Variety (1983 film)

Variety
box cover art for Variety (Bette Gordon, 1983)
Directed by	Bette Gordon
Produced by	Renée Shafransky
Written by	Bette Gordon, Kathy Acker
Starring	Sandy McLeod Will Patton Richard M. Davidson Luis Guzmán
Music by	John Lurie
Cinematography	Tom DiCillo John Foster
Edited by	Ila von Hasperg
Production company	Channel Four Films Variety Motion Pictures Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
Distributed by	Horizon Films
Release date	March 8, 1985
Running time	100 min.

Sandy McLeod Will Patton Richard M. Davidson

Tom DiCillo

Variety Motion Pictures

Variety is a 1983 American independent film directed by Bette Gordon, co-written by Kathy Acker, and starring Sandy McLeod, Will Patton, and Richard M. Davidson. The film follows a young woman who takes a job at a New York City pornographic theater and becomes increasingly obsessed with a wealthy patron who may or may not be involved with the mafia.

Christine, an aspiring author, desperately needs a job. Her friend Nan gives her a tip that the Variety, a pornographic theater in Times Square, is looking for a ticket-taker. Christine takes the job and becomes interested in the movies that are playing. Her boyfriend Mark, an investigative journalist, is concerned and confused about her interest in her new job. At the Variety, Christine meets a rich patron, Louie, with whom she spontaneously decides to go on a date. After he abruptly leaves, she follows him in a cab, watching while he meets a mysterious man. Later, she shares her suspicions with Mark that he is involved in some kind of mafia operation. Increasingly obsessed, she follows Louie to Asbury Park, New Jersey, sneaking into his hotel room, from which she steals a pornographic magazine. Her obsession with Louie and her own awakened sexuality ultimately leads her to call and threaten him unless he meets her. The final, mysterious shot is of an empty intersection at Fulton and South Street, where Christine has told Louie to meet her.

After meeting Kathy Acker, Bette Gordon asked her to collaborate on a screenplay for a new film. Gordon also collaborated with the burgeoning New York film scene: "The film is a sort of Who’s Who of downtown street cred: music by John Lurie, cinematography by frequent Jarmusch collaborator Tom de Cillo, script by former sex worker and Pushcart Prize-winning feminist novelist Kathy Acker, and roles played by Spalding Gray, Luis Guzman, Mark Boone Junior and photographer Nan Goldin (who also took production stills)."

The film was produced with an initial $80,000 budget, provided by ZDF West German Television, Great Britain's Channel 4, and the New York State Council.

It in particular references Pickup on South Street and Vertigo.

It played at the 1983 Toronto Film Festival and the 1984 Cannes Film Festival.