There’s just something about Karen Carpenter’s voice. So lovely yet full of so much sadness (I prefer their slow jams). It’s hard to imagine that music as saccharine sweet as The Carpenters could be hiding a dark secret; But truth is always stranger than fiction. Behind the squeaky clean hit pop albums, magazine covers, and glitzy television appearances, Karen was loosing a battle with anorexia. In Only Yesterday she croons “In my own time nobody knew, the pain I was going through, and waitin’ was all my heart could do”. So damn sad. It’s easy to over think the meaning of song lyrics but this just feels too real.
Director Todd Haynes (I’m Not There.) turns the story of the Carpenters rise to fame into an experimental short film mixing Barbie dolls and startling imagery. It takes a second to adjust to the static dolls filling in for the Carpenter family but the voice over and narration is done so well that soon you forget that you’re not watching real actors. Haynes uses the Carpenters haunting music throughout the film (Richard Carpenter sued him over royalties, blocking the film from proper distribution). It’s an interesting short film that sheds a little light on Karen’s turmoil and a disease that of often overlooked and completely misunderstood.
You can watch the entire film HERE. Apologies for the lack of stills, the video was too dark. Download “Let Me Be the One”, “Close to You”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, & “Superstar”.
