‘Popatopolis’ Premieres in Hollywood

Wednesday night in Hollywood saw the unveiling of a new behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of a softcore movie.  The glitterati and paparazzi were out in force, along with, er, a lot of single guys in flannel shirts and shorts.  They were all there to see Popatopolis, an entertaining documentary directed by Clay Westervelt featuring the cast and crew of the Jim Wynorski (make that H.R. Blueberry) film The Witches of Breastwick.  Yes, that one—the one you saw on late-night Skinemax a couple of years ago.  Often.

Director Westervelt and his crew were on hand for the premiere, as were Softcore Reviews favorite Monique Parent and Wynorski veterans Julie K. Smith and Antonia Dorian, all of them looking as lovely as ever.  The plot is this: Jim Wynorski, the “most prolific director you’ve never heard of” (except that we here at Softcore Reviews know all about him—heck, he posts in our forum) is commissioned by some unnamed producers to film a softcore movie in three days.  Wynorski and a friend write the script for Breastwick, cast it, rent a remote location, and lock themselves away for the Memorial Day weekend.

Shoot happens.  The actors screw up their lines.  Jim forgets to say “rolling” and a long scene is wasted.  One actress is a no-show.  One actress gets her elbows skinned having sex up against a tree.  They can’t get the fire bright enough.  Jim barrels through it all with his pet sayings “I hate it!  I hate it!” and “I beg of you!” but the second he gets one remotely usable take, he calls it a wrap and moves on to the next scene.  “Let’s pop some tops!” is what he says when he’s ready to shoot a nude scene.

“That’s what it is working with Jim,” said Monique Parent after the screening. “A Jim Wynorski film is not like any other film.”  The crowd was laughing at Jim’s antics throughout the movie, but I wondered if it was quite so funny being there on set?  “Well, I for one was laughing because I don’t take any of it seriously,” Monique responded.  “I love Jim.  He may yell at me, but I yell right back, and that’s good.  He respects that.”

Though the movie is supremely funny throughout, the central scene is actually an excruciating stand-off between softcore fave Julie K. Smith and Wynorski.  A fight had been brewing between the two of them (she insisted that her character should wear glasses, Jim didn’t like that; she wanted to wear some sexy panties during a sex scene, Jim insisted that she take them off) and it boiled over when Julie was having problems reciting a seemingly inocuous line:  “Sometimes when the phones go out, the tow truck has to double as an emergency vehicle.”  Julie was unable to get it out right, and Wynorski—without cutting, without a break— just bullied her into doing it over and over (and over!) again until he got a take he could use.

The crowd around me, many of whom undoubtedly work in the film industry, were watching through their fingers, because they’ve probably seen their own version of this sort of on-set nightmare any number of times (look up David O. Russell on YouTube, for instance).   Monique Parent, who was sitting patiently in the middle of that particular firestorm that day explained to me afterwards, “There’s a lot of yelling on a Wynorski set.  It’s rough when you see an actor fighting strongly for what they believe in, and you see a director fighting strongly for what they believe in.  But it is what it is.”

If Jim Wynorski is the big hero of the movie, then Julie K. Smith comes off a close second.  In her interviews with director Westervelt, seemingly taped in the mornings before the daily shoots (where did they find the time?), she expresses more insightfulness and more passion for her job than you expect coming from anywhere near the set of a movie called “The Witches of Breastwick.”  We all know that Breastwick and movies like it are crappy movies.  But if there weren’t actors like Julie and Monique out there who care about their craft, and want to do the best job that they can do, it begs the question…good lord…just how bad would these softcore movies be??

I should mention the presence of some of the other actors in the movie.  Matt Dalpiaz (under his real name, Joe Souza) seems like a fun guy who’s up for anything, but then that may be what happens when you’re the only guy in a cast with six other super hot women.  Rough life!  Stormy Daniels bounces onto the set with innocence and exuberance, talking about how this is her first “mainstream” pic, but even she has a hard time getting the word “mainstream” to come out of her mouth in relation to a Wynorski helmer.  Glori-Anne Gilbert and Taimie Hannum are seen here and there, but sadly aren’t shown much.  There are also testimonials on Jim from Roger Corman and the late Andy Sidaris.

One thing that is somewhat missing from the movie is, oddly enough, Jim himself.  Everybody’s talking about him, and we see him on set as his gruff-but-loveable/hateable self.  We even get some hilarious backstory from Jim’s aged but proud mother, who has only the foggiest notion of what he does for a living.  But Jim himself never sits down to explain to the camera why he does what he does, why he is the way he is.  Maybe that’s not Jim Wynorski’s way.  The man’s shot almost 80 movies in 25 years.  Perhaps he doesn’t have time to sit back and reflect.  In addition to being a behind-the-scenes of Breastwick, the film is a great introduction to Jim and his colorful history of B-movies.  Clips from Chopping Mall, Not of this Earth, Sorority House Massacre II, Sorceress, and many others are interspersed throughout the documentary.  The crowd loved the cheesiness of the special effects, the campy lines of dialogue, the gratuitous boobs and violence.  I guarantee you that a lot of people who had never heard of Jim before went home last night and looked him up on iMDb.

Your intrepid reporter took one picture with his Blackberry of the Q&A after the showing and decided that was enough of that.  Look also for our reviews of The Witches of Breastwick 1 and 2 coming soon.