Critiques (1)
The psychodrama Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, directed by Robert Aldrich, became not only an acclaimed genre gem revered by cinephiles, but also a popular camp cult flick in the queer community. The fact that this didn’t happen many decades later due to the influence of some postmodern reading, but rather that the film gained this status and perspective immediately upon its release, is confirmed by this medium-length underground remake made only a year later. What Really Happened to Baby Jane? is a drag reimagining of Aldrich’s film in the style of a silent movie, which, instead of a dense psycho atmosphere, highlights the bitchy dynamics between the central characters and actually differs from the beloved original only in minor details (such as the pigeon droppings). After all, it can’t stand on its own without the original, but as an enthusiast appropriation of a particular work, it remains an amazing historical artefact for the history of film fandom and queer culture.
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