Hendrix readily submitted and from there, Cynthia Plaster Caster's legend and collection grew. The first, and forever the most famous, cast would come two years later when the Jimi Hendrix Experience rolled through Chicago. She didn't induct the first rock and roll member that night.Lindsay balked.but did lose her virginity. It was double standard."Įven so, the burgeoning sexual revolution enabled it, and when Cynthia was charged with casting "something solid" in a college art class, it became the perfect backdrop for her fabled creative quest.įriends Joel Coplon and Al Hernandez served as test subjects before shy Cynthia approached Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. "The groupies were choosing multiple partners just like the guys in bands. She believes it was Peter Noone she first heard use the term negatively, likely because he was miffed ladies were acting as sexually sovereign as he and other rock stars. I live two blocks away from the Rock and Roll Hotel." But I looked it up in the Random House Dictionary and it says it's a young girl who follows bands. Contemplating the ugliest and easiest connotation of the word."slutty".she makes a case: "I don't think there's anything strange or dark about desiring men that are talented, good lookin', frequently witty and fun to be with on a casual basis. The 55-year-old self-described groupie, whose claim to fame is creating plaster casts of rock stars' penises, genuinely wants to know what she's been calling herself for the past 30 years. Also featuring some great camerawork and a totally rockin' soundtrack, PLASTER CASTER has definitely earned a place among the greatest rock 'n' roll documentaries ever made.Of Plaster and Semantics ( Cynthia Plaster Caster)Ĭynthia Plaster Caster poses the question only somewhat rhetorically. The film is incredibly intelligent, but is totally unpretentious and an awful lot of fun. We learn more about Cynthia as a person rather than glorifying or just luridly focusing on her controversial artwork. Director Villines doesn't force any kind of viewpoint on her subject and treats Cynthia with tremendous respect. The film itself is also brilliantly constructed and avoids the many pitfalls that most documentaries fall into. She's been making plaster casts of rock stars' penises for 30 years, but it's only now that she gets her first gallery showing? But you do have to give her credit for her excellent taste in music: the Buzzcocks, MC5, the Dead Kennedys, Mudhoney and Jimi Hendrix, just to name a few of the bands/people she's either casted or at least asked. She also appears to give no consideration to the ramifications of her work. It's as if she's still stuck in the mindset of a 14-year-old rock groupie even though she's now in her mid-fifties. Cynthia herself is a difficult person to figure out, but is thus endlessly fascinating. In the hands of a less gifted filmmaker, this could have been a completely tawdry and simplistic movie, but director Jessica Villines has made a classy and intelligent portrait of a unique artist. PLASTER CASTER is one of the most engaging and entertaining documentaries I've seen in the past couple of years.
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