Tales

Tales Of The City

Im sure almost everyone has heard of Armistead Maupin's "Tales Of The City", the quintessential voyeurs guide to San Francisco in the halcyon days of the 1970's. Living in the area during that era I had the chance to read these stories when they were published in the San Francisco Chronicle. In their way they so accurately and eloquently captured the spirit of the era and the city that they self-propelled to iconic stature overnight.

I happily waited in line for hours on Market St. to purchase my copy of the book. Enough time had passed that I had forgotten most of the details; I gulped down the entire book in one evening.

When the movie came out I decided not to see it; my imagination had already developed the characters to their fullest extent and I was afraid Hollywood would not be able to do justice to my creative mind.

Pre-rental, I surveyed the reviews in Netflix: "outlandish", "highly controversial", "explicit", "graphic". Ha, controversial and explicit my ass. Comments from people who were not there at the time, apparently. Frankly, having been there, these films are a tame, albeit accurate representation of the time.

Now, some 14 years later, I finally rent them, all of them: Tales Of The City, More Tales Of The City and Further Tales Of The City. I suggest, if you haven't seen them yet, rent them all and just have a weekend movie fest.

There are many outlandish plot details. Just one, for example, so I dont give away too much - Didi is the socialite daughter of one of the most powerful businessmen in San Francisco, she is married to a good-looking, gay bathhouse frequenting jerk. Didi gets pregnant by a Chinese delivery man, twins. Later, she meets a lesbian model and discovers that she too is a lesbian. Didi, her lover and children move to Jonestown, yes, that Jonestown. Didi develops a dysfunctional relationship with Jim Jones who apparently claims her children as his own. All of them miraculously escape the massacre days before it happen. In the movie Jim Jones also survives ... and moves to San Francisco.

This is one of dozens of plot lines that you have to keep in your head, which is why I suggest you see them all at once, lol.

Every character presented is in some strange way related to or involved with one or more of the other characters. And they are all characters!

Central to the movie is Mary Ann, fresh out of sleepy middle America, she lands squeaky naive in the middle of drama. Her character is the one that evolves the most. By the end of the movie she is quite the seasoned San Franciscan; aggressive, street-smart and worldly.

Mary Ann's neighbor and best friend, Mouse, is the happy go lucky gay man. He frolicks with anyone and everyone but secretly wants love, not the flesh buffet that is constantly offered forth.

Olympia Dukakis steals the show as the mysterious Mrs. Madragal, land lady of 28 Barbary Lane, where many of the characters live.

The film is an incredible time capsule. They have paid so much attention to the detail of that era that I was immediately plunged backwards through time to surface in my high school days.

I love my Farrah Faucet wings, tight bell bottoms and shiny polyester shirt. Right on!

Highly recommended.