TERRY SOUTHERN’s BLUE MOVIE

Hysterical, Satirical & Erotic

image above: easy rider; cover image: blue movie by terry southern

BY: Ramona Duoba

Blue Movie, the 1970 satirical novel written by Terry Southern, is about the making of a high-end pornographic film. The 50th Anniversary edition of this erotic satire of Hollywood is set for release in December. Blue Movie tells the story of an Oscar-winning director who’s determined to shoot the dirtiest & most expensive X-rated movie ever made. The storyline follows Boris Adrian, “King B,” who explicitly portrays the range of the human sexual experience. Dispatched to Liechtenstein (where his shrewd producer Sid Krassman has negotiated the exclusive rights to show the film for ten years) and fueled by suspicious vitamin B-12 injections, the set of Faces of Love is fraught with top talent, monstrous egos, studio spies, sex working stunt-doubles, and raging libidos. The novel’s filmmaker is loosely based on director Stanley Kubrick. The two collaborated on the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove and Southern dedicated Blue Movie “To the great Stanley K.”

Terry Southern was 71-years-old when he died in 1995. As an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, he was part of the Beat Writers in Greenwich Village, the post-war literary movement in Paris, and part of the cultural revolution or Swinging London in the mid-’60s. Southern’s screenplay for the Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson film Easy Rider was nominated for an Oscar in 1969. His other film credits included The Cincinnati Kid, in which Steve McQueen played high-stakes poker, and Barbarella, the sci-fi film starring Jane Fonda. In the ’80s, he also wrote for Saturday Night Live.

This anniversary edition of Blue Movie begins with a conversation between Nile Southern (Terry’s son) and Marianne Faithfull. It ranges from Southern’s inspiration in Stanley Kubrick and European cinema to cancel culture and the timeless art of satirizing “the ills of sick society.” Faithfull was a ‘60s female lead singer during the British Invasion in the United States, and their friends included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Richards’ partner Anita Pallenberg. “He was very, very lovable, you know. I mean, on one level he was incredibly good at schmoozing and flattering the high and mighty—Kubrick, Keith, Anita and those kinds of people—they all thought he was wonderful because he was clever,” reveals Faithfull, “I am thrilled Terry is now being introduced to a new generation. He is undoubtedly one of the greatest satirists of the twentieth century. He really was a true genius.”