"You want me to crawl, white motherfucker?!"
I just attended a sold-out screening of the 1973 blaxsploitation classic Coffy with a post-film Q&A with the lead diva herself Pam Grier. We were treated to a sprawling conversation covering her late '60s LA days working receptionist jobs, trying to scrounge enough money together to afford UCLA Film School tuition and eventually, almost accidentally, falling in to being a leading lady in a long string of successful '70s crime thrillers as a tough-as-nails but sexy/sweet assortment of heroines (Coffy, Foxy Brown, Sheba, Friday Foster).
Grier said she really just wanted to be on a film crew working behind the scenes, but Roger Corman insisted she act in some of his early '70s "women in cages" style B-movies. She did, and by 1973 the hits kept coming for American International Pictures.
Paper-thin plots, over-the-top un-PC dialogue, and an overall campy vibe could have framed Coffy as a time-piece curio from the era of '70s new Hollywood B-movie exploitation. But, given the distance of nearly 45 years, the empowering image of a black woman with a shotgun, dealing with the drug-dealers who got her little sister hooked on smack, the two-faced corrupt politician boyfriend ready to sell her out, and every other scheming, sleazy man ready to use and abuse her, Coffy - an avenging black woman with a gun, seems revolutionary again onscreen in 2017. And not in a campy way.
Hearing Pam move from one era to the next, from driving a Jaguar with Richard Pryor and an ill miniature pony in the trunk to riding a horse on set in Italy and accidentally galloping towards Fellini on said horse, only to be invited to a feast prepared by the maestro director himself, was funny and delirious. She seemed to take it all in stride: hit action icon, forgotten actress, and smashing comeback in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.
Live Q&A sessions after screenings can be a toss up. I've seen a few, recently, all sponsored by the magnificent Hollywood Theater here in Portland. Piper Laurie was charming if a bit befuddled during her onstage Q&A for Carrie, while Linda Blair seemed a bit curt and didactic when slinging out Exorcist stories while coldly pacing the stage with a mic, ready for the next comer.
Pam lounged in the onstage armchair alongside the moderator, a comic book writer, neither befuddled nor didactic. Warm, convivial, laughing, and talking about cooking up a big meal with plenty of wine in her kitchen was her example of making a great personal connection with people.
I wholeheartedly agree and want an invitation to that dinner table. I want first dibs on hearing all about her upcoming autobiographical movie (and musical!) apparently titled Foxy. This toast is to her.
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