JADED (1989) - Oja Kodar's directorial debut

[Jeff Wilson]

I had the questionable privilege of watching JADED, which as many of you may know includes a brief snippet of footage from Welles' MERCHANT OF VENICE. I'm sorry to say that the film is just awful, with a ludicrous script and some truly terrible performances.

The film is set in Venice Beach, CA, and involves the intertwining lives of a group of people. SPOILERS abound, so if you don't want the movie ruined, stop reading here. Anyhow, we open with what we think is a woman having the crap beat out of her by a guy, and then another woman having the crap beat out of her. The former is a transvestite called Angel, who hangs out with Sara, the cousin of Rita, the second woman being beat up. Angel was beat up by a guy whose name I don't recall, and he's the limo driver of Roseanna Orsino (wink wink), a famous opera singer (in town to play Salome, another OW nod) played by Kodar, who also happens to be a nympho. It turns out (if this was meant to be a surprise or not I couldn't tell) that the limo guy who beat up Angel is Rita's husband, who had an affair with Sara, who used to be a lesbian. Got all that? Does it sound ludicrous yet?

Rita and Angel stumble around during the beginning of the picture, trying to get to Sara's place. The same bum extorts money out of each (selling Angel a quarter for $5 in a scene that left me in stupefied amazement) and selling Rita Sara's cat for $30 and a rummage through her suitcase (she left her violence-prone hubby). The SAME BUM also steals the clothing of the limo driver when he pours the pork to Kodar while they're parked at the beach.

And at the end, Limo Driver Man somehow stumbles upon Angel going to a party for Sara, who has landed a gig in some movie, and he proceeds to break into Sara's apartment and rape her. Sara's boyfriend, a masseur who also boned Kodar's character, bursts in after the act, and they have the stupidest movie fight imaginable: namely, they toss the naked Sara back and forth between them, while Masseur exhorts Sara to "Kick him in the balls!" Angel then sneaks in and jams a pot over Limo Guy's head, and Masseur proceeds to beat him down. So. They tie up Limo Guy, and decide what to do with him. We cut to a dark alley, where Limo Guy, all dolled up in a dress and makeup by Sara and Co., is pushed toward the group in the other car that has shown up, and he proceeds to get sodomized by some people Sara's group called. But that's not the end! We then cut to Orsino, who has finished a performance and is being pestered for autographs. One plucky fat man sneaks into her limo (very likely) and once she gets in the car and see him, she kicks him out. End of story.

Reading all that may make you want to see this film, and some of it is entertaining in a car crash sort of way, but it really is a mess, and I'm sorry about that, because I did want to like it. But it's simply a poor, poor movie. The footage from MERCHANT is about 30 seconds in length tops, without dialogue. And I have nothing more to say. Whew.



Edited By Jeff Wilson on Jan. 31 2003 at 00:57

[Fredric]

That's too bad, Jeff. The trailer looked so interesting. Where does the "little person" factor in?

[Jeff Wilson]

During the party for Sara. He tells Angel that she/he looks like hell, and then dances around the legs of someone dancing on a table. That guy was just one more bizarro element in the film. I forgot to mention that at one point, Orsino goes to confess at a church, and the priest is played in a grotesque, effeminate manner. The priest realizes who she is and starts asking questions about opera gossip. It's really goofy.

[jaime marzol]

................

i stand up in theater filled with shocked viewers, and begin to applaud, like kane applauding susan's performance. i am the lone demented applauder.

women being beaten, transvestites, men being sodomised, my god, this movie has everything. especially applaud jeff's review. a very entertaining read.

being that it's filmed in venice, does she use THE locations?

[Le Chiffre]

Kodar's film sounds like something out of Russ Meyer or John Waters. Or maybe even the sex and violence film Jake Hannaford was making in TOSOTW, which was a collaborative work between Welles and Oja. Interesting that she plays an opera singer in Jaded. Her character in THE DREAMERS was also an opera singer.

Venice, CA must be a good place to make seedy movies. There is another bizaare film called DEMENTIA that was filmed there, about a young woman that suffers all kinds of abuses from men, including one that's a dead ringer for Welles. It was made in the early 50s, just a couple of years after the Elizabeth Short murder.

[Jeff Wilson]

I couldn't tell you if it was actually filmed in Venice Beach, though I can't imagine why it wouldn't have been. It makes the use of MERCHANT footage that much cleverer, since it's set in Venice, Italy, and Oja's character is from there as well. Not that it has any deep significance. I did find it hilarious how the footage was worked in, though; Masseur Guy is trying in a profoundly unsubtle fashion to sleep with Rita, and tries to get her to join him on the sofabed by telling her "C'mon over and watch this movie. It's by Orson Welles, have you ever seen it?" She refuses, and we see the failure of Welles films as aphrodisiacs.

[Terry]

Thanks for linking this thread, Jeff. I'm sure it's more entertaining than the film, which looks pretty abyssmal in the trailer. Some films are enjoyably horrible, but this one may just be painful, which is a shame. Maybe Oja didn't apply what she assimilated during her years with Welles on this one, that's the kindest I can be in lieu of seeing it.

[Le Chiffre]

This film still has never received an official video release as far as I know, and it's getting expensive on the Grey Market. "Roberts Hard-To-Find Videos" has a VHS of it listed at a fairly steep $55.

[Eve]

... I got it on VHS (an official release) from Italy at a reasonable price a few years ago ... it is still available (nearly $20 now, Cecchi Gori Home Video)... here... if anyone is interested...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jaded-VHS-/230676371542?pt=Videocassette_e_VHS&hash=item35b5621856

[Le Chiffre]

Thanks Eve, that's tempting. What did you think of the film? Jeff Wilson's comments above may have scared many people, including myself, away from it - probably for good reason - but the film's apparent fade into oblivion (and ironically Jeff's review) has somewhat rekindled my curiousity about it. I'm susceptible to guilty pleasures.

Just to confuse matters more, there's another film called JADED from 1999:
http://www.amazon.com/Jaded-Carla-Gugino/dp/B000038I1C

[Jeff Wilson]

Thanks Eve, that's tempting. What did you think of the film? Jeff Wilson's comments above may have scared many people, including myself, away from it - probably for good reason - but the film's apparent fade into oblivion (and ironically Jeff's review) has somewhat rekindled my curiousity about it. I'm susceptible to guilty pleasures.

Just to confuse matters more, there's another film called JADED from 1999:
http://www.amazon.com/Jaded-Carla-Gugino/dp/B000038I1C

I did warn you. I looked this up on the IMDB for laughs and saw that it has a 5.7 rating, which made me do a double take that it was that high. I threw out my copy ages ago, or I'd send it to you, Mike. I got it from the now defunct Video Search of Miami, IIRC.

[Eve]

mteal, thanks so much for your kind words and interest in my opinion!

Jeff Wilson's comments didn't scare me away, because I wanted to know what Welles' companion for so many years was capable of doing in the field of directing/writing/acting on her own. I know by now. A possible review from my side - compared to it Jeff Wilson's review above could be described as (I'm exaggerating only a little) extremely favorable!
But opinions are different...

[Le Chiffre]

No problem, Jeff, although you may regret tossing that out if it becomes more of a collector's item. I should have requested it as part of one of our trade packages back in the good old days, but at the time seeing it wasn't a very high priority. It still isn't all that high of a priority, but that $55 price tag from Robert's was what made ME do a double take! I ordered some stuff years ago from VSOM too; sorry to see them go out of business. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Robert's is one of the few grey market stores left online. Maybe the wild west days of the internet are drawing to a close.

http://www.robertsvideos.com/

Eve, thanks for the feedback. Your opinions are always welcome here, and feel free to expound on the film in more detail anytime.

[Wellesnet]

The trailer for JADED is now posted on the Wellesnet Main Page:

http://www.wellesnet.com/?p=6491

[Le Chiffre]

Finally got a chance to see this, and although I didn't find it as awful as Jeff did, he does make some good points that I would find it difficult to argue with. The lowlifes in the film are not very interesting or charismatic, although I did enjoy Oja's performance as the opera diva. She's the "Wellesian" figure here, so to speak, and I think the film would have been better off if it had focused on her character more. But she was going for a kind of Altmanesque (or Jaglomesque?) canvas here, trying to give equal time to several characters that frankly weren't worth equal time, except maybe for the street bum. I would still like to see her sophomore effort VRIJEME ZA (A TIME FOR...), which is about the war in Bosnia and is said to be much better.