The 1983 indie-underground New York movie Variety, directed by Bette Gordon and scripted by Kathy Acker, is re-released for its 40-year anniversary. It is a flawed but fascinating critique of the male gaze, the porn gaze, and the luxurious ordeal of guilty voyeurism. Gordon casts a female lead, flipping gender assumptions and turning the tables on the underworld quest-torments of Paul Schrader’s male heroes in the likes of Taxi Driver and Hardcore. Perhaps she was inspired by the mysterious inner life of the listless young woman played by Diahnne Abbott in Taxi Driver, working behind the porn-cinema concessions counter, irritated by Travis Bickle’s inquiries about what candy she has: “What you see is what we got.”
Actor and film-maker Sandy McLeod plays Christine, a demure young middle-class woman from Michigan who is desperate for money after failing to get into media or publishing in Manhattan and falling behind on her rent. Prompted by her friend Nan (played by the artist and future photography star Nan Goldin), she takes a job tearing tickets in a scuzzy adult movie theatre near Times Square, ironically called Variety though it offers an unvarying bill of pornography. She finds herself strangely unsettled by the movies on offer, and by the attentions of Louie (Richard M Davidson), a wealthy older man she sees there – a rather classic porn-narrative situation, in fact. Luis Guzmán plays Jose, an amiable guy who works at the cinema; Spalding Gray is the voice of a creep who leaves pervy messages on Christine’s answering machine.
