DEEP PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
In an age in which every last Jess Franco movie is the subject of some scholarly essay or post-modern reverie, it’s refreshing to read J.R. Taylor’s interview with ’70s/’80s grindhouse icon Roberta Findlay in this week’s New York Press. And while Taylor starts with a bit of romantic nostalgia for trash-film viewing on the Forty Deuce, Findlay quickly throws some cold water on it all:
“‘People who like those old movies seem to have deep psychological problems,’ she explains. ‘Under the best of circumstances, I wouldn’t call any of them art. My first budget was $5,000. That was the deal. You’d be given a budget and then they’d own the film. I’d get a fee, whatever the fee was. Until the last picture I did, when my producer wasn’t going to pay me — for no reason. He punched me in the eye, and then, forbearance to sue, he paid me what he owed me.’”
