Super Star: The Karen Carpenter Story
Carpenter's rise to stardom and untimely death from a
heart attack due to anorexia and bulimia. Using Barbie
dolls as characters, Karen's face is sanded and puttied to
portray her weight loss, while faces of family members
are similarly distorted to visualize the sinister family
structure playing into Karen's illness. Video footage played
through television backgrounds, and brilliant collisions of
documentary and fiction, lend to the layered meanings of
this film. Haynes juxtaposes this American dream gone
wrong with the bubble gum soundtrack of the Carpenter's
pop music. While this sing-along audio resonates in the
viewer's mind, it ultimately led to litigation by the
Carpenter family, preventing this film from ever being
released.
Haynes Work