THE BALLAD OF GENESIS AND LADY JAYE is a documentary about the stranger-than-strange relationship between "artist" and Psychic TV frontman Genesis P-Orridge and his wife, the late Lady Jaye, a bondage performance artist in NYC. I admit that I really love Psychic TV and saw the band at the Knitting Factory years ago but even then I found Genesis' appearance to be quite distracting. The male singer, having become quite famous in the punk world for many years, has, through much plastic surgery and someone hideous cosmetics, transformed himself into what he claims is a reproduction of his lady love. A failed attempt, for sure, as Lady Jaye was a thin reedy blond with average-sized breasts and diminutive facial characteristics while hubby Genesis is an overweight short man with too-large breast implants, Botox-inflated lips, way too much make up - usually dressed in a boring house dress. .
The doc explains that both Genesis and Lady Jaye loved each other so much that they decided to have many surgeries to attempt to look like each other and artistically become one person. That's the "art" explanation of which the NYC art world seems to be so infatuated, however the film explores (not enough for my tastes) a bit of background for both people and frankly, there seems to be serious psychological issues with both people. At one point, Genesis explains that as a young boy, he was repeatedly bullied and kick down the front school stairs for at least three years. One wonders if there was brain damage.
While I have absolutely no issues with the transgendered/cross dressing world, there is a strange sadness to the film. First of all, Genesis lost his partner several years before the film was made when Lady Jaye suddenly died. If we subscribe to the couple's attempt to become one person, then Genesis is now half a person. He had finally found happiness with his new identity and status as a NYC art icon and now he is alone again, lending a sense of tragedy to what was intended to be a film about the art world - one of the only human cultural arenas that knows no limits or boundaries.
The film maker and star will be making personal appearances this week at screenings of the film in Los Angeles. For more information and screening times, please go to the Landmark Theaters website.
Minnie Driver can play snide or winsome with equal ability and in a sweet new film from Wales called HUNKY DORY, well...she does winsome. Oh, her character portrayal of a teacher in a gritty industrial Welsh seaside town has spunk but even at her most sarcastic, she wins us over. HUNKY DORY will decidedly be compared to GLEE because it's about a high school music class attempting to perform a musical version of THE TEMPEST but the setting in the late 1970s is a constant reminder about how far society has come politically and socially but also how little has been gained in tolerance of different lifestyles. The viewer might wonder if bullying is an unavoidable byproduct of teen years - no matter what the decade. The performances are winning and natural and the cinematography is kind to a town that is probably cleaner today than over 30 years ago. A couple of plot lines remain unresolved which is bothersome, but once viewers settle in to the dialect, they may find HUNKY DORY as winsome as the lead character.
