemingway and little sister Mariel play on screen siblings very nicely, both demonstrating considerably acting capability.
Anne Bancroft plays the no- nonsense attorney perfectly, while Perry King appears briefly in a relatively pointless role as Hemingway's boyfriend/photographer.The film's second-to-last scene is the real dynamite here, and the reason it's remembered above anything else, although it again is a bit awkwardly paced, and seems to arrive too late to the party.
It's no masterpiece, but it is a mildly thrilling, entertaining revenge film, and Margaux Hemingway and Bancroft's performances lend it some serious backbone.
The performances are somewhat uneven but for her first film Margaux gives a pretty good performance, especially in the rape and courtroom scenes.
The striking thing about this film is that 35 years later our legal system and the way it treats women has not changed much, most rapes still go unreported and few perps are convicted.The movie has its flaws but it never fails to entertain and it is much better than most films released today.
Chris McCormick (Margaux Hemingway) is a high fashion model.
Gordon Stuart (Chris Sarandon) is her little sister Kathy (Mariel Hemingway)'s music teacher.
Gordon is found not guilty in a trial.The Hemingway sisters have never been mistaken for good actresses.
The court section does work but the movie can't overcome Margaux's bad acting..
The movie instead focuses on the rape of a lipstick model by a weirdo music teacher and no one believing that she was raped.
Chris Sarandon is excellent as the rapist creep (it's hard to believe he also played Al Pacino's transvestite lover in Dog Day Afternoon), Margeaux Hemingway is ok as the victim.
Young Mariel Hemingway is excellent playing real-life sister Margeaux's sister in the movie.
I then saw it again earlier this year and was once again horrified.I am not a zealot or one to say what others should and should not see but I did take great offense to the way in which something as horrible as rape was dealt with in this movie.
The film is well phased(even though the revenge action takes place pretty late in the movie) and quite entertaining even though its not your typical I Spit on Your Grave type rape/revenge flick but more of a crime-thriller drama.
Its well acted and nicely shot and genuinely a well made film, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.Its not gory or horribly violent or anything and thats kind of the downfall of the movie, its nothing special so you don't miss much if you haven't seen this.
I've never heard or seen what the late Margaux Hemingway thought of her decision to star in this classic Dino Delaurentis "anything for a buck" hack fest, but I'd guess it's regret.If you subtract the horribly slapped together courtroom denouement, tighten up the sometimes hackneyed, over-melodramatic, cliché-ridden script, you're left with a harsh examination of rape and the judicial realities (circa 1976 anyway) of the crime's aftermath.Providing the movie was of a slightly higher grade (it's really not THAT bad a film if you look at it strictly in a technical sense), an established actress who was put through the paces Margaux is here would probably garner an Oscar nomination (think Jodie Foster's performance as a hard-edged working-class girl in "The Accused" --- was that any less graphic and sleazy?).
Unfortunately, it's much easier to beat up (no pun intended) on a model with no acting experience.Frankly, I've never thought Margaux's delivery here was bad --- it's natural, and her exchanges with her sister Mariel are believable and touching.
Chris Sarandon, though suitably hateful, brings a creepy realism to his wacko music teacher/rapist role, and Anne Bancroft is solid as usual.The biggest problem I've had with this film is it's unequivocal equation of electronic/avant-garde music with a deviant, unbalanced mind.
I beg to differ about 1 Hemingway sister being better then the other-BOTH were equally powerful and the movie was fantastically acted.
A fashion model(notable for a popular lipstick campaign)is sexually assaulted and humiliated by her sister's disturbed music teacher.
With Chris(Margaux Hemingway) bound to bedposts, her sister Cathy(Mariel Hemingway) finds him over her body in a sexual position.
With all the masterful work Carla is able to accomplish in turning Gordon into a nervy, bumbling mess on the stand, the flawed testimony of Cathy lends him the much needed support to get out of his sticky situation.The trial takes up the middle of the film and is certain to leave a bad taste in the mouths of many viewers.
Yeah, it just so happens that in the same building that Chris is performing for her final model shoot, Gordon has a hall for his work.To be perfectly honest, LIPSTICK is the kind of film that will probably require a shower after it is over because of just how repulsive Mr. Stewart is.
While I'm familiar obviously with Mariel Hemingway, this is the first film I've seen with her sister Margaux who left quite an impression.
That, and just recalling the name of the film, there's a picture in my mind's eye of Margaux Hemingway holding a rifle.Too bad the film was marketed this way because it cheapened the product.This is a tense, psychological thriller; it's a great courtroom drama; and it's a showcase for great acting.
Neither one of the Hemingway women can act here (although Mariel HAS improved over the years), Anne Bancroft offers the only touch of class as a prosecuting attorney, and Chris Sarandon is by turns pathetic and unintentionally hilarious as the smirking, smarmy bad guy of the piece.Veteran director Lamont Johnson can't make a silk purse out of this sow's ear of a script, which is stuffed to bursting with howlingly bad dialogue and outlandish situations.
"Kathy McCormick" (Mariel Hemingway) is a young 13-year old who has a crush on her music teacher, "Gordon Stuart" (Chris Sarandon).
She lives with her older sister, "Chris McCormick" (Margaux Hemingway) who is a beautiful fashion model.
I, however, need to differ on these views; 'Lipstick' is no masterwork and clings to the sensationalism of its time, but it can still be a relevant piece of film-making.Margaux Hemingway, the first model in world history to a sign a million-dollar contract, plays her debut film role as Chris McCormick, a (guess what?) Los Angeles model who is looking after her young sister Kathy (played by real-life sister Mariel).
While shooting photos for a lipstick campaign, Chris is introduced to Gordon Stuart (Chris Sarandon), a grammar school music teacher and composer to whom Kathy has taken an innocent shine.
'Lipstick' has also been condemned as exploitation, but that is perhaps only true in the film's second half when David Rayfiel's script begins to fall apart.
An odd thing happens in the later trial scenes, when Kathy is again called to the stand; defense attorney Nathan Cartright (Robin Gammell) instills reasonable doubt in the jury by showing that Kathy was not distressed from seeing Chris and Gordon in bed.
While this is highly possible, Rayfiel's script and Lamont Johnson's direction fail to make it convincing; the movie is fairing superbly until this point.Plot conveniences really take over, such as Chris allowing Kathy to walk around an empty office complex that is somehow visited that day by Gordon Stuart(!) The film ends with Carla Bondi 'leaving' the district attorney's office(!) to defend Chris after she shoots Gordon dead with a hunting rifle.
The supporting cast is fairly good, although Chris Sarandon and Anne Bancroft have their moments of chewing up the set.
Model Chris McCormack (Margaux Hemingway) is brutally raped by a teacher (Chris Sarandon) of her sister Kathy (Mariel Hemingway).
And the movie just went too far when 15 year old Mariel is raped (thankfully that wasn't shown).
"Lipstick" uses a slightly - but only slightly - more subtle form of propaganda; a top fashion model is the victim of a brutal rape in her own apartment by a man she has invited in for reasons totally unrelated to sex.