Posted: 03/27/2006

The Lady in Question Is Charles Busch

(2006)

by Michael Jones

One of the drawbacks of ‘camp” entertainment is that there’s no solid distinction between what is good ‘camp” and what is bad ‘camp”, since the genre thrives on what is tasteless juxtaposed against the era in which it debuts. John Waters’ early work or Rock Horror Picture Show come to mind as camp films which derived pleasure from celebrating the subversion of square culture of the 50’s and 60’s as opposed to today’s camp (A Dirty Shame?). The Lady in Question is Charles Busch, a documentary tribute to the cross-dressing cabaret legend of New York, successfully highlights this perception by using the famed 80’s East Village as a character instead of a backdrop.

For those that haven’t heard of Mr. Busch, he is the writer/performer known for recent campy films such as Die! Mommie! Die! and Psycho Beach Party. Although he never seriously considered it until he was well into adulthood, Busch is a born drag performer, who grew up in a state of emotional poverty unless he performed (with his sisters) for his opera-obsessed father. Add to that the devastating death of his mother early in his life, and the influence of his Auntie Mame-esque Aunt Lillian, and you can see that Busch lived the life where the theatrical wasn’t optional—it was destiny.

After struggling early on with one-man performances, Busch found himself the belle of the ball (if you could consider the urine-drenched Limbo Lounge of the East village a ball) with the cult classic ‘Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.” From there, Busch enhanced his reputation with works like ‘The Lady in Question,” plays which saw his leading ladies overcome the Nazis and Commies at a time when the gay community needed to escape the homophobic backlash during the AIDS crisis. It’s where the filmmakers, John Catania and Charles Ignacio, find their stride, using the times to give Busch what every documentary subject searches for: relevance.

However, the relevance gets lost at times in the manner which Catania and Ignacio communicate the story. When Busch discusses his nearly fatal heart problems in a few years back, it’s hard to compare it to the emotional toll that his friends’ AIDS played on his work in the 80’s and 90’s. Adding insult to injury is the use of a PBS-style of camerawork, shaky and digital, with a D-plus grade in editing and voice-over work. Using segues and cuts that look like they were made on an old AvidPro program, the film comes off as wholly unprofessional. But considering Busch’s career, perhaps the duo’s style is a fitting tribute to a man who has made his indelible mark on the outside looking in.

Official site here.

Michael Jones is a film critic in San Francisco.

Got a problem? E-mail us at filmmonthly@gmail.com