Project Detail

Variety

Synopsis

New York. Desperate for work, Christine takes a job selling tickets at the Variety, a sex cinema. This somewhat alienates her boyfriend Mark, who is investigating a story about union links with the Mob at the wholesale fish market. Christine finds herself drawn towards events on-screen, and also follows one of the customers, Louie, when he enters a sex shop, apparently on business. Louie, who is clearly both wealthy and powerful as a result of his shady activities, takes her to a ball game at Yankee Stadium. When he is suddenly called away, she again follows him and observes him at work.
Variety inverts the traditional narrative structure of cinema – whereby a man watches and a woman is watched – without showing, and thus flaunting, the object of female desire. Creating a counter-narrative to Hollywood, Bette Gordon asks the same question formulated by Teresa de Lauretis in “Oedipus Interruptus”: “How did Medusa feel upon seeing herself in Perseus' mirror just before being slain?”
Official Selection Berlinale 2019 - Forum Archival Constellations

Details

Year: 1983
Type of project: Features
Running time: 100 mins
Director: Bette Gordon
Producer: Renée Shafransky
Editor: Ila von Hasperg
Screenwriter: Kathy Acker (script), Bette Gordon (original story)
Director of Photography: Tom Dicillo, John Foster
Sound: Helene Kaplan; Sound Design: Ila von Hasperg
Composer: John Lurie
Principal cast: Sandy McLeod, Will Patton, Luis Guzman, Nan Goldin, Richard Davidson
Digital restoration: New York Women in Film and Television's Women's Film Preservation Fund, DuArt Film and Video
Film Image: © Bette Gordon, Nan Goldin

Genre

Woman Director Drama

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

US, Germany, UK co-production

Channel 4 Films (UK), Variety Motion Pictures (US), Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen/ ZDF (DE)

Bette Gordon

Visit Website

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

Mrs Benz brings to life the remarkable true story of Bertha Benz, a pioneer who defied societal expectations and risked everything to prove her husband Karl Benz’s revolutionary invention, the world’s first motorcar, to the world. Set in 1888 Germany, the experience centres on Bertha’s daring 120-kilometre journey, undertaken in secret and against the conventions of her time. What began as an act of quiet defiance became a turning point in global innovation, reshaping history itself. Directed by Emmy-nominated filmmaker Eloise Singer and starring Daisy Ridley, this narrative-driven VR experience premiered in competition at Venice Film Festival, and went on to premiere at Cannes, SXSW, Sheffield Doc/Fest, and Berlin. The project is now regarded as a significant work in immersive storytelling, bringing to light the story of a woman long overlooked in the history of innovation. Official Selection Cannes Film Festival - Cannes Immersive 2025

Adventure Docufiction Drama History Woman Director

Moderation

Director: Benedict Cohen

Year: 2026

To cope with their gruesome job, two content moderators start having sex at work. But they must battle with their new-found addiction to trauma bonding, lest it consume them.

Comedy Drama Horror

A boy and girl, both 20-something, stare into each other's eyes while touching hands in a dark bar. The image is high contrast, grainy, and tinted orange.

To All The Girls I Never Banged: I'm Sorry

Director: Harry Plowden